Concrete block first entered the public market in the 1860s, when a number of proprietary systems for the manufacture of precast concrete blocks were developed on the East Coast (Ann Gillispie, 1979). However, widespread production of the material did not begin until 1900, when Harmon S.

During a major quake, two very bad things can happen to houses that rest on a brick foundation. First, the lateral forces of the quake can cause the house to slide off the foundation. The other is that those same lateral forces can cause the cripple walls to buckle, collapsing the house.