Green Brae Brick Kiln

The register credits this kiln with 103 years of operation; the bronze, cast eleven years later, closes it in 1915, and the kiln's working life began in 1891. The longer figure fits the Remillard Brick Company better, begun in the 1860s by Peter Remillard, a Quebec-born gold miner who took a job in an Oakland brickyard and within five years owned it. His brothers came west to join him, and by 1900 the firm led the Pacific coast. Of more than twenty-five buildings at Green Brae, only the kiln and its chimney stack are left.

What the plaque says

Green Brae Brick Kiln The Remillard Brick Company, of which the Green Brae Brick Kiln is the only surviving structure was by 1900 the largest brickmaking firm on the Pacific Coast. The kiln is one of the few remaining examples of the Hoffman type kiln in the U.S. and is an engineering landmark of statewide significance. The kiln supplied much of the brick required to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake, and the Remillard Brick Company served as a chief supplier of bricks for the entire Pacific Coast. It was closed in 1915. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 917 Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with Intermark Interests Inc., October 21, 1989.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Muir Woods National Monument — 5.1 mi
  A redwood canyon saved from a reservoir by a gift, and named for a man who had been there once.
• Muir Beach Overlook — 7.1 mi
  A cliff edge on Highway 1, and the concrete dugouts where two-man crews watched the sea after Pearl Harbor.
• Earthquake Trail — 17 mi
  A short loop along the San Andreas, where a broken fence shows how far Point Reyes moved in under a minute in 1906.
• Kule Loklo — 18 mi
  A Coast Miwok village built in the 1970s to honour a people its builders were told had died out. They had not.

More markers nearby

• Mission San Rafael Arcángel — 2.4 mi
• Outdoor Art Club — 3.4 mi
• First Sawmill in Marin County — 3.8 mi
• Marin County Civic Center — 3.9 mi