Did you know? — The leaning chimney of Rose Canyon

The leaning chimney of Rose Canyon

The first commercial brick-making company in Southern California was established right here in San Diego. It's interesting that brick structures now are far and few between. The company, Union Brick Company, was located in Rose Canyon, which we now know is one of the more active earthquake faults in San Diego County.

In 1888, the Rose Cañon Brick Company started building a brick chimney for its kiln. The tower comprised over 80,000 bricks and reached 115 feet tall when it was completed. However, during construction, when the chimney was about 100 feet tall, the land settled and the tower started leaning, reaching eight feet off of vertical.

Courtesy of San Diego Archaeological Center

The chimney was never used in manufacturing bricks, which reached fifteen million bricks a year.

In 1913, when John Rice bought the Rose Cañon Brick Company and merged it with his Union Brick Company, he decided on a motto for the new company: We lean toward good bricks.

During World War II, the kiln was demolished and used to pave roads at Camp Callan, which is now under the Torrey Pines Golf Course, home of the 2008 U.S. Open Golf Championship, and the University of California at San Diego.

From 1888 until January 20, 1962, when a winter rain/wind storm toppled the chimney, San Diego had its own "Leaning Tower of Pisa." Over 25,000 of the bricks were salvaged and used to build fireplaces in the new, upscale housing development called Rancho Bernardo.

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