Jul 252011
15 Waverly Place
Chinatown – San Francisco
Chinatown – San Francisco
The Marble plaque on this wall reads:
Chinese Baptist Church
Property of the
American Baptist Home
Mission Society of NY
Built 1888 Destroyed 1906
Rebuilt 1908
When Chinese students were not permitted to attend the city’s public schools, the Church offered day school for children, and night school for adults. Today it offers English language classes and an outreach program to immigrants.
After the 1906 earthquake, many buildings in San Francisco were built of brick, mainly because people feared fire more than shaking. This of course was foolhardy as brick does not stand up to earthquakes and to continue to work as public buildings these all have been retrofitted. What I love about this building is the “clinker brick”.
Wikipedia describes these thusly: Clinkers are burnt under temperatures so high that the pores of the fuel property are closed by the beginning sinter process. Thus they are considerably denser and therefore heavier than regular bricks. Clinkers hardly take up water and are very resistant. In early brick firing kilns, the surface of the bricks that were too close to the fire changed into the volcanic textures and darker/purplish colors. They were often discarded, but around 1900, these bricks were discovered by architects to be usable, distinctive and charming in architectural detailing, adding the earthy quality favored by Arts & Crafts style designers.
There is also a wonderful stain glass piece in this church that I had to photograph from the outside, as I was unable to get into the church.
That building looks very solid! I didn’t know about clinker bricks — we actually have some on our home. I’m learning something everyday here.
What a magnificent building! I did not know about the bricks either!
Thank you so much for sharing this today at The Creative Exchange.
Have a wonderful day!
lisa.
So interesting and also beautiful! Thanks so much for sharing!
What an interesting story about the building and the bricks. And this window is absolutely gorgeous. I would love to see from the inside with the light coming in. Bet it is magnificent. Wonderful post this week. Genie
Finally a quiet, rainy day here in RI giving me a chance to catch up and it has been fun reading about Chinatown…The murals, and the buildings are beautiful….but it’s the food that would make me smile the most:)
I love that you framed the window with the trees. I noticed them from the first photo and immediately was charmed by them. they must be a west-coast tree, I’ve never seen them here in the Midwest. they have wonderful character. here we have cream city brick, which yes, is cream-colored. thanks for sharing the info about the clinker bricks. when I was a child we heated our house with coal, and I always got the job of cleaning out the “clinkers” and dumping the pail out in the lane for traction on the snow and ice. guess this dates me, huh? the clinker bricks reminded me of that. well, your photographs entice and inspire one to look and then discuss, and I love it! thank you for visiting my blog, I truly appreciate that. have a fun week.
It would have been lovely to have seen the window from inside too, it looks amazing.
Just love the look of this building! Clinker bricks, tell me about it. I once lived in a house built of the things, so damned hard, when you wanted to drill a hole and hang a picture…Always burnt the drill bit out 🙂
Great shots! Thank you!!
I LOVE photos of architecture such as this! Wish I lived closer to a city….any city, actually. 😉