Did someone say bricks?
Clinker bricks are caused when bricks, not sufficiently air-dried, are fired. The ones closest to the heat source deform and change color. They are also very dense and hard. Clinker bricks make a clinking sound when struck together. They were the bane of brickmakers, who prized uniformity. Clinkers were scrap and a pain to get rid of.
However, clinkers perfectly fitted the Arts and Crafts desire for something "handmade" and authentic looking. Greene and Greene used them for walls and chimneys, supports and gateposts. Here is the 1908 Gamble House's garden wall where clinkers were combined with stone:
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The year before the Gamble House went up, this pretty chalet was built at 1314 S Bonnie Brae. Clinkers line the lower facade. The 108-year-old clinker chimney, amazingly enough, remains in place with an unobtrusive assist from a brace. Note the swagged shingles on the upper floor:
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Greene and Greene's 1909 Earle Anthony house has a chimney and garden wall built of clinkers combined with ordinary bricks. Both wall and chimney may date from the 1923 move from Berendo near Wilshire to 910 N Bedford in Beverly Hills:
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Paul Williams used clinkers with great subtlety and restraint in his Tudor-style homes, giving a tweed effect without calling attention to the bricks themselves, as here in this 1922 effort:
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Originally Posted by Godzilla
120 N. Norton Ave. Undated
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Clinkers are more pronounced in Edward and Ellis Taylor's 1929 Tudor-style Wolfer Printing Company Building at Winston and Wall Streets:
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Even Irving Gill tried his hand at building with clinkers. This is his First Church of Christ Scientist (1904) in San Diego. His Berta B Mitchell house (1904) made extensive use of clinkers too. (Gill did use clinkers again on his 1908 Sherwood Weaton House, also in San Diego, but kept it to the chimney and foundations):
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I'm not sure what effect the architect was aiming for with the 1926 neo-Georgian Wilcox Apartments, 6501 Yucca at Wilcox in Hollywood. It looks capable of providing roosts for a whole flock of birds:
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Clinkers are still being used, although many examples veer off into the grotesque.
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