The operations and fate of the Alameda site
Nehemiah Clark learned the potter’s trade in his home state of Ohio. He arrived in California in 1850 and decided to put his skills to work in Sacramento. To that end, he purchased clay deposits at Ione in Amador County and opened (or purchased) Pacific Pottery in Sacramento. The plant manufactured sewer and chimney pipes, terra cotta pottery, and fire-resistant brick, which the company marketed as “Pacific Fire Brick.” In 1880, Pacific Pottery opened an office and display room at 1047 Market Street in San Francisco.
In 1884, Clark decided to move the company’s San Francisco office to 22 California Street and its manufacturing plant nearer to San Francisco. He settled on eight acres of property that belonged to the Davenport family just where the Southern Pacific Railroad could deliver coal and clay and ship out finished products. The railroad laid spur lines into the plant to facilitate operations.
Clark’s builders used more than 600,000 Pacific Fire Bricks to construct a four-story building, 260 feet long by 110 feet wide, at 401 Pacific Avenue. By the time the Alameda plant opened, Nehemiah had brought his sons Albert and George into the business. Historian Dan Moser relates that Nehemiah managed the Alameda operations, while his older son, Albert, took charge of the Sacramento plant until it burned in 1888.
The company impressed its firebrick from the Alameda plant with both “PACIFIC” and “N. C. & S.” The latter impression reflects an important change. Nehemiah incorporated his manufactory as N. Clark & Sons on January 11, 1889. Nehemiah retired and turned the Alameda operations over to Albert. George tended to business in San Francisco. By 1892 the company had opened an office and showroom at 17-19 Spear Street. Nehemiah died in 1897 at the age of 68.
Photographer, researcher, and microbiologist who writes under the name Robby Virus tells us that “the company shipped products throughout the Pacific states and as far east as Utah.” He also relates that Albert and George Clark competed for sewer-and water-pipe contracts in nearly every city and town in northern California, including Alameda. Their architectural terra cotta and face-brick adorned, and continues to adorn, many significant buildings in major western cities.
In 1904, Albert hired Matthew Cunningham and Harold Politeo to design a spacious home for him and his wife, Minerva, and their children at the foot of Paru Street in Alameda. The home stood on the San Francisco Bay shoreline and showcased the brick and terra cotta work manufactured at his family’s plant.
Local builders Fred Delanoy and Edwin Randlett executed the plans. Have a look at this splendid home at the Buestad Construction website. Buestad led a team that renovated the home.
Two years after Albert and Minerva settled in their new home, the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire damaged the Alameda plant and destroyed the company’s Spear Street office. In 1910, the brothers opened a new office at 112-116 Natoma Street. Of interest is the “ghost” sign on the building today, which reads “N. Clark & Sons.” A popular Chinese restaurant now occupies the ground floor where George managed the family’s showroom.
Two fires struck the Alameda plant 10 years apart. A ruptured oil pipe caused the first blaze on July 28, 1917. According to the Alameda Times-Star, the fire “leveled the plant’s pipe section.” Insurance covered much of the $150,000 damage. The second fire set the terra cotta kilns ablaze on the night of September 15, 1927.
The Times-Star reported that “fire raged through the terra-cotta kilns and warehouses.” A photograph of the remnants shows a lone man surveying the ruins and labeled the blaze a “midnight fire.” Again, insurance covered much of the damage and the Clark brothers rebuilt.
Albert passed away in 1931, leaving the property in the hands of his younger brother, George. The business survived the Great Depression, although Robby Virus’s research noted that the company’s advertising dropped off noticeably after 1937. Dan Moser writes that N. Clark & Sons may have stopped manufacturing bricks that year. George carried on until his death in 1942, when George Clark Jr. took the reins.
On July 26, 1945, Los Angeles-based Pacific Clay Products, Inc. announced that it had purchased N. Clark & Sons. The Alameda plant was not a good match for the Los Angeles-based company, however. On April 17, 1952, Pacific Clay announced that it had “shut down operations” there. On June 5 ,1952, a story in the Long-Beach Press-Telegram stated that Pacific Clay sold the property to an undisclosed buyer for $244,000.
The site sat abandoned for the next four years. Many remember playing at the place as youngsters. In 1954, the California National Guard expressed interest in building an armory there. The September 15, 1956, edition of the Times-Star told its readers that John Ragghianti had purchased the property for $500,000 and planned to build a shopping center. Construction would begin “shortly” on a 100,000-square-foot indoor mall at the site, Ragghianti told the Times-Star. He stated that his creation would meet a real demand. Utah Construction, whose plans for South Shore Center were on the drawing boards, and merchants on Webster Street expressed strong disagreement. Ragghianti shelved his plans. Once again, the property lay fallow, a tempting playground for Alameda’s youngsters, especially the tunnels they discovered.
In March 1962, the City’s Planning Board gave developers Hanson & Filinick tentative approval plans to build a $2.5 million apartment building on the site.
The wrecking balls arrived in 1963. “Landmark to Disappear,” the Times-Star told its readers on June 22 of that year. A page-one photograph showed a man already at work in the midst of the old pottery factory’s ruins. The newspaper stated that Hanson & Filinick were moving forward with the apartment project.
Like the Ragghianti’s shopping mall before it, Hanson & Filinick’s plans never came to fruition. In February 1964, Alameda voters approved a $4 million school bond. The school district decided to use part of that money to purchase the N. Clark & Sons’ site. The district broke ground for the “William Worthington Chipman School” at 401 Pacific Avenue. On November 16, 1965. School board president C. Dean Ramsden turned the first shovelful of earth, the Times-Star reported on its front page the next day. Chipman Middle School occupied the site until it closed July 1, 2010. The charter school Academy of Alameda now calls 401 Pacific Avenue home.
N. Clark & Sons are gone but some fine examples of architectural terra cotta and brickwork exist today. The Alameda Museum has a wonderful display about the factory that includes some of the plant’s handiwork. I am not aware of any other examples in Alameda. If anyone knows, please contact me at [email protected].
Examples in San Francisco include the Old First Presbyterian Church on Sacramento Street, the First Church of Christ, Scientist on Franklin Street at California Street, St. Ignatius Church on Parker Avenue, and the Foxcroft Building at Post and Kearny streets.
Four buildings in Oakland that still exist show the company’s workmanship. Three stand on Broadway—the Realty Syndicate Building at 14th Street, the Federal Realty Building at 15th Street, and the H. C. Capwell building at 20th Street. You can still admire N. Clark & Sons’ terra cotta work at the Oakland Auditorium on 12th Street.
Hats off to Robby Virus and Dan Moser for their research. Thanks to the Alameda Museum for the photograph of the Alameda factory and of the 1927 fire, and to LoopNet for the photograph of the building on Natoma Street, with its ghost sign.
Dennis Evanosky is the award-winning Historian of the Alameda Post. Reach him at [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Dennis-Evanosky.
