Qualla: Remillard Brothers

Remillard Brothers: Introduction

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Elan5, CC BY-SA 3.0. The bricks that built San Francisco came, in large part, from the Remillard kilns. The Remillard brothers and their descendants operated brick manufacturing plants in Oakland and San Francisco from the 1860s to the mid-1900s, supplying the construction material for a city that kept burning down and building itself back up. Their story parallels the city's own: industrious, opportunistic, and shaped by the relentless demand for durable building materials in a place that learned, repeatedly, the cost of building with wood.

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Image: Elan5 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Remillard Brothers: Building in Brick

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Elan5, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Remillard family established their brick operations during San Francisco's formative decades, when the city was transitioning from a Gold Rush boomtown of canvas tents and wooden shacks to a permanent urban center. Brick construction offered fire resistance that wood could no...

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Image: Elan5 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Remillard Brothers: After the Earthquake

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Elan5, CC BY-SA 3.0. The 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed much of San Francisco, but it also created unprecedented demand for building materials. The Remillard kilns operated at capacity during the rebuilding, producing the bricks that went into the new San Francisco that rose from the ashes. The r...

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Image: Elan5 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Remillard Brothers: An Industrial Legacy

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Elan5, CC BY-SA 3.0. By the mid-1900s, changing construction methods and materials -- steel, concrete, and glass -- reduced the demand for traditional brick. The Remillard operations eventually ceased, but their products remain embedded in the physical fabric of the Bay Area. Countless buildings stil...

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Image: Elan5 | CC BY-SA 3.0