Brick manufacturing throughout the 19th and 20th centuries has significantly influenced residential building structures typologies. An overview of manufacturing techniques, the emergence of brick formats and their application is essential to identify an adequate structural assessment. This research provides a detailed account of the historical sources and experimental methodology applied to historic residential buildings in Barcelona. The historical documentation includes the analysis of residential complex licenses from key periods, brickworks licenses, as well as photographs. The examination of these documents allows the identification of brick models and their evolution as they are used in residential construction. In addition, records of the characterization tests of fired clay bricks carried out by the Laboratori General d’Assaigs i Investigacions between 1916 and 1964 have been compiled for a more complete characterisation. The research is completed by collecting data from surveys carried out in several residential complexes, on-site visits to the typologies selected for brick sampling and the collection of units where possible. The data facilitated the preliminary identification of several brick models and their periods of appearance in residential architecture. The cross-referencing of these data allowed the creation of a chronology aimed at monitoring the use of different brick models. The findings revealed the diversity of brick models used in the most common masonry structures in Barcelona and established a chronology of their use. It is noteworthy that the results indicate the widespread adoption of hollow brick masonry structures (totxana) in the early 1960s, which requires further studies to assess their different load-bearing capacities.