Photography

Old Kiln

June 17, 2007

Stumbled upon this old kiln while caching in Richmond, CA.

From the cache page - "Only expansive brown mudflats, backed by rolling hills ablaze with orange poppies in the spring, were found at Brickyard Cove in Richmond until the Santa Fe Railway came to Ferry Point in the early 1900's. Soon three brick manufacturing companies arrived. The largest was the Richmond Brick Company in 1915.

Richmond Reds were bricks made of clay dug from nearby hills and turned red in the baking kilns. Shipping by railroad, or barged from a small warf built in the cove, "reds" were used to construct many San Francisco Bay Area buildings, including San Francisco's Palace Hotel & parts of Standard Oil's 1st California refinery. Development of modern building materials eventually rendered local brickyards obsolete. This one, the last, ceased operation in 1965."

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