In an effort to maintain the rich history of our local Adobe homes, and provide an introduction to the potential local Adobe home buyer; a variety of publications and links have been provided below. We have acquired a ton of information; so pour yourself a cup of coffee and prepare to go down the adobe rabbit hole (it’s nice down here). There are eight sub-pages under community resources, and five under architecture. Also read our common questions page.
As you scroll down this page, you will find information on the California Adobe Brickyards, some history of Adobe building in San Diego county, and reference information from Arizona and New Mexico, where Adobe building still takes place today. For a deeper dive into understanding historical and modern California Adobe construction; download the two Thesis’ mentioned at the bottom of this page (by Cullimore and Calarco). They are perhaps best knowledge resources on this website.
Our primary focus is on California Adobe Homes built in San Diego North County. It is believed in the peak of local Adobe building; about 800 homes were built between the late 1940’s and the early 1980’s, radiating out from the Escondido area, including but not limited to Fallbrook, Bonsall, Valley Center, Pauma Valley, Rancho Santa Fe, Poway, and Ramona.
A partial project list of Weir Brothers’ built homes is provided here:
http://www.weirbrosadobe.com/project-list/
Adobe bricks were commercially manufactured near present day Kit Carson Park in South Escondido, by the L R Green Adobe Block Factory. It’s important to note that the L R Green bricks were asphalt emulsion stabilized, making them somewhat waterproof. The heritage of the asphalt stabilized brick in California originated from the Hans Sumpf brickyard in Madera, California.
Another, more recent article on the Hans Sumpf brickyard is here:
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/ask-me/article155197714.html
Below is a picture of a worker “brick turning” at the Hans Sumpf brickyard, date unknown.
The last remaining sign of the Hans Sumpf brickyard, taken in 2021. An industrial park now resides within Brickyard Drive, which used to encircle the heart of the brickyard operation’s.
A 2016 “archaeological dig” on the L. R. Green adobe block yard revealed lots of historical information and pictures of old process equipment. If using this article for more than personal information, please note that there are some name misspells and inconsistencies with the stated ownership of the Adobe Block Factory in later years.
Below is a picture of the L. R. Green brickyard, circa 1950s. Note the familiar peak in the background to the left (currently it has a cross on the top of it).
Pictured above: an example of a Modern California Adobe home. Designed and built by Larry Weir in Poway, early 1970’s.
We will refer to the Adobe homes built with asphalt stabilized bricks as Modern California Adobe homes. “Traditional” Adobe bricks often used straw to assist as a binder, and structures may have received a plaster coating or Adobe mud and straw coating for protection from the elements. This can be seen in older historical Adobe structures throughout the Southwest. There’s also Adobe structures partially made of traditional materials and of traditional old California/Spanish design, built (or restored) with modern materials; this may cause some nomenclature confusion.
Pictured above: plaster coatings examples on old traditional unstabilized bricks in Old Town, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Modern stucco plaster on the left, straw Adobe on the right. Be aware there are some concerns with mixing traditional (unstabilized Adobe bricks) and modern (cement based stucco plaster) materials.
Regarding local history; an excellent primer on Escondido area Modern California Adobe structures is provided here:
HistoricPreservationAwardsMay2015
In regards to maintaining a Modern California Adobe home; of significant concern, is the question of where to obtain Stabilized Adobe bricks in the present day.
With the big Adobe brick factories in California permanently closed, the only known, current local brick maker and Modern California Adobe restorer is provided here:
http://jluisgarciamasonry.com/home
http://www.adobebrickconstruction.com/
Here’s some pictures of Luis’ bricks and Masonry work, built in 2018, at a home in South Escondido. All top quality.
Luis was taught by Pat Friend, a local heritage Adobe Restorer. She currently provides Adobe education materials to elementary schools:
http://www.adobebrickkits.com/index.html
An adobe maker (Arizona Adobe) is providing bricks to Clovis Stone in the Fresno area, seen in the picture below: https://www.clovisstone.net
If your ok with building a fake adobe veneer brick façade over a sub-structure using modern materials, Eldorado Stone makes a near perfect adobe match to our old L R Green Escondido bricks that rarely repeat in look. http://www.eldoradostone.com/products/capistranoadobe/
You can also make your own Adobes. It’s a lot of work! One of the best instruction books the webmaster has found on how to do this is called Making the Adobe Brick. It’s shown on our Good Reads website page.
Adobe brickyards in Arizona and New Mexico are abundant, however you must consider shipping costs. If you’re considering shipping bricks from Arizona or New Mexico, contact us first, as we have found that some sources may not be providing quality bricks.
At least two Adobe brick producers in Arizona are using Portland cement as a stabilizing agent as a replacement to asphalt emulsion. Sample bricks were provided to our Adobe Home Tour community for review in 2016. Initial inspection suggests it’s more durable brick. Their information is provided here:
http://tucsonadobe.net/index.html
Pictured above: A sample Tucson Adobe brick on left, and sample Arizona Adobe brick on right. The Tucson Adobe is it’s natural color, the Arizona Adobe has had a brown pigment added. Both are Portland cement stabilized and are on top of an asphalt stabilized brick wall (California/Hans Sumpf brickyard heritage bricks) for appearance comparison.
New Mexico has a number of Adobe brick producers, making both traditional unstabilized and asphalt emulsion stabilized and semi stabilized. The Adobe Factory, in Alcalde, NM and New Mexico Earth, in the North Valley area of Albuquerque, NM are believed to be the largest current producers. During discussion with the owner of The Adobe Factory brickyard in 2016, it was mentioned that he provided and shipped adobe bricks to a California customer in the Pauma Valley area (North San Diego county).
Pictured above: an abundant supply of bricks at a brickyard in New Mexico. This row of bricks on pallets were actually the leftovers from a shipment to a Hollywood film set builder.
Pictured below: an Adobe lover with Mel Medina, owner of The Adobe Factory, with rare Hans Sumpf machines in the background. These machines actually held U.S. Patents at the time. Subsequently, other inventors followed. Check out the Patents’ drawings here: https://patents.google.com/patent/US3142105
A 2024 update after a trip to New Mexico: the Adobe Factory in Alcalde is closed. New Mexico Earth is alive and well, producing adobes the day we passed through. https://www.newmexicoearth.com/default.html
Shown below; a famous La Jolla based developer sourcing Adobe in Northern Mexico, for accent bricks on his Rancho Santa Fe home.
An excellent article on Modern Adobe building in New Mexico (including a listing of brickyards) is provided here:
If you own a “historical adobe”, built with unstabilized bricks, a handbook related to the preservation of traditional historical adobe structures in New Mexico is provided here:
Another similar resource for historical adobe preservation is here:
https://www.nps.gov/tps/how-to-preserve/briefs/5-adobe-buildings.htm
historic adobe restoration training jan 5 2022
Perhaps the most useful information to the potential Modern California Adobe Home buyer or restorer is the publication: A study of Adobe construction in domestic architecture of California, by Clarence Cullimore, November 1940. Regardless of it’s publication date, almost all Adobe construction concerns in California are addressed, including earthquakes, floods, brick quality (including stabilized vs. unstabilized), foundation, roofing, optional exterior plastering, seismic analysis data, and suggested design and construction protocols. A wise potential Modern Adobe home buyer may want to confirm that the home of interest meets, (or comes close to meeting) all the listed design and construction suggestions (starting at the bottom of page 56 in the book). A digital version of this book is available through the Adobe Home Tour group, as it’s too large to be uploaded to our website at 660MB. Shared by the webmaster, a link to it is here, it will take a few minutes to load:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zNg1uhaV0xW84ByE5lv9zqxN51h5pENC/view?usp=sharing
A similar resource is: Modern Adobe: Preservation of pre-and post-World War II residential construction in Southern California, by Dominic Calarco, 2008. A digital version of this book is shared by the webmaster here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W2lO_dXcinSxehlPmAmKLtTqekrKjyyA/view?usp=sharing
If you’re taking the time to download these books, it’s recommended you also download the Bitudobe book, found on the website’s Bitudobe page (a sub-page to this page). and read about the important “do’s and don’ts”, for those considering owning and maintaining an Adobe building, from an associate’s website, here: http://adobeisnotsoftware.com/consumers.html
