Larkspur’s Remillard Kiln: The Industrial Craft Beneath a Familiar Landmark

By Matthew Martinez, Founder, CEO & Managing Broker, Diamond Real Estate Group. California DRE #01869679.

Some historic structures explain how a place was built. Larkspur’s surviving Remillard kiln does something more specific: it reveals part of the industry that produced the materials used to build other places.

The Green Brae Brick Kiln belongs to a history of manufacture, labor and shoreline transportation. Its significance reaches beyond an unusual brick structure beside a modern road.

The State landmark records a regional manufacturing connection

The Office of Historic Preservation’s landmark entry locates the kiln at 125 East Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in Larkspur.

The record identifies it as a surviving structure of the Remillard Brick Company and connects the company’s bricks with the rebuilding of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake.

That connection changes the scale of the landmark. A local industrial site participated in construction across the Bay, linking its output with streets and buildings far beyond the brickyard.

It is a reminder that architectural history includes the making and movement of materials, alongside the designers and occupants of finished buildings.

The kiln embodied a different production process

The City’s 2014 cultural-resources study dates the surviving kiln’s operation to 1891–1915 and identifies it as a Hoffman-type kiln.

The study explains the distinction from batch firing: the system allowed continuous firing rather than requiring the entire operation to cool before another load was introduced.

Its description, drawing on the historic nomination, identifies earth-filled double walls, underground flues, arched openings and numerous roof ports. The freestanding chimney has a square base and tapering octagonal sides.

Those features belonged to the work of controlling heat and moving gases through a manufacturing structure. They are engineering details as well as visual ones.

Reading the kiln this way restores purpose to its unusual form. An arch or a thick wall becomes evidence of a process, rather than decoration detached from its original use.

The brickyard was also a place where people lived

The City-held Larkspur Past and Present history preserves recollections of a working community around the brickyard.

Its account describes cabins, a blacksmith’s forge, gardens and fruit, along with bricks shipped to San Francisco on company schooners.

These details place production within ordinary life. Tools had to be made and maintained, workers housed, food grown and finished bricks transported.

The shoreline was part of that practical arrangement. Water offered a route for a heavy product, connecting the manufacturing ground with the city where its output would be used.

Later reuse became another layer of the record

The City’s 2004 environmental study records the kiln’s incorporation into a contemporary office and restaurant development.

Its cultural-resources discussion also addresses alterations to the historic structure. This is a dated account of the site’s evolution, rather than a guarantee about any particular business operating there today.

The record shows that preservation and reuse can leave visible layers. A surviving industrial component may coexist with additions designed for a very different economy.

A local landscape with a productive past

For someone learning Larkspur, the kiln offers a useful counterpart to the city’s residential and woodland settings.

It connects the eastern landscape with skilled labor, manufacturing and transport. Looking beyond the chimney’s silhouette reveals a place where the ground, a production system and a working community were organized around making bricks.

That history adds texture to the present surroundings. The landmark preserves evidence of an earlier reason for people, buildings and routes to come together on this part of the shoreline.

Explore real estate and home for sale in Larkspur, or contact Diamond to discuss a location that fits your plans.

Sources checked October 28, 2026. Historical details are attributed to the linked primary records and site operators. Check the operator for current visiting arrangements.