12-01-2009, 01:45 PM
MountainMan Wrote:Bricks range in natural color from yellow to red to brown, depending on local supplies of raw materials.
Around 1895 - 1900 at the latest, all of the old wooden Western towns finally burned down for the last time and were rebuilt in brick to cut down the fire hazard.
When Cripple Creek burnt down for the last time, numerous factories were built right on the spot, clay was dug up locally and bricks were turned out like crazy to meet the enormous demand. The Cripple Creek bricks fired to a natural red, the common color for the local material, but other colors are notable around the state.
The truth is, you can have whatever color bricks you want to have.
In most western towns buildings were put up as fast as possible, with no regard to a fancy front. You would find the fancy stone work on the front of buildings in San Francisco, probably Denver, and Seattle in the 1800's. Los Angeles was pretty much a village until oil was discovered in the early 1900's at the same time the movie industry moved out here to get away from Thomas Edison and his patent on movies. I'm not sure when businesses would have started to paint brick. Unreinforced masonry was a common construction method until the Long Beach earthquake in 1933 caused brick and stone work to fall onto the sidewalk.