Quote:
Originally Posted by fhammon
...The building was originally made of adobe....Your photo clearly shows terracotta bricks....
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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:
water and power
In a very few years Lugo House had assumed its familiar shape.
I'm assuming that Lugo House was rebuilt not that long after its original build date (unless it was always brick. The 1858 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?