Santa Fe Depot, 1914-1915, California China Products tile. Photo by Sandé Lollis

CALIFORNIA WAS ONE OF THE LEADING PRODUCERS of decorative art tiles and architectural terra cotta in the United States between 1910 and 1940. More than 40 California companies manufactured art or commercial tiles. After only a few decades, the state’s once flourishing tile industry was brought to an end by the Great Depression, the rise of Modernist design, and the widespread preference for utilitarian, white-bodied wall tiles following World War II.