wv glass town huntington

West Virginia Glass Town

Huntington, WV

In the hills of West Virginia, near the Ohio River there is a town named …Huntington

• Town was founded in 1870 and named for its founder Collis P. Huntington

• It was founded as a part of the western terminus for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway on land west of the mouth of the Guyandotte River at the Ohio River

• The town was created as railroad town with shops extending from Newport News, VA to Cincinnati, OH, and even as far west as Chicago

• Huntington is known to be at the western end of the Teays Valley Glass Belt ( Charleston-Huntington)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntington,_West_Virginia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_and_Ohio_Railway

Transportation ResourcesHuntington had access to these resources and therefore it was an important

part of glass history

Chesapeake And Ohio Railways Riverboats

Natural ResourcesMaterials or substances that can be found in nature and can be used for economic gain

Materials needed to make glass:

•Silica (sand)•Sodium Carbonate( soda ash)•Lime

Each of the items needed for glass making are easily

accessible to the Huntington area

34 Glass Factories in Huntington• Union Glass -1891-1904; window glass• Huntington Glass Company 1892-1895;

pressed pattern glass, tableware• Central City Window Glass circa 1893;

window glass• WV Flint Bottle Co.-circa 1893; bottles ,

hollowware• WV Window Glass circa 1900; window

glass• Holton Window Glass Co. circa 1902-

1903; window glass• Huntington Tumbler Co. 1904-1932;

tumblers, barware, stemware, cut glass

• Huntington Window Glass CO. 1905; window glass

• Camp Glass Co. 1913-1920; window glass

• Chas. Bolt Glass Co. 1914-1919; bottles, hollowware

• Glass Brick Co. circa 1915-1920; glass bricks

• Schram Fruit Jar Co. 1919-1925; fruit jars

• Owens Bottle Co. Plant No. 2 1919-1929; bottles• American Thermos Bottle Co. 1921-

1940; liners for thermos bottles• Boschoff Sons & Co. 1921-1935;

lamp chimneys, bar ware, stemware

**Info obtained from Dean Six Research**

Huntington Glass Factories Continued• WV Glass Manufacturing 1922-

1924; hollowware, fruit jars• The National Window Glass Co.

circa 1924-1927; window glass• Ball Brothers Co. 1925 circa 1948;

fruit jars, tumblers• Bonita Art Glass Co. 1926 circa

1929; stemware, tableware, art glass, novelties

• Sinclair Glass Co. 1929-1965; novelities

• Owens- Illinois Glass Co. 1929-1965; hollowware, bottles

• Bonita Glass Co. 1931- circa 1953; art glass, novelities

• Shelby Earl Glass Co. 1931- 1974; communion glasses

• Alexander H. Kerr & Co. circa 1932-1965; fruit jars

• The Bruce and Emch Glass Co. circa 1940’s ; art glass, giftware

• Moncer Glass Co. circa 1940’s; art glass, giftware

• Spring Valley Glass Co. 1942-1947; art glass, tableware, vases, novelties

• Tri-State Glass Manufacturing Co. pre-1948; novelties, giftware


Huntington Glass Factories Continued• Gill Glass Co. circa 1949- 1957;

electric shades and globes, novelties

• Polan Industries 1953- 1979; stove top cookware

• Rainbow Arts Co. 1954-1973; novelties, giftware

• Owens –Illinois, Inc. 1965-1993 bottles• Kerr Glass Manufacturing Corp.

circa 1973-1983; hollowware, fruit jars

• Viking Glass Co. 1974-1979; novelties, giftware


Huntington HighlightsThe town suffered a natural disaster, on Jan. 27, 1937. The town was flooded by the Ohio River. A couple glass factories were also effected by the flood. Those included Owens- Illinois Glass Co. and Ball Glass Co.

Several glass factories participated in Labor Day Parades in town. They dressed in uniforms of all white or other . The carried pennants, banners, and carried elaborate glass decorated parade canes.

Rainbow Art Glass Company1954-1983

The Rainbow Art Glass Co. was established in Huntington, West Virginia in 1954. In 1973 they were purchased as a subsidiary by Viking Glass. The factory burned in 1983 and Rainbow Art Glass ceased operations forever.Rainbow's glass forms were often hand blown and came in a range of vibrant colors and wild designs popular at the time. Collectors search for Rainbow decanters, figurines and crackle glass. Rainbow glass can sometimes be identified by the distinct styles of their stoppers, flat collar bottlenecks, and lined impressions on the pontil mark.

Copyright 2012by Retro Art Glass®

http://www.retroartglass.comRetro Art Glass is a Registered Trademark. All rights reserved.

Double ball stopper cruets by Rainbow Art Glass circa 1955





Huntington Highlights

Huntington Highlights

Owens- Illinois Glass Co. operated 3 glass factories in WV. All 3 were based on the revolutionary Owns Bottle Machine. Michael Owens, a WV native, invented the machine with financial backing from glass manufacturer Edward Libby. As the company grew it changed to Owens Bottle Co. in 1919 and then in 1929 merged with Illinois Glass Co. In 1947 the factory employed 1,100 people. The plant later became the companies bottle division for glass containers. By the year 1971 they had produced glass containers and then began to decline during the 1980’s. Later the factory closed in 1993 and laid off the final 650 workers. Today the land is an important recreational area close to Ritter Park and is a part of League 3 Little League Baseball Complex.

http://www.huntingtonquarterly.com/articles/issue65/field_dreams.php

Parting Thought

It isn’t about whether the glass is “ half full” or “half empty”, it is about if there is any glass at all!

wv glass town huntington

Documents