Discoveries
Brickyards of the Tri-City Area, Alameda County, California
By Dan L. Mosier
Introduction
This article is about the brickyards and bricks of the Tri-City area of southern Alameda County, California. The Tri-City area encompasses three cities: Fremont, Newark, and Union City in the former Washington Township of Alameda County. There were eight brickyards operating in the Tri-City area from 1874 to 1996, during which it became a well-known brick manufacturing center. However, from 1882 to 1909, no bricks were made in the Tri-City area; any brick structures built during this period were made of bricks shipped here from outside of the Tri-City area. Although, other types of clay products, such as wall tile, floor tile, roofing tile, clay pipes and flues, and architectural terra cotta, were produced by some of the local brickyards and other clay products companies in the Tri-City area, this article will focus only on those yards that manufactured building brick, paving brick, firebrick, and hollow tile.
The area is underlain by rich clay and shale deposits that are suitable for manufacturing bricks as well as other types of clay products. Common building brick, face brick, paving brick, and partition hollow tile were made using the local clay. But higher refractory clays and minerals, except for seawater magnesia, had to be shipped to the brickyards from outside of the Tri-City area that made firebrick. The local brickyards made the building materials for the construction of buildings and infrastructures in the local cities. The total quantity of brick produced here in the 123 years of operation is unknown, but it is estimated to be in the tens of millions. A decline in the demand for building bricks, advances in the firebrick market, and stricter regulations were some of the reasons for the closing of the local brickyards in the Tri-City area.
The brickmakers, officers, and managers of the brick companies were often members of the clay manufacturing organizations, such as the Clay Brick and Tile Association or the American Ceramic Society. They were also involved in local community organizations, such as the Washington Township Industries or the Chambers of Commerce. Some were elected to political offices. Some brick companies participated in or sponsored local sports, such as softball leagues. The brickyards contributed to the local economy by providing employment to hundreds of workers who lived in the Tri-City area. The Tri-City was also host to a number of clay conferences by the Northern California Chapter of the American Ceramic Society.
In this article will be described each of the brickyards, the types of materials used, the types of bricks manufactured, estimated production, number of workers employed, modes of brick shipment, and names of the brickmakers and managers. Examples of brick structures are listed where some of the bricks were used and may still be seen. Photographs of the different types of bricks manufactured are also displayed when available. The brickyards will be presented in the order of their operating dates.
John and James Hagan, Centerville, 1874-1876
John and James Hagan, Centerville, 1874-1876
In 1874, James and John Hagan first started up a brickyard in Irvington. Their property was located about where Midas Mufflers is currently standing on Washington Boulevard. But because of the lime-rich clay found there, it was not suitable for making bricks to the disappointment of the Hagans. So, the Hagan Brothers moved their brickyard to Centerville, where they rented a lot on the north side of Peralta Boulevard near its intersection with Fremont Boulevard.
The clay at Centerville was said to be equal to that found at Pleasanton, where good bricks were made. No description of the Hagan brickyard could be found. However, from the bricks, it can be determined that they used the soft-mud process, probably with wooden molds, to manufacture the brick. The bricks were probably fired in temporary rectangular field kilns. By June 1875, they had fired 85,000 hand-molded brick in a kiln. They had planned to burn 100,000 bricks per month.
These bricks were used locally. The largest job was Clark’s store in Irvington, on the corner of Fremont and Washington Boulevards, which was built in January 1876. There were no further reports from this brickyard, so it probably closed in early 1876.
James Hagan, a native of Liverpool, England, was a builder and ran a stove and tinware shop at Centerville. He was married to Sarah Goforth. In the 1880s, he built and ran a fruit drier and cannery at Centerville until it burned in 1884. After the loss, James Hagan went to San Francisco and worked as a tinsmith for George H. Tay & Company. By 1891, he was in the undertaking business with another brother Joseph Hagan. James died at the age of 76 in San Francisco in 1918. John Hagan, also a builder, left Centerville after their brickyard closed and returned to England, where he died in 1929 at the age of 85.
Columbus J. Craycroft, Harrisburg (Warm Springs), 1879-1881
Columbus Joel Craycroft was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri on December 13, 1845. He spent his childhood in Salem, Illinois. In 1860, he enlisted with the 62nd Illinois Infantry during the Civil War. After the war, he engaged in brickmaking at Centralia, Illinois. In 1866, he married his first wife Rebecca Grable, and they had two children Arlie and Nina. In 1874, he married his second wife Frances Baldridge and they had one son Frank Joel.
In 1879, the Craycrofts went to Harrisburg (Warm Springs), Alameda County, California, where his brother John W. Craycroft was farming near Henry Curtner’s farm. John Craycroft, a former brickmaker in Illinois, married Mary Valpey, a daughter of Calvin Valpey of Warm Springs. He had a partnership with Curtner called Curtner & Craycroft, raising sheep in the Panoche Valley.
In the 1880 Census, Columbus J. Craycroft was listed as a brickmaker, which is the only clue that he was making bricks for a couple of seasons at Warm Springs. The location of his brickyard is unknown, but from the 1880 Census, he was residing near Conrad Weller, who farmed land just northeast of Harrisburg on the south side of Warm Springs Creek. Apparently, Craycroft may have extracted clay from the south bank of Warm Springs Creek. It is not known specifically where his bricks were used and none have been identified to date. It is likely, however, that the nearby Stanford winery may have used some of Craycroft’s bricks. There was not a lot of demand for brick in the Warm Springs area at the time and that may have been the reason Craycroft left the area.
In 1881, the Craycrofts went to Panoche Valley where he raised a small band of sheep with one of his brothers. His wife Frances died there in 1884. In 1885, C. J. Craycroft went to Fresno, California, to do contractor work and two years later he established a successful brickyard south of Fresno. He served as a City Trustee from 1893 to 1895 and was Mayor of Fresno from 1895 to 1899. Craycroft died from a fall while repairing a roof in 1915 and was interred in the Mountain View Cemetery in Fresno.
Michael Connelly, Mission San Jose, 1882
In April 1882, construction began on the St. Thomas Seminary on the grounds behind Mission San Jose in Fremont, Alameda County. Michael Connelly and his crew manufactured common bricks on site for the new three-story building. Michael Connelly was a brickmaker from San Jose. He was born in 1841 in Ireland, and married an Irish woman named Julia. In 1880, they were living on Sixteenth Street in San Jose, where he may have had a brickyard. In 1882, Connelly received the contract for supplying the bricks for the St. Thomas Seminary at Mission San Jose, where he transferred his crew to make new bricks on site.
Material for the brick was obtained a short distance from the seminary building site. Water was piped in from a canyon on the Ayers ranch. The brickmakers formed the sand-struck brick using wooden molds. By June 22, 1882, they had erected a field kiln of 175,000 brick, which were fired with wood. Three teams were employed to haul wood daily from the Southern Pacific railroad cars to the kilns. By August, over 500,000 bricks had been fired and the bricklayers were erecting the walls. The building was completed in December and Archbishop Joseph Alemany blessed the cornerstone. The seminary opened for classes in January 1883.
According to the Cornerstone plaque at the building site, the seminary was discontinued in 1885. In 1891, the Dominican Sisters purchased the building. It served the sisters as the Josephinum day and boarding school, Josephinum Orphanage, Aquinas Normal School, St. Joseph Priory, Jordan Postulancy, Siena Novitiate, a juniorate, a generalate and, finally, Queen of Peace Convent. On July 12, 1979, the chapel part of the structure, which included the bell tower, was demolished to allow for the construction of the kitchen and dining room. In 1988, for earthquake concerns, the remaining structure was demolished and replaced by a three-story building for administration offices, library, and convent.
Remnant bricks on the grounds believed to have come from the original building are shown below.
California Pressed Brick Company, Niles, 1909-1913
In 1907, a large deposit of clay was discovered in the mouth of Niles Canyon while making an excavation for the new Western Pacific Railway Company’s line. This deposit was located one mile east of Niles (now incorporated as the City of Fremont), on the south side of Alameda Creek. Several businessmen in Niles quickly formed a company to purchase the 53-acre tract, mine the clay, and build a brick-making plant. They formed the California Pressed Brick Company, with a capital stock of $1,000,000, divided into 1,000,000 shares. The first officers and directors of the company were Jackson Dennis as president, J. J. Rutledge as vice-president, and F. A. Allardt, Clarence Crowell, and Paul Furst as directors. The company headquarters was located at the Niles State Bank, Niles, California.
John S. Smith was hired as the ceramic engineer and who was responsible for the building of the brick plant and kilns. He was a native of Durham, England, born on December 31, 1845. He came to the United States in 1869, and first went to Jackson County, Missouri, where he embarked in the trade of carriage maker. He then studied ceramics and found a position with the C. W. Raymond Company, Dayton, Ohio, for which he erected several brick plants in Minnesota and South Africa. Shortly after returning from South Africa in 1905, he came to California and found employment with the California Pressed Brick Company to design and build their brick plant. Smith remained with this company until 1910, when illness forced him to resign. He died on February 6, 1911, at his home in San Leandro.
The clay was 40 to 60 feet deep on the south bank of Alameda Creek. On the adjacent hillside was a deposit of shale that was useful for mixing with the clay for making paving brick. The deposit contained plastic clays, soft yellow and blue shales, surface clay mixed with disintegrated sandstone, and soft sandstone. This clay was tested and suitable for pressed building brick and conduits for electric wires. The company employed horse scrapers and a steam shovel of 300 tons daily capacity to mine the materials. Clay was hauled from the pit to the granulator in 12 two-yard steel dump cars in connection with an industrial track and a gear and friction hoist. The clay was stored in corrugated iron sheds with a capacity of 2,800 yards of clay.
The clay was conveyed to the dry pans by a tram and hoist drums. There were two 9-ft. dry pans, made by Raymond and American. From the dry pans the material was taken to screens by elevators and after mixing, taken by a 30-inch belt conveyor to a 12-ft. Raymond pug mill, which discharged by gravity into a Raymond auger brick machine. The Raymond machinery consisted of a No. 999 Special brick machine and a No. 1 automatic rotary side-cut cutter, capable of cutting 1,000 to 15,000 per hour. After passing the Raymond delivery and cutting tables, the bricks were carried away on 60 feet of off-bearing belt. An elevator and overhead conveyor carried away the waste clay.
The cut bricks were put on drying cars and conveyed to the 12-track concrete drying tunnels, which were 100 feet in length. The tunnels were 42 inches wide and 60 inches high. The drier could hold 336 cars, with room for 96 cars in the machine end of the drier and 48 cars in the discharge end. The dried bricks were stacked in six round down-draft kilns, each with a capacity of 85,000 brick, one Youngren continuous 7-chambered gas-fired kiln, with a capacity of 65,000 brick to the chamber, and an oil-burning case kiln with a capacity of 750,000 brick. The plant was powered by two large Atlas boilers and one small one fitted for oil burning, the oil being delivered direct from cars into a pump, and a large Bates-Corliss engine. The power plant also contained a Cookson feed-water heater. A Gardner and a Worthington pump were required for the water supply. Two Worthington duplex pumps were used for pumping the oil.
Products from the Niles plant were common building brick, face brick and vitrified paver. The common building brick and face brick were the first to be made in 1909. In June 1910, the Niles paving brick was introduced, which was light-fired and embossed with large raised letters on the face spelling “NILES”. The paving brick, however, were not good enough for street use, but San Francisco architects liked to use them for building bricks. These bricks were produced through 1911, and sold locally in the San Francisco Bay region. The first orders came from the Western Pacific Railway Company for face brick to be used in their depots. In 1910, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company used the Niles paving brick between their tracks in Alameda. Niles paving brick were also purchased by the Standard Supply Company in San Francisco. Some paving brick were used in the building foundations and chimneys at the nearby Mission San Jose. The yard had shipped over 1 million paving bricks in 1910, at $32 per thousand.
The wirecut bricks were sold locally as well. In 1909, the two-story Connors Building in Niles was built of these bricks and pressed bricks were sent to the Agnew State Hospital at Santa Clara.
About 50 men were employed at the plant during this period. Because of the depressed price of building bricks and low demand for paving brick, this company was not successful in selling its bricks. It was forced to close the plant temporarily in August 1911.
Afterwards, the clay was tested for other products. A. L. Solon, a ceramic chemist from England, made exhaustive tests of the Niles clay. He found that the clay was suited for the manufacture of wall and floor tile, sewer pipe, conduit, roofing tile, terra cotta, and pottery. On that note, the company planned to produce wall and floor tile, glazed brick, and vitrified pavers. In May 1912, they hired L. H. Mueller, from the Denny-Renton Clay & Coal Company, Seattle, Washington, to manage and reopen the plant.
Edward A. Ellsworth was elected the new president and William Curtner, secretary. Ellsworth had an insurance partnership with F. V. Jones in Niles. It was during this period that the brick plant was locally known as the Ellsworth and Jones brickyard. Mueller had experimented with vitrified paving brick, which continued to be sold. Probably small quantities of the other mentioned products were produced. But by 1913, the California Pressed Brick Company had failed to make mortgage payments and foreclosure proceedings were filed by the Oakland Bank of Savings. Numerous litigations were filed against this company forcing the closure of the plant and company. No bricks were produced here after 1913. The property was sold to the California Pottery Company in 1917 to make clay pipes.
Some known examples of California Pressed Brick Company products:
Common brick
Connors Building, 37663 Niles Blvd., Niles, 1909.
Niles red pavers
Southern Pacific Railroad Company tracks, Alameda, 1910.
Southern Pacific Power House yard, Oakland Mole, Oakland, 1910.
Southern Pacific Power House, foot of Fruitvale Avenue, Oakland, 1910.
Standard Supply Company, Alameda, 1910.
Pressed brick
Agnew State Hospital, 4000 Lafayette Avenue, Santa Clara, 1909.
California Pressed Brick Company Bricks
Oakland Paving Brick Company, Decoto-Niles, 1909-1912
The clay deposit at Decoto was 20 feet thick resting beneath two feet of soil, which had to be removed by a horse scraper. Near the clay pit was built at the time one of the largest brick plants in California. This plant had a capacity of 250,000 bricks per day, nearly half of which included paving bricks. All types of red brick were made: paving brick, repressed face brick, both plain and molded, impervious red front brick, hard building brick, and hollow fireproofing brick.
The plant buildings were arranged in an L shape, the longer member of which was 976 feet in length and 75 feet in width. The huge sign of the company name on the side of the building was said to be 550 feet in length, with each letter being 20 feet wide and 15 feet high! The Penfield brick setting machines were used. The whole length of the building was served by a ten-ton, 62-foot traveling crane, built on wooden supports and operated by a 220-volt alternating current motor. The crane and all of the brickmaking machinery were furnished by the American Clay Machinery Company. The plant was fully electric with 2,200-volt induction motors, controlling apparatus, and transformers. The buildings were lighted by electricity.
Clay excavated from the pit was dumped into a hopper. A belt conveyor carried the clay to a 24-inch disintegrator, where the clay was thoroughly crushed. Then the clay was carried by a chain conveyor to a hopper above the pug mill, into which it was fed as needed. The clay was ground fine and mixed with water to the right consistency. From the pug mill, the mixed clay was sent to the No. 65 brick machine immediately below and extruded through a die to a No. 83 rotary cutter. The cut bricks were then carried by an off-bearing conveyor belt to four automatic represses, if they were to be made into paving bricks, otherwise the off-bearers would remove the bricks and stack them in units of 500. All rejected brick would remain on the conveyor belt to be dropped from the end into a conveyor beneath the floor, which returned them to the pug mill. All of the machinery was driven by a line shaft, which was driven by a 250 h. p. Type AN motor.
The crane picked up the brick units and stacked them in a double continuous dryer, each dryer with a capacity of 150,000 brick. After the dryers were filled with brick and covered with wooden covers on wheels, hot air was blown through apertures on each side at the bottom. The hot air was blown in by a 240-inch fan driven by a variable speed motor, which allowed the amount of air to be regulated. The moist air was drawn from the dryer by two 84-inch disc fans driven by a 10 h. p. constant speed motor. Crude oil was used for heating. Oil was stored in a 6,000 gallon oil tank, located some distance from the plant. A duplex 14×10-inch Clayton air compressor driven by a 50 h. p. Type AN induction motor furnished the air, including that used for atomizing the oil in the burners for the kilns and hot air furnaces.
After drying for 24 hours, the brick units were removed from the dryer by the brick setting machine and stacked in the kilns, which were 625 feet in length. After the burning, the setting machine removed the bricks for cooling. The cooled bricks were hand-loaded onto cars. Any bricks broken in the dryers or kilns were ground up in a 9-foot dry pan driven by a 40 h. p. motor and delivered to the pug mill. Finished brick were shipped to market by rail, the plant being conveniently situated between the lines of the Southern Pacific and Western Pacific railroads. The railroad siding was named “PABRICO”, which was an abbreviation of the paving brick company.
The plant started up on March 24, 1911, with 30 workers. In October 1911, G. Meyers became the plant superintendent, having transferred from the Livermore Fire Brick Works. It wasn’t until December that bricks were finally shipped. As might be expected from the company name, their specialty was red paving brick. These pavers were red, vitrified brick, with the name “OAKLAND” impressed into one of the faces, cornered by four round raised lugs. Unfortunately, the pavers failed as good street pavers, so the company had to unload them as sewer or building bricks. This was unfortunate because paving bricks were being shipped to San Francisco and Oakland from as far away as Los Angeles and Seattle due to the lack of local supply of paving bricks. By April 1912, the pavers were no longer being made and red common brick became the main product at the plant. Unable to sustain itself on common brick, the plant shut down by the end of April.
In July 1912, the company brought in Mr. Penfield of the American Clay Machinery Company to help make alterations at the plant so that it could operate profitably. There were plans to retool the plant to make face brick, ornamental brick, enameled brick, and terra cotta. Although the plant was remodeled and equipped with new machinery, it never reopened. The plant was sold a year later to W. S. Dickey Clay Manufacturing Company of Kansas City. This firm reopened the plant under the name of the California Brick Company.
Some known examples of Oakland Paving Brick Company products:
Oakland red pavers
Crohare Bakery, North L Street, Livermore.
Oakland Traction Company tracks, Oakland, 1910.
Oakland Paving Brick Company brick:
California Brick Company, Decoto-Niles, 1913-1926
In 1913, the California Brick Company reopened the defunct plant of the Oakland Paving Brick Company, which along with its associated clay pit, straddled the Niles (Fremont) and Decoto (Union City) city-limit line. The California Brick Company was incorporated in June 1913 at Oakland with a capital stock of $400,000, by M. M. Birmingham, H. A. Kunz, and J. F. Locke. C. E. Fuller was manager of the plant and was previously manager of the Buffalo Paving Brick Company in Buffalo, Kansas. A sales office was set up in the Phelan Building in San Francisco, with L. R. McKenzie as the sales manager.
This company specialized in paving brick, but also made common brick, face brick, and partition hollow tile. Over the next year, the plant underwent a major remodeling effort to place it on a profitable basis. New machinery was installed including an improved auger machine for paving brick, new dry pans, a large continuous kiln with 16-foot chambers and a flue to take waste heat from the kilns to the drying tunnels, new handling machinery, a 10-ton traveling crane for both the plant interior and the yard, and a well equipped laboratory with a complete set of recording instruments. By May 1914, the California yard employed 100 workers. Shipments of 90,000 fire brick were made to Vancouver, British Columbia, sewer brick to Berkeley, paving brick to Oakland and Modesto, and common building brick supplied the Masonic Home in Decoto and some of the buildings in the San Francisco Presidio.
By 1920, this operation became a California branch of the W. S. Dickey Clay Manufacturing Company, based in Kansas City, Missouri, which began in 1885 by Walter S. Dickey. Walter’s brother, Nathaniel Arthur Dickey was the president and manager of the California Brick Company, and A. C. Meyers was the plant superintendent, G. C. Thomas was the terra cotta engineer. E. B. Stoddard was the sales manager. The San Francisco office was at 604 Mission St. and the Oakland office was at 351 12th St. and later at 2053 Webster. They also had a warehouse at 105 Jackson St., Oakland.
Nathaniel A. Dickey was born in Toronto, Canada in 1868 to Nathaniel Dickey and Elizabeth Simpson. He was a younger brother of Walter S. Dickey, who established the national W. S. Dickey Clay Manufacturing Company in Missouri. Nathaniel immigrated to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1881. He was naturalized in 1886 at the Jackson County Circuit Court, Missouri. By 1910, he was residing in Kansas City, Missouri, and worked as an auditor. About 1916, he married Minnie Hill and they had no children. They resided in San Francisco.
The plant was called Dickey’s plant no. 18. It contained three dry pans, two stiff mud machines, one dry press, and four repress machines. The bricks were dried in the dryers supplied with waste heat from the kilns. The bricks were fired in two Haigh continuous kilns, each 600 feet long and containing 42 chambers, connected by a large tunnel. A large overhead traveling electric crane was used for loading. Crude oil fueled the kilns. The plant had a 40,000 brick per day capacity. Between 75 and 150 men were employed.
This plant produced dark red paving brick, sewer brick, common brick, red face brick, red ruffled face brick, flue linings, drain tile, pressed brick, paving blox, roofing tile, bungalow building blox, architectural terra cotta, and a hollow partition tile known as “Dickey Mastertile”. The Dickey Mastertile was used in all Class A buildings in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and other cities in Northern California, including for example the Livermore and Palo Alto veteran hospitals, U. C. Berkeley student union building, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Mills Tower, and the Alexander Building in San Francisco.
The “California” red paving brick was used in five horse stables at the San Francisco Presidio, where 150,000 paving bricks were ordered by the War Department. Alden and Golden Gate branch libraries in Oakland were also built of the paving bricks. The Dickey 12-inch red ruffled face brick was used in the Santa Clara Union High School. Architect James T. Narbitt, of Richmond, had his Spanish-style home built of 8-inch Dickey Mastertile in the first story and 6-inch Dickey Mastertile in the second story and covered in stucco. Narbitt preferred to use Dickey Mastertile in the walls of many of his building projects.
In 1920, a service yard was opened at 7th and Hooper streets in San Francisco, where they carried a full line of products from the California brick plant as well as from the affiliated Livermore Fire Brick Works. The Livermore plant (Dickey no. 19) supplemented the products with mainly fire brick, enamel and ornamental brick, and mantel and tile. In 1926, W. S. Dickey Clay Manufacturing Company took over the California Brick Company and continued production of its own line of products.
Some known examples of California Brick Company products:
California red pavers
128 Spear Street, San Francisco.
Alden Branch Library, 5205 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, 1918.
Campanile Esplanade, U. C. Berkeley, Berkeley, 1916.
Del Monte Cannery Plant No. 3, Auzerais Avenue, San Jose
Golden Gate Library, 5606 San Pablo Avenue, Oakland.
Horse stables, Presidio, San Francisco, 1914.
Martinez City Hall, 525 Henrietta Street, Martinez.
Sequoia Apartments, 2441 Haste Street, Berkeley, 1916.
Streets in Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, Berkeley, Livermore, Sausalito, Calistoga, and other cities, 1917
Semi-vitrified paver
Mills College Fine Arts Building steps and walk, Seminary Avenue, Oakland, 1924
Dickey Mastertile
Alameda County Hospital Nurses Dormitory, 15400 Foothill Blvd., San Leandro, before 1923
Alliance Land Company, 1600 Harrison Street, Oakland, 1922
Anderson Company Warehouse, Lodi, 1922
Apartments and garages, 325 East 12th Street, Oakland, 1921
Apartments, 143 Bay Place, Oakland, 1924
Apartments, Grand Avenue, Oakland, 1924
Auto Top Sales Company Building, 4160 Broadway, Oakland, 1924
Bank of Italy, Market & Powell streets, San Francisco, 1920
Bekins Van and Storage Company, 13th and Mission, San Francisco, 1920
Brentwood Grammer School, Brentwood, before 1923
Bruce-Fair Apartments, Green and Baker streets, San Francisco, 1923
Business and Professional Women’s Club, 1608 Webster Street, Oakland, 1924
California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park, San Francisco, 1924
Coast Manufacturing and Supply Company, Trevarno Road, Livermore, 1922
Cole School, 1011 Union Street, Oakland, 1925
Crissey Field Administration Building, Crissey Field, San Francisco, 1921
Crocker Highlands School, Oakland, 1925
Courtland High School, Courtland, 1924
de Young Museum west wing, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, 1925
Duner-Matheny Sash and Door Factory, Oakland, 1922
Fairmount Apartment garages, Cottage, Warfield, and York streets, Oakland, 1923
Fitzhugh Building, Post and Powell streets, San Francisco, 1923
Francesca Apartments, Sacramento and Powell streets, San Francisco, 1923
Fregene’s Pizza Shop, 356 Petaluma Blvd. North, Petaluma.
Galileo High School, 1055 Bay Street, San Francisco, before 1923
Garage, 28th between Broadway and Telegraph, Oakland, 1924
Garage, 9th Avenue between Irving and Judah, Oakland, 1922
Garage, University Avenue near Grove, Oakland, 1922
Granada Theater, 4631 Mission Street, San Francisco, 1921
Grandma Cookie Company, Third and Adeline streets, Oakland, 1922
Grauff-Winlund Company Building, 732 Grand Avenue, Oakland, 1924
Ham Apartments, Sutter and Leavenworth streets, San Francisco, 1923
Hayes-Oser Apartments, Powell and Pine streets, San Francisco, 1923
Hebrew Home, San Francisco, 1923
Higgins Apartments, Geary Street near Hyde, San Francisco, 1923
Home of Herbert Hoover, Stanford University, Palo Alto, 1924
Horticulture Building, U. C. Davis farm, Davis, 1923
Lauriston Farm, Menlo Park, 1924
Lone Star Garage, 35th Avenue and East 14th Street, Oakland, 1922
Masonic Temple, Richmond, before 1923
Matson Building, 215 Market Street, San Francisco, 1921
Merritt Motors, northeast corner East 12th Street and 8th Avenue, Oakland, 1924
National Cone Company Building, south side 29th Street, between West and San Pablo, Oakland, 1924
Nystrom School, Richmond, before 1923
Oakley Grammer School, Oakley, before 1923
Pacific Embroidery Building addition, 13th and Mission streets, San Francisco, 1923
Pacific Fruit Express Ice Plant, Visitacion Valley, San Francisco, 1924
Pacific Gas & Electric Building, 77 Beale Street, San Francisco, 1925
Pacific Sheet Steel Corporation, South San Francisco, 1924
Pacific Telephone Building, 140 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, 1925
Park Lane Apartments, Oakland, 1925
Park View Manor, 123 Bay Place, Oakland, 1925
Peerless Motor Company, 3727 Broadway, Oakland, 1924
Richmond Union High School, Richmond, before 1923
Roosevelt Junior High School, Richmond, before 1923
Santa Clara Union High School, Santa Clara, 1924
Sherman Clay Company Warehouse, southwest corner 22nd and Chestnut streets, Oakland, 1924
Stege School, Richmond, before 1923
Steinhart Aquarium, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, 1923
Student Union Building, U. C. Berkeley, Berkeley, 1923
U. S. Veterans Administration Hospital, Arroyo Road, Livermore, 1924
Veterans Hospital Bungalows, 3801 Miranda Avenue, Palo Alto, 1922
Veterans Hospital Mess Hall, 3801 Miranda Avenue, Palo Alto, 1922
Zeller’s Ace Hardware, 819 Randolph St., Napa
Red ruffled face brick
Apartments, Grand Avenue, Oakland, 1924
Apartments, 143 Bay Place, Oakland, 1924
Business and Professional Women’s Club, 1608 Webster Street, Oakland, 1924
Santa Clara Union High School, Santa Clara, 1924
Pressed brick
Pumping house, Mt. Brow Road, Sonora
Common brick
Cohn Business Block, Adeline Street and Alcatraz Avenue, Oakland, 1918
Masonic Home, 34400 Mission Blvd., Union City, 1913
California Brick Co. hollow tile
Red Cross Hospital, Presidio, San Francisco, 1919
California Brick Company bricks:
W. S. Dickey Clay Manufacturing Company, Decoto-Niles, 1926-1936
In 1926, the California Brick Company name was changed to W. S. Dickey Clay Manufacturing Company, when it was merged into the national chain of Dickey clay manufacturing plants. W. S. Dickey Clay Manufacturing Company was based in Kansas City, Missouri, which began in 1885 by Walter S. Dickey. The company expanded its operations to 31 states and Mexico. Walter Simpson Dickey was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1862 to Nathaniel Dickey and Elizabeth Simpson. Walter came to the United States in the mid-1880s and settled in Independence, Missouri, where he embarked in the clay industry producing sewer pipe. He was married to Katherine L. McMullen and they raised five children.
Dickey Plant no. 18 at Niles continued to produce the same line of products that were made by the California Brick Company, except that the name on the products now sported the name “W. S. Dickey Clay Mfg. Co., S.F.” There was no change with staff or workers. There was no plan for changes or expansion at the plant. Walter S. Dickey’s brother, Nathaniel A. Dickey, remained the president of the local company.
Dickey Mastertile, their foremost hollow tile unit, was heavily advertised in the newspapers and trade journals. Other clay products, such as various types of bricks, partition tile, roofing tile, and paving blocks, continued to be produced at the Decoto plant. A large order came in 1933 for Dickey Mastertile for all buildings at the Hamilton Air Force Base in Marin County.
In early 1936, Dickey announced its new Dickey Hollow Adobe Building Block in red and terra cotta colors available for 4-, 8-, or 12-inch load bearing walls. This was its final product.
When Walter S. Dickey died on January 22, 1931, there were fears of plant closures. Then Nathaniel A. Dickey, the president, announced his retirement in June 1931. He was replaced by E. C. Moore. In 1932, Lester Duffy was the plant manager with 45 employees. The Dickey plant continued to operate with declining orders until it closed in 1936. The brick property was purchased by the Pacific States Steel Company, which replaced the old brick works with their own plant. Pacific States Steel operated their plant until 1978, when it was abandoned. In 2004, after razing the old plant and cleanup of the toxic ground, a new housing development was built over the site. Nathaniel A. Dickey died in 1943 at San Francisco.
Some known examples of W. S Dickey Clay Manufacturing Company products:
Common brick
P. C. Hanson Lumber Company building, 1931, 37268 Niles Blvd., Niles
Dickey Mastertile
American Legion Memorial Building, 37154 Second Street, Niles, 1930
Apartments, Chestnut Street, Oakland, 1926
Buildings at Hamilton Air Force Base, Marin County, 1933
Burchhaker School, Oakland, 1926
California State Automobile Association, Van Ness Avenue and Hayes Street, San Francisco, 1926
FoxTheater, 1829 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, 1928
Marine Hospital, Presidio of San Francisco, 1931
Mills Towers, San Francisco, 1931
Mission High School, 18th and Dolores streets, San Francisco, 1926
Monte Clair School, Oakland, 1926
Prescott School Annex, 920 Campbell Street, Oakland, 1927
Seventy-Eighth Avenue School, 78th Avenue, Oakland, 1926
Pavers and tiles
San Mateo High School, Poplar and Delaware streets, San Mateo, 1926-1927
W. S. Dickey bricks and hollow tile:
Kraftile, Niles, 1926-1996
Kraftile Company was a subsidiary of the Kraft Cheese Company, based in Chicago, Illinois. Kraftile was born out of the K. & L. Box and Lumber Company, which came to Niles in 1924, when it purchased 15 acres of land from the California Nursery Company, to manufacture cheese boxes for the Kraft Cheese Company. The box factory was started by Charles H. Kraft and Homer E. Leash, who took advantage of cheap lumber in the San Francisco area. “K. & L.” are abbreviations for Kraft and Leash.
Seeing that the California Brick Company was making fine brick on the adjacent property to the north, Leash, a west coast lumberman, thought that the same clay deposit might extend to his lumber company property. A little digging found a fine deposit of red-burning clay five feet below the surface on the property, so in 1925, Leash decided to use the sawdust and mill scrap from his factory as fuel to burn clay products for additional revenue. Encouraged by the local housing boom, the Kraft Clay Products Company was organized to build a clay plant with wood-burning up-draft kilns to manufacture handmade Spanish roofing tiles. This clay plant was built next to the cheese box factory. Manuel Costa was plant superintendent. The roofing tiles were sold locally and turned out to be more profitable than the cheese boxes. An example of the roofing tile can be seen on the Old Adobe on the grounds of the California Nursery in Niles.
Expanding to decorative tile products, the Kraftile Company was incorporated in February 1926, with founders James L. and Charles H. Kraft, A. Clay Myers, president, E. Ridgeway and Homer E. Leash, directors. The company office was at 55 New Montgomery Street in San Francisco. Myers was hired away from the California Art Tile Company in Richmond, California, to lead the decorative tile production. A new plant was built in 1926 at 800 Kraftile Road in Niles, CA, with five oil-burning downdraft kilns. The adjacent cheese box factory was operated by the International Wood Products Company, a name change made when they expanded to Canada, with Homer E. Leash as president. This plant employed 160 and continued to manufacture Kraft cheese boxes until operations were transferred to Cathlamet, Washington, in 1936. As packaging cheese improved over the years, the box factory was finally closed in 1949.
Many people were confused initially about Kraftile and its products. They knew that it was somehow connected with Kraft cheese but not quite sure how. Chuck Kraft, a son of Charles H. Kraft, jokingly told the Washington Township Country Club that someone once asked him, “is Kraftile a cheese that got hard, or is Kraft cheese a tile that got soft?” Although, Kraftile was better known for its tile products, it also made bricks and hollow tile, which will be the main focus here.
At Kraftile, local red clay was mined from a 100-foot trench, 35 feet deep, on the property by a bulldozer and carryall. The clay horizon was horizontal and rested on gravel and sand. The properties of the clay varied with depth, so mining was controlled by measurement of absorption on fired samples of clay at various depths. Minimal absorption of clay material was desired for higher plasticity and dry strength. The clay was delivered to an open-sided storage shelter by a carryall, which spilled the load over the length of the pile to improve mixing. An end loader elevates the clay to the plant batching bin by conveyor.
Higher grade buff-burning clays from Placer, Amador, and Stanislaus counties were later shipped to the plant first by rail and later by trucks. The higher grade clays from different areas were stored in separate stockpiles of about 5,000 tons each and covered with tarpaulin covers for protection from rain. The clays were delivered to the batching bin by front end loader and overhead conveyor.
The batching bin had eight compartments of 500 tons total capacity. Batching bin openings fed the clay to a weighing hopper, controlled pneumatically by hand-operated air levers or a fully automatic system of activating relays. A ton of clay was drawn from the batching bin for each batch. The buff-colored, glazed wall-unit mix consisted of these four ingredients: Lincoln 4-6 clay, La Grange clay, Dry buff body scrap, and Buff grog. The red mix consisted of these four ingredients: Niles red clay, Lincoln 7 clay, Dry red body scrap, and Red grog.
Different clay proportions were carefully measured for increased plasticity and strength. Grog was added to reduce and control shrinkage. The clay was mixed with barium carbonate, to eliminate efflorescence, and waste tile in a dry-pan grinding mill. The clay was ground to 28-mesh and the oversize was returned for regrinding. Water was added as it entered the twin screw Hummer auger where it was mixed, blended, and extruded as a block ribbon to an American wire cutting machine. The cutting machine was hand operated to make units of various lengths.
The cut units were then passed to a 15-foot conveyor belt from which they were hand-loaded onto cars running on 24-inch rails. The cars were hand-trammed a short distance to carriages running on standard gauge track set normal to the narrow track. The carriages transported the cars to the entrance of the drying tunnels where they were transferred to narrow-gauge tracks running through the hot air dehydrator drying tunnels.
By 1950, there were eight gas-fired tunnels about 75 feet long equipped with two sets of 24-inch rails. Drying required 48 to 120 hours. These were later replaced by solar-heated driers. Losses after drying was about 5 percent. Waste clay was returned to the crushers to be reused.
Buff ware to be glazed was transported from the drying tunnel to an adjoining building where the units were carefully machine-trimmed to size. The units were then transferred to a horizontal belt conveyor passing through alternately spaced spray booths and drying boxes. One coat of slip and two coats of color glaze were sprayed on the units. Each coat was 0.016 inch thick. All glazes were carefully prepared, according to formulae, in a separate department. Ground feldspar, silica, talc, hydrate of aluminum, zirconium oxide, and coloring compound were some of the additional raw materials used and purchased from different suppliers.
Firing took place in one of the five round down-draft 25-foot diameter kilns. Each kiln was equipped with 10 burners. Draft for the group of kilns was provided by two square stacks about 50 feet high. Bricks remained in the kilns 12 to 15 days to allow for pre-heating and cooling. Firing temperature for red tile was about 1,970 degrees F, maintained by pyrometric cone and pyrometer. Buff tile was fired to about 2,200 degrees F (cone 8).
For the Harrop continuous kiln, the glazed blocks were replaced on the narrow-gauge tunnel kiln cars and run through a pre-heater about 10 feet long. The cars passed from the pre-heater to a 185-foot gas-fired Harrop continuous tunnel kiln. The pre-firing zone was about 70 feet long. The firing zone was about 40 feet long and was equipped with 12 burners, six on each side, where buff ware was fired to 2,200 degrees F. The cooling zone was about 70 feet long. The firing cycle required three days, one day in each section of the kiln.
After firing the units were inspected, packed in cartons or trays and shipped, or placed in the storage warehouse. Rejects were sent back to the crushers and mixed with clay to be run through the mill again.
Kraftile display rooms were set up at their main office in San Francisco, the Los Angeles warehouse at 4963 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and at the office and warehouse at 20 West Austin Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. An export office, managed by W. W. Mitchell, was at the Robert Dollar Building in San Francisco.
During the Depression in 1930, Kraftile made a bold move by investing in a new type of kiln, the Harrop continuous tunnel kiln, to help increase production. It was at that time one of the few in this part of the country. Chuck Kraft wrote, “This turned out to be a most fortunate move because our ability to reach our present production and sales peak, over twice our best pre-depression year, is based mainly on the output of the tunnel kiln.”
Kraftile at this time pioneered the glazed wall unit production on the West Coast to take the place of its falling wall tile and decorative tile. These glazed structural units were hollow with a face size of 6 x 12 inches, and thickness of 2, 4, or 6 inches Practically all were made in modular coordinated sizes They were finished in a permanent, non-absorbent, clear buff-colored glaze, or in a ceramic glaze offering of over 100 non-fading colors. They provided a finished wall or wainscot requiring no furring, plastering, painting, or maintenance.
Fire clay was used in the body of these units. They were carefully made by machine extrusion under vacuum. The exposed faces were glazed and burned at high temperatures to make the glaze and body inseparable. The glaze must be free from imperfections, such as crawling, crazing, or other defects, that result in an objectionable appearance when viewed at a distance of 5 feet. The closed sides and back were scored for mortar or plaster except when a smooth finish was specified.
The unit was protected by a heavy corrugated paper padding during shipments. These units became very popular in the construction of government and public buildings for several decades. Local examples of the glazed structural units can be seen in some buildings, such as the Hanson Lumber Company Building in Niles. By 1931, its work force had increased to 100 when the plant was operating at full capacity.
In October 1940, Kraftile was contracted to ship 1,200 tons of hollow tile, 240,000 units to build 32 barracks for the U. S. Army at Panama. The deal was made by James Crawford, of Niles, who went down and told the army what it needed for fire-proof, moisture-proof, mosquito-proof boudoirs for the boys in uniform. Crawford visited Ft. Sherman, Ft. Davis, and Mt. Hope. The tile was shipped in bundles weighing 120 pounds each.
During the war in 1945, Kraftile was advertising the modular structural clay blocks, which were used in the Krafts Foods Building at Chicago. Shortage of labor at the plant prompted Chuck Kraft to alleviate the problem by utilizing company executives to fill the needed positions. Eight of the company executives, after putting in an eight-hour day in the office, reported to the kiln quarters for an extra half shift at night. Taking their turns two or three nights a week were J. A. McDonald, secretary-treasurer; Graham Smith, research director; Leslie Alt, plant superintendent; James Crawford, vice-president of sales; George Smith, assistant sales manager; Jean Blanjean, sales manager; and Walter Schulte, merchandise manager, and Chuck Kraft, president. It was added, without divulging any birthdays, all admitted they were in the age bracket interested in warding of middle-age silhouette and testified to the efficacy of a little kiln maintenance in this respect.
In 1947, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported large increases in the prices of building materials. Brick jumped 134 percent from $19 to $43.50 per thousand. Most other building materials increased 5 percent. Kraftile attempted to reverse this trend by reducing prices on clear glazed wall units for 4-inch and 2-inch thickness by five percent to pre-war prices, following a six percent raise in 1946. In 1948, plant superintendent Les R. Alt was appointed vice-president of production.
“The end of the war found Kraftile back in the construction picture supplementing its sales activities with Quonsets, Stran-Steel Framing, Pyrolite blocks, and Nukem acid proof materials and construction mainly,” wrote Chuck Kraft.
In 1950, the Kraftile plant operated five and a half days per week. The plant capacity was 1,000 tons per month. 85 were employed in the office and plant.
As glazed structural units were eventually phased out, a new line of products was introduced, the high-fired unglazed tile and split pavers. These were red patio or quarry tiles that were made in earthy tones and in sizes ranging from 4 x 4 inches to 12 x 12 inches and 7/8 inch in thickness. The largest tile had the company name and location stamped on one of the edges. They were available in square, rectangular, hexagonal and diagonal shapes They included a full line of trim shapes. The range of earthy colors was achieved by combinations of clays that were blended and fired at high temperatures. They were formed under vacuum and burned to a warm red color. The tile was dense, hard, and abrasion-resistant. James Kraft was among the few in the industry who had successfully made the 12 x 12 inch ceramic floor tile. The tiles became popular for patios, exterior walls, stairs, balconies, and interior floors.
In 1942, Navlet’s in Oakland sold Kraftile patio tiles in lots of 25. 12 x 12 inch tile cost 20 cents each; 6 x 6 inch tile, 6 cents each; 6 x 12 inch tile, 11 cents each, and 12 x 12 blocks, 40 cents each. Patio tiles of unstated sizes were sold at Montgomery Ward in 1947 for 29 cents each or $26 per 100. In 1985, Kraftile 12 x 12 inch tile sold in Santa Rosa for $1.59 per square foot. Kraftile patio tile was a residential selling feature often listed in real estate advertisements.
Niles red split pavers were 7 ¾ x 3 ¾ x 1 1/16 inches, with the company name and location stamped on the thin side. The split pavers were made with a non-skid feature, popular in factories and public walkways. Examples of these tiles along with their split pavers can be seen in the first 13 Bay Area Rapid Transit stations and the sidewalks of Santa Barbara. Split pavers were used in the patio and walls of the Los Angeles Mall and in its underground parking structure.
Face bricks were machine-extruded under vacuum to produce a dense compact body with minimum absorption and staining. Three shapes made were the standard size, 2 5/8 by 7 5/8 by 3 5/8 inches, Roman size, 1 ½ by 11 ½ by 3 ½ inches, and Brickettes, 7/8 by 1 ¼ by 11 ½ inches, with a narrow rock-face edge on one side. Acid-proof red floor brick were hard burned and made to withstand all acids and alkalis common to food plants. They did not discolor and were available in either smooth or anti-slip surfaces for industrial or commercial floors. Enameled brick and acid-tank block were also made.
In April 1954, ground was broken at the Kraftile yard for a $100,000 clay preparation building. The building was finished in six weeks as part of its modernization program. Seeing rough competition ahead, Chuck Kraft decided to invest in new equipment to modernize the plant for the purpose of reducing costs and staying competitive. Over the next ten years, $539,187 was spent in this effort.
In 1954, Chuck Kraft, along with two others, was given a special award by the American Standards Association at the Fifth National Conference on Standards at the Hotel Roosevelt in New York City. This award was for his having done the most to encourage the use of modular measure in building. Modular measure is a system of coordinating the designer’s dimensions for building with the actual sizes of the materials of which it is to be constructed. It is accomplished by using the American standard of four inch module as the least common denominator when setting up the dimensions of a building or when fixing the stock sizes of a building project.
In 1956, Kraftile and Washington Brick and Lime Company of Seattle, Washington, organized the Western Structural Tile Institute in a move toward standardization of their products. The new organization distributed a chart of standard nominal 6-inch x 12-inch shapes plus an additional number of shapes in the case of each manufacturer, to meet specific regional needs.
In 1961, Chuck Kraft was president and general manager; Edward Meeka, vice-president; James B. Crawford, vice-president; W. M. Schulte, secretary-treasurer; and Mrs. Lorraine Lisle, assistant secretary-treasurer. Board of Directors were Leslie Alt, B. A. Gordon, J. A. McDonald, and Chuck Kraft.
By 1962, there were only 25 workers in the plant. The modernization effort implemented by Chuck Kraft had improved the production rate by improving mechanization and automation. This helped the company to survive the rising costs of manufacturing, fuel, power, raw materials, equipment replacements, and labor, while the price of manufactured products rose slightly.
In 1975, Chuck Kraft retired and his son, James Kraft, was elected president and general manager of the company.
In 1984, Kraftile reported that annual sales was $1 million. About 24 employees have worked for the company for over 20 years.
After 71 years of operation, the plant closed in 1996 and the buildings were razed a few years afterwards. This marked the end of one of the most important and influential ceramic manufacturers in the country. Although the manufacturing plant has disappeared, Kraftile products will endure for the life of the buildings that hold them. The factory site has been developed for housing. Some of the bricks salvaged from the two stacks and some of the tile were used to make the entrance gate to the new subdivision.
Past Presidents of Kraftile:
Charles H. Kraft, 1925-1926
A. Clay Myers, 1926-1931
E. Ridgeway, 1931H. E. Leash, 1932
James L. Kraft, 1933-1935
Charles “Chuck” W. Kraft, 1935-1975
James F. Kraft, 1975-1997
Charles Herbert Kraft, the first president of the Kraft Clay Products Company, was born in Stevensville, Ontario, Canada, in 1880. He came to the U. S. in 1898. Along with his brothers, he established the Kraft Cheese Company in Chicago, Illinois. In 1903, he married Martha Ann Watson and they had four children, one of which Charles Watson Kraft, who also became president and general manager of Kraftile. Charles H. Kraft was naturalized in 1919. He established the Kraft Clay Products Company in 1925 and remained a director of Kraftile Company until 1942. He was vice-president in charge of production for Kraft Food Company at the time of his retirement several years before his death. He died March 25, 1952 at his residence at Wilmette, Illinois, after a long illness.
James Lewis Kraft was born in Stevensville, Ontario, Canada, in 1874. He married Pauline Elizabeth Platt and they had one daughter. James helped to establish the Kraftile Company at Niles, California, with his brother Charles. He was president of Kraftile from 1933 to 1935. James died on February 16, 1953 at Wilmette, Illinois.
Charles Watson Kraft was born in New York in 1905. He married Anna Baird Fulker in 1929 at Evanston, Illinois, and they had five children. Charles, better known as Chuck, was elected president of Kraftile in 1935. He was also the general manager until 1975. He died on January 28, 1994 in Santa Clara, California.
Some examples of known Kraftile products:
Enamel brick
Ford Assembly Plant boiler room, Seattle, Washington
Red split pavers
Bayfair BART station, San Leandro, California, 1971
El Cerrito Plaza BART station, El Cerrito, California, 1971
Richmond BART station, Richmond, California, 1970
San Jose Gateway, San Jose, California
San Leandro BART station, San Leandro, California, 1968
Stanford University, Stanford Law Library, Palo Alto, California
Red floor brick
Berkeley BART station, Berkeley, California, 1968
McArthur BART station, Oakland, 1968
North Berkeley BART station, Berkeley, California, 1968
Nukem Acid-Proof Brick
Blewett Dairy ice cream room, Lodi, California, 1946
Non-skid floor brick
Two meat markets in Poland
Pavers
Lanai, Hawaii
Split pavers
Los Angeles Mall, Temple St., Los Angeles, California
Kraft-Enamel hollow tile
Casa Irisada, Morrison Canyon Rd., Mission San Jose, California
P. C. Hanson Lumber Company building, 1931, 37268 Niles Blvd., Niles, California
Enameled hollow tiles
American Standard Pottery, 360 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance
Fleischman Yeast Company Plant, Standard Brands, production rooms, 98th Ave. and San Leandro Blvd., Oakland, California
U.S. Post Office and Courthouse toilet rooms and corridors, Sacramento, California
U.S. Veterans Hospital Administration Building baths, operating rooms, cafeterias, and treatment rooms, San Francisco, California
U.S. Veterans Hospital interior walls, San Francisco, California
Terra cotta wall units
Owens-Illinois Pacific Coast Company, Oakland, California
Terra cotta glazed wall units
Girl’s gymnasium shower stalls, Vallejo High School, Vallejo, California
Red non-skid modular structural units
16th & Mission BART station, San Francisco, California, 1970
24th & Mission BART station, San Francisco, California, 1970
Glazed structural units
Provo High School, Provo, Utah
Special color glazed structural units
16th & Mission BART station, San Francisco, California, 1970
24th & Mission BART station, San Francisco, California, 1970
Berkeley BART station, Berkeley, California, 1968
Coliseum BART station, Oakland, California, 1971
Fruitvale BART station, Oakland, California, 1971
McArthur BART station, Oakland, 1968
Charcoal and Niles Red modular glazed structural units
Hayward BART station, Hayward, California, 1969
Golden Buff and La Jolla modular glazed structural units
Ashby BART station, Berkeley, California, 1971
Richmond BART station, Richmond, California, 1970
Tahoe and Cascade blue glazed wall units
Firehouse No. 20, Greenwich and Steiner streets, San Francisco, California
Kraftile Bricks, Split Pavers, and Hollow Tile:
Laclede Christy Clay Products Company, Warm Springs, 1948-1953
The Warm Springs plant consisted of an office, warehouse, and one down-draft kiln, 15 by 26 feet in size. This plant manufactured refractory tank blocks used for lining glass-making furnaces. These blocks were designed for use in all locations in contact with molten glass, and were sold under the trade name “FLUXITE”. This plant also made refractory firebrick which were branded LACLEDE/CAL. Other brick bats found at the plant site included LACLEDE/SPALLAC and other unidentified brands, which were probably shipped from Missouri.
The company used carefully selected Missouri bond clays, which were weathered, blended, and treated, to obtain a mix having the desired purity, plasticity, and strength. The clay was transported to the yard by Western Pacific railcars and dumped in the storage area on the south end of the property. The mix was alternately pugged and aged to secure uniformity, and the blocks were manufactured by a de-airing process. The blocks were carefully dried and their moisture content constantly checked before burning. Specially developed machines were used for kiln loading.
The blocks were burned in a gas-fired down-draft kiln. A map shows that there were four round kilns on the east side of the plant building. A very high peak-temperature was maintained over a considerable period of time to insure soaking heat and uniformity of burn. The changes in temperature were carefully controlled at all points in the burning cycle. The complete burning cycle required about 30 days and production capacity ran about 2,000 pounds of fired-product.
After burning, the blocks were machine ground to size, 12 by 24 by 36 inches, for speed and accuracy in laying with resultant low cost of installation. From the sample of firebrick found on site, the dry pressed method was used to make standard firebrick at this plant. Products were shipped out on the Western Pacific railroad, which had a spur siding called Curtner, named after a local pioneer rancher.
In 1951, Harbison-Walker Refractories Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was interested in purchasing the Warm Springs plant. Laclede Christy sold the plant to Harbison Walker by 1953.
E. J. Lavino and Company, Newark, 1952-1971
In 1952, a major basic refractories manufacturer from the East decided to build a new plant in Newark, California. It was E. J. Lavino and Company, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The reason Lavino came to Newark was mainly to establish its products in the Western market and be close to a major source of magnesia, which was an important ingredient in their bricks. The Westvaco Magnesite Company (later FMC) had a plant in Newark at that time for the purpose of extracting magnesia and other salts from seawater. Periclase was the needed ingredient for their chromite and magnesite brick.
Edward J. Lavino, the owner and namesake of the company, was born in Smyrna, Turkey, in 1852. He graduated from the Institut Superieur de Commerce in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1871. After briefly helping his father with the Dutch East Indies Company in Smyrna, Lavino came to the United States and established a brand new refractories company in Philadelphia in 1887. He became a significant importer of ferromanganese ore from England until the First World War cut off supplies.
In 1915, he purchased blast furnaces to manufacture this alloy himself at Marietta, Lebanon, Sheridan, Pennsylvania, and Reusens, Virginia. Lavino was subsequently appointed a member of the committee on ores and ferroalloys of the American Iron and Steel Institute, which worked with the War Industries Board during the war. He built basic refractory manufacturing plants at Plymouth Meeting and Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania. Edward Lavino died in Philadelphia on March 4, 1930. His company continued to expand with new plants in Texas, Indiana, and California.
In June 1952, the large $2,500,000 plant was constructed on 44 acres of land at the corner of Wells (now Enterprise) Avenue and Willow Street in Newark. The plant had 89,500 square feet of floor space and was equipped with the latest machinery for crushing, grinding, pugging, and power pressing refractory material into magnesite and chrome bricks.
From an auction list of the property when it closed in 1972, the equipment included six brick presses: a 1966 Chisholm “Boyd” Model Y, with Boydomatic charing set-up, 60-h.p.; four Chisholm “Boyd” Model X brick presses, 40 h.p.; and a 1968 Jeffries vibration type brick press. Crushers included a Nordberg-Symonds 3-foot short head cone crusher; Kue-Ken Simplex 70 30- by 15-inch jaw crusher; two 36-inch high speed roller crushers; two Hardinge ball mills, measuring 8 feet by 36 inches and 6 feet by 36 inches; two new spare sets of liners; 10 tons of steel balls. A McCarter rotary drier, 5 feet by 40 feet. Four Sturtevant 10-foot diameter air separators. Nine Norble dust collectors up to 10 feet long; four Rotex #52 3-deck 4 feet by 10 feet screens, and four vibrating feeders. Stacking conveyor, 30 inches by 105 inches; roll conveyors; and 14 bucket elevator conveyors to 99 feet long. Mullers, Mixers, Pugmill, Blenders, and miscellaneous. mill and machine shop equipment. Laboratory equipment included a 1970 Pereny MR-3000 oven; Tinius Olsen 60,000# testing machine, laboratory crusher, screen, vacuum units, and scales.
A long tunnel kiln fired the products to very high temperatures. High temperature cement was also manufactured and were given different “BOND” names based on their application.
The plant was served by two railroad spurs, one of which conveyed raw material to a bottom-drop storage bin in the rear of the plant. No material was mined on the property by this company. The chromite ore was imported from Lavino’s own chromite mines in South Africa, or purchased from other chromite mines, and periclase was supplied by their neighbor Westvaco (later FMC) in Newark.
There is no description of the plant so I draw the process from a typical basic refractories operation. The chromite ore was crushed to a coarse size and mixed with magnesia (periclase) and water. The mixture was put into a brick press mold and applied a pressure of 5,000 to 15,000 pounds-per-square-inch to formed the brick. The brick was placed on a cart to be dried and cured for several hours. Then the cart of bricks was rolled into a tunnel kiln and fired at 2,500 to 2,900 degrees F. After firing, bricks were conveyed to the storage yard and placed on pallets ready for shipment.
The basic refractory brick made at this plant included brand names such as KROMAG, HYMAG, LAVINO CHROME, LAVINO MAGNESITE, LAVINO RKB, LOFERO, ONIVAL, PERIKROM, ROOFKROM, ROOFKROM UB, and UBK. These were chrome or magnesite bricks or combinations of chrome and magnesite mixed in various proportions. Chrome ore adds stability, resistence to basic and acid oxides, and is immune to hydration. The combination of magnesia and the metasilicate associated with chromite ore creates forsterite, which has a high melting point (3,400 degrees F). Forsterite is the bonding agent in the brick. It strengthens the brick and helps it to withstand the deteriorating effects of basic slag.
Because of these characteristics, chromite-magnesite bricks were used in the wall linings and floors of open hearth furnaces and electric arc furnaces. These bricks were used mainly in the steel mills. Total production of bricks from this plant is unknown.
At the time of the Lavino plant construction, George B. Gold was vice-president, Lauren W. Kaninen was plant manager, and R. W. Herbst was an advisor and later was in charge of the research laboratory and quality control. Kaninen ran the plant for 15 years. Harold P. Deutschman subsequently became the plant manager, and he was followed by Harry R. Smith. Ralph R. Rhodes was general manager in the 1960s; he retired in 1966. Russell N. Ward was the company president from 1958 to 1967, when he retired. He was followed by Executive Vice-President Arthur H. Bergey. In 1962, Alan J. Kitchen joined the staff as the plant ceramic engineer. In 1963, R. E. Smith was the office manager and J. R. McNicoli, the traffic manager. The plant employed 40 to 65 persons.
A plant tour of Lavino was given to 200 Northern California purchasing agents on November 19, 1953. This annual event was sponsored by the Alameda County Manufacturers Division of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce. Lavino plant was among six Alameda County factories selected for the tours. The purpose was to invite the attention of purchasing agents to Alameda County’s industrial capacity and the wide variety of its products.
In August 1966, R. W. Herbst, 58, who opened Lavino plant, retired after 38 years with the company. Herbst was transferred by the main office in Philadelphia to Newark in 1953 to act as an advisor for the opening of the plant. He later became in charge of the research laboratory and quality control at the plant. He resided in Los Altos. A retirement lunch was held for him at the Gondolier Room in Newark. His successor, Roy Forcier, said that “his contributions will long be remembered by the company.”
In December 1966, E. J. Lavino and Company was acquired by the International Minerals & Chemical Corporation (IMC), and Lavino became a division of IMC’s industry group. The Newark plant was allowed to continue its operations as usual. However, the basic refractories industry was affected by the technological changes being made in the steel foundries, where open hearth furnaces were being replaced by basic oxygen furnaces that preferred dolomite and magnesite bricks over chromite bricks. Plus the plant was also fined for air pollution and was required to install a scrubber.
On September 9, 1971, the company announced that it was closing the Newark plant on October 8, 1971. This news shocked the plant workers, who related, “They just put a bunch of new machinery in here in the last three years.” 45 workers were laid off when the Lavino plant was abandoned.
The abandoned Lavino plant was sold and used by other firms until it was eventually razed and the railroad spurs removed in the late 1990s. The abandoned site remained with only the large concrete foundations.
Harbison Walker Refractory Company, Warm Springs, 1953-1966
By 1953, Harbison-Walker had purchased the Warm Springs plant at 48311 Warm Springs Boulevard, shown on the map above. Little is known about Harbison-Walker’s operation at Warm Springs. Their 1961 book mentioned that many of the brands of their basic refractory bricks were made there.
Periclase, a magnesia crystal, was probably purchased from the nearby Westvaco Company at Newark, California, for use in basic bricks. H-W PERIKLASE brick contained about 93 to 94 percent magnesia, with less than one percent iron oxide. They were used in open-hearth and electric furnaces and in the high temperature zone lining rotary kilns.
HARKLASE was made of 97 percent or more of periclase. This brick had an exceptionally high refractoriness, with pure periclase having a melting point of over 5,000 degrees F. Its ability to resist corrosion by various destructive basic slags found uses in a variety of metallurgical and other industrial furnaces.
H-W MAGNESITE brick was made from dead-burned magnesite containing over 90 percent magnesia. This brick was used in basic open-hearth furnaces, basic electric steelmelting furnaces, bottoms of heating furnaces, copper and nickel converters, reverberatories, refining and melting furnaces, and other metallurgical furnaces.
OXIBAK was a fired magnesite brick, with a higher iron oxide content, used in basic oxygen steelmaking vessels and linings of copper converters.
Many of the basic bricks were encased in sheet steel boxes called METALKASE, with the brand name printed on the casing. Variations of the steel casings were given names of H-W TABKASE, which had a metal tab for vertical support in roof and wall construction, or H-W EXKASE, which had a crease in the metal casing to allow for expansion.
VEGA was a silica brick used in glass melting furnaces, hot blast burners, electric arc furnace roofs, and coke ovens.
These basic and silica bricks were power-pressed and fired in tunnel kilns at high temperatures. These bricks were sold mostly to steelmaking plants for use in their open hearth furnaces. The total quantities of the bricks manufactured at the Warm Springs plant is unknown.
In 1960, Lincoln A. McGill was the district sales manager in the San Francisco office. The plant manager was Ed Magusiak and they employed about 12 workers.
Because the Warm Springs plant did not make bricks that met the requirements for the steel industry’s newer steelmaking processes, they saw a decline in the sales of their products. The plant closed in April 1968. The San Francisco office closed in 1969. The 21-acre property was finally sold in October 1970 to the Hussmann Refrigerator Company for $250,000. The brick plant was razed and a new warehouse was built over the site. The site today is part of the Warm Spring business technology park.
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Oakland Tribune, Annual Year Book, 1923. (California Brick Co.)
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Oakland Tribune, August 6, 1922. (California Brick Co. Dickey Mastertile)
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Oakland Tribune, January 14, 1923. (California Brick Co. Dickey Mastertile)
Oakland Tribune, January 20, 1918. (California Brick Co. brick)
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Oakland Tribune, June 8, 1924. (California Brick Co. Dickey Mastertile)
Oakland Tribune, March 7, 1927. (W.S. Dickey Mastertile)
Oakland Tribune, March 16, 1924. (California Brick Co. Dickey Mastertile)
Oakland Tribune, March 28, 1926. (W.S. Dickey Mastertile)
Oakland Tribune, March 29, 1936. (W. S. Dickey New Adobe Block)
Oakland Tribune, New Building Block Shown, March 15, 1936. (W. S. Dickey)
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Oakland Tribune, November 20, 1921. (California Brick Co. Dickey Mastertile)
Oakland Tribune, November 25, 1925. (California Brick Co. Dickey Mastertile)
Oakland Tribune, November 26, 1922. (California Brick Co. Dickey Mastertile)
Oakland Tribune, October 2, 1921. (California Brick Co. Dickey Mastertile)
Oakland Tribune, October 3, 1955. (Kraftile)
Oakland Tribune, October 22, 1922. (California Brick Co. Dickey Mastertile)
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U. S. Geological Survey, Niles Quadrangle, California, 7.5 Minute Series Topographic Map, scale 1:24,000, 1961. (Kraftile)
U. S. Geological Survey, Niles Quadrangle, California, 7.5 Minute Series Topographic Map, scale 1:24,000, 1961, photorevised 1968. (Kraftile)
Washington Independent, June 5, 1875 to March 11, 1876. (Hagan)
Washington News, April 15, 1954. (Kraftile)
Washington News, March 29, 1952. (Charles H. Kraft)
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Citation: Mosier, Dan L. Brickyards of the Tri-City Area, Alameda County, California. California Bricks, https://californiabricks.com, 2023
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