Quote:
Originally Posted by tovangar2
I always wondered about this. Lugo House seems to be made of adobe in the "oldest close-up view of Los Angeles" pic (1858), but the 1937 survey (see quoted post) details that it was made only of brick, wood and cast iron (although they stick with the 1835-40 building date) This was confirmed during the 1951 demolition:
In what I think is the next photo of Lugo House in 1865, it has assumed its familiar form. Plaza Church has also been at least partially rebuilt.
I'm assuming that Lugo House was demolished and rebuilt in the time between these the two photos (unless it was always brick. The reservoir is):
I was trying to pin down when LA changed over from adobe to brick and where the bricks came from. I found two references in Bixby Smith's "Adobe Days". She recalled being told that when John Temple built his Rancho Los Cerritos house in 1844, he imported bricks from back east, shipping them around the Horn. The bricks were used for the house's foundations (the upper walls were of adobe), to line a well and for paths and garden walls.
Bixby Smith also notes that in 1859 Abel Stearns built the Arcadia Block on Los Angeles Street with "bricks from the first local kiln". John Temple built the Clocktower Courthouse that same year.
Does anyone know the name of this kiln, its start date or location? Was the Arcadia Block the first brick building in LA as is often claimed?
All images: Water and Power Museum |
No, Arcadia Block isn't likely the first although it may have acquired that title by default, the actual first being lost to history. Morrow Mayo noted a brick building or home had been started in 1850, he uses this as a starting place for another story altogether but I think these were local bricks. But the real changeover probably dates from the arrival of the three Simons brothers in 1880. Whitewashed Adobe has a lengthy thread concerning the Simons brothers specifically and brick versus adobe generally. I can't attribute this but in my memory (not always good) I seem to remember a Garcia kiln on the banks of the Los Angeles River and quite early, maybe 1850-60. I'll have to look around for it.