Site of Saint Mary's College

The Christian Brothers brought their college here from San Francisco in 1889, into a building of some two and a half million red bricks that everyone called the Brickpile. Fire gutted it in 1894, and the brother who had built it had insured a $350,000 building for $20,500. The 1906 earthquake did $20,000 more. A second fire in 1918 did $250,000 against $50,000 of cover. When the developer James Irvine offered a hundred free acres in Moraga, the college left in 1928 and the Brickpile came down. This bronze faithfully recasts the 1959 original.

What the plaque says

Site of Saint Mary's College "The Old Brickpile" 1889-1928 Saint Mary's College Alumni April 25, 1959 California Registered Historical Landmark No. 676

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Muir Woods National Monument — 18 mi
  A redwood canyon saved from a reservoir by a gift, and named for a man who had been there once.
• Muir Beach Overlook — 18 mi
  A cliff edge on Highway 1, and the concrete dugouts where two-man crews watched the sea after Pearl Harbor.

More markers nearby

• Camino of Rancho San Antonio — 0.3 mi
• Paramount Theatre — 0.8 mi
• Site of College of California — 1.2 mi
• First Unitarian Church of Oakland — 1.3 mi