The Brick Collection
Dickey Star firebrick 1927-1936
In about 1995, Johnny and I were exploring the Monterey Peninsula, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach and Carmel. We had just come out of a great visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It adjoins the Bay at the northwest end of Cannery Row. As we were walking back to where the truck was parked, there was an empty lot right on the bay and it was obvious a recent demolition of a historic Cannery Row building had taken place.
There were temporary construction site chain link fences around the lot and right along the sidewalk. Lo and behold, less than a foot inside the fence there lay an old brick emerging from the dust with some letters on it. Oh boy, I could reach it under the loose wire fence and pull it out. It says "Dickey Star" on it. A genuine relic of Cannery Row.
This is a Dickey Star firebrick from Livermore Fire Brick Works, W. S. Dickey Clay Mfg. Co. fired between 1927-1936, which coincides with John Steinbeck's portrayal of Cannery Row in 1945. With the rereading of his book, I may be able to narrow down which building it was.
It's been a custom of mine to bring a rock back as a souvenir of my travels, in these four cases, I brought back a brick. The three of them were fired at different brick works, at different times. Two of them from near Livermore in the valleys Northeast of San Jose, 20 miles from the south end of San Francisco Bay.
CH San Francisco City Hall 1874-1878
This brick is a well known artifact in the Bay area. The came from the Remillard Brick Company on the San Quentin Peninsula, on the bay, about ten miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge. It's around the corner from the prison that went into operation in 1848. The "CH" bricks were fired with the initials, "CH", for the building of the original San Francisco City Hall, from 1874 to 1878. When the city Hall was destroyed by the 1906 Earthquake, these commemorative bricks were gathered up from the rubble and sold as mementos, the money used in recovery efforts.
Pluto firebrick 1905-1917
This Pluto brick also has a connection with the great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906. After the devastation of the 1906 fire, replacing the wood framed structures with bricks became a popular and encouraged option. This Pluto firebrick came from The Steiger Terra Cotta & Pottery Company which had set up its timely brick works in nearby South San Francisco the year before the quake and fire. This particular brick must have been fired between 1905 and 1917.
Great Brick of China 1024-1644?
In 2001, Johnny and I took a trip to China. Our self-scheduled itinerary and travel package included transportation, lodging and the first meal of the day at the hotel. Our time was our own to explore by our own whims whichever city we were in. We started with several days in Beijing. The Lonely Planet guidebook had pointed to an unexpected option. Hiking on the rough wall. Small sections of the wall have been restored and set up as tourist traps, with tour buses coming and going and vendors of every kind. The wall is over 13,000 miles long, and the restored sections are necessarily far between. Places where there is easy access to miles of mostly intact stairs, towers, and parapets of the wall which ran along the ridges as far as the eye could see. Some intrepid travelers hike and camp all along the sometimes crumbling for miles, days and weeks, but we were just there for the day. We had the hotel arrange for us to have a cab driver for the whole day who would drive us out through the countryside at Huangwa to a place the guidebook said we could get easy access.
The West Coast's Highway 101, from San Diego to Olympia, Washington, is 1540 miles long. The great Wall of China is 9 times that long. I say this to put into perspective the minuscule nature of the looting I'm about to confess to.
As we were deciding that we had gone far enough and it was time to get turn back, it occurred to me that at this point I would ordinarily collect a rock that had some memorable quality that would remind me of far flung places. There weren't any rocks, per se, but dust and broken masonry. There was a small piece of gray brick stair nosing worn smooth from countless footsteps, that had been there for 1000 years say, with a tiny spot of white mortar stuck to it. It was loose. I popped it into my fanny pack, saying, "nobody's going to miss this little thing."
Sure enough, it's been in our living room for over 20 years and nobody's missed it yet.
Footnote: I recently came across an article describing the secret ingredient in the Great Wall's mortar. Sticky rice!
That's what the white speck on the brick is, sticky rice mortar.
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The Brick Collection
Dickey Star firebrick 1927-1936
In about 1995, Johnny and I were exploring the Monterey Peninsula, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach and Carmel. We had just come out of a great visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It adjoins the Bay at the northwest end of Cannery Row. As we were walking back to where the truck was parked, there was an empty lot right on the bay and it was obvious a recent demolition of a historic Cannery Row building had taken place.
There were temporary construction site chain link fences around the lot and right along the sidewalk. Lo and behold, less than a foot inside the fence there lay an old brick emerging from the dust with some letters on it. Oh boy, I could reach it under the loose wire fence and pull it out. It says "Dickey Star" on it. A genuine relic of Cannery Row.
This is a Dickey Star firebrick from Livermore Fire Brick Works, W. S. Dickey Clay Mfg. Co. fired between 1927-1936, which coincides with John Steinbeck's portrayal of Cannery Row in 1945. With the rereading of his book, I may be able to narrow down which building it was.
It's been a custom of mine to bring a rock back as a souvenir of my travels, in these four cases, I brought back a brick. The three of them were fired at different brick works, at different times. Two of them from near Livermore in the valleys Northeast of San Jose, 20 miles from the south end of San Francisco Bay.
CH San Francisco City Hall 1874-1878
This brick is a well known artifact in the Bay area. The came from the Remillard Brick Company on the San Quentin Peninsula, on the bay, about ten miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge. It's around the corner from the prison that went into operation in 1848. The "CH" bricks were fired with the initials, "CH", for the building of the original San Francisco City Hall, from 1874 to 1878. When the city Hall was destroyed by the 1906 Earthquake, these commemorative bricks were gathered up from the rubble and sold as mementos, the money used in recovery efforts.
Pluto firebrick 1905-1917
This Pluto brick also has a connection with the great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906. After the devastation of the 1906 fire, replacing the wood framed structures with bricks became a popular and encouraged option. This Pluto firebrick came from The Steiger Terra Cotta & Pottery Company which had set up its timely brick works in nearby South San Francisco the year before the quake and fire. This particular brick must have been fired between 1905 and 1917.
Great Brick of China 1024-1644?
In 2001, Johnny and I took a trip to China. Our self-scheduled itinerary and travel package included transportation, lodging and the first meal of the day at the hotel. Our time was our own to explore by our own whims whichever city we were in. We started with several days in Beijing. The Lonely Planet guidebook had pointed to an unexpected option. Hiking on the rough wall. Small sections of the wall have been restored and set up as tourist traps, with tour buses coming and going and vendors of every kind. The wall is over 13,000 miles long, and the restored sections are necessarily far between. Places where there is easy access to miles of mostly intact stairs, towers, and parapets of the wall which ran along the ridges as far as the eye could see. Some intrepid travelers hike and camp all along the sometimes crumbling for miles, days and weeks, but we were just there for the day. We had the hotel arrange for us to have a cab driver for the whole day who would drive us out through the countryside at Huangwa to a place the guidebook said we could get easy access.
The West Coast's Highway 101, from San Diego to Olympia, Washington, is 1540 miles long. The great Wall of China is 9 times that long. I say this to put into perspective the minuscule nature of the looting I'm about to confess to.
As we were deciding that we had gone far enough and it was time to get turn back, it occurred to me that at this point I would ordinarily collect a rock that had some memorable quality that would remind me of far flung places. There weren't any rocks, per se, but dust and broken masonry. There was a small piece of gray brick stair nosing worn smooth from countless footsteps, that had been there for 1000 years say, with a tiny spot of white mortar stuck to it. It was loose. I popped it into my fanny pack, saying, "nobody's going to miss this little thing."
Sure enough, it's been in our living room for over 20 years and nobody's missed it yet.
Footnote: I recently came across an article describing the secret ingredient in the Great Wall's mortar. Sticky rice! That's what the white speck on the brick is, sticky rice mortar.