I am trying to find a reference that can provide information on the compressive strength of existing terra cotta masonry from 1936. Any feedback would be appreciated.
I think one will find very variegated results for that question, it will depend a lot on what brick and what mortar. I saw of tests of a 1715 about 90 m tall tower for a church with gypsum mortar that had short stub strength of 35 kgf/cm2. Normally masonry built in 1936 in some industrialized context should have far bigger strengths, twice or thrice that, even accounting (ordinary) degradation of strength with age.
Another concern is the quality of the construction. We are finishing up a reno project that had terra cotta that was concealed with parging and not that we have some of the finish off I am convinced some of the blocks were thrown into place.
You need a "Brick and Tile Engineering Handbook of Design" book, by Harry C Plummer, published by structural clay products institute. My copy is from 1950 but I beleive there are earlier versions.
It has load some load tables and structural data.