Road Tripping with Cindy Hackett Green

Fun with Fiestaware

There’s a nip in the fall breeze; it won’t be long before the trees begin to turn their dramatic autumn colors. If a drive through the mountains seems like the perfect getaway right about now, then the Homer Laughlin factory in Newell, WV provides an equally colorful destination.

Homer Laughlin Pottery has its roots in the 1870s in the small town of East Liverpool, Ohio. The company saw rapid early success, and quickly ran out of room for expansion. By the turn of the century, Homer Laughlin moved across the Ohio River to Newell, WV, and built what was then the world’s largest pottery plant. In 1905, to accommodate its workers, Homer Laughlin built a suspension bridge across the Ohio River and added a trolley line across the bridge.

Homer Laughlin became known for producing quality hotel and restaurant ware, as well as china patterns popular in the 1930s and 1940s, including Virginia Rose and Blue Willow. But it was its colorful Fiesta line, introduced in 1936, that struck a chord with the American consumer.

Initially six colors were produced: red, yellow, cobalt blue, green, ivory and turquoise. The bright colors, durable construction, and affordable price appealed to Depression era consumers, and the Fiesta line grew, remaining popular through the 1960s. In keeping with changing styles, the color palette shifted between bright and pastel, and later included earth tones. However, as fashions continued to change, the line was discontinued in 1972.

Homer Laughlin revived Fiestaware in 1986, to the immediate delight of a new generation of consumers. Modern Fiestaware, now made without the lead used in the original glaze, has reached new popularity, and it’s still produced solely in that turn-of-the-century factory in Newell, WV. Homer Laughlin takes pride in its status as the largest manufacturer of tableware still produced in the US.

A tour through the factory in Newell is a step back in time. This is no romanticized version of factory work. Visitors must wear closed toed shoes, don protective goggles, be able to walk upstairs unassisted, and traverse over a mile to see the whole operation.

Pushing aside the protective plastic flaps at the upstairs factory entrance, the first sense of the experience is a fine, dry, clay dust cloud that hits the nose and assails the throat. The room is loud; the immense factory floor drones with a mechanical hum and buzzes with a beehive of workers. Visitors are reminded to step aside to let the forklifts pass.

The tour starts with an inspection of the mounds of clay, hauled in from Kentucky. From this earthen element, plates and platters are pressed by both hand operated and automated machines, while items such as cups and gravy boats are slip cast in earthenware molds. Most of the molds and machinery used today are the very same devices that have been in use since the Great Depression. As the fragile clay forms emerge with their familiar Art Deco designs, the workers begin their hand touches.

The tour guide introduces a worker who is using a hand tool to flatten the seams from the sides of the soft cast pieces that have been shaped into gravy boats. She’ll use her thumbs to smooth out her work. She’s a craftsman who has been doing this same task in the Fiesta factory for 44 years. Every single gravy boat feels her touch before it goes out into the world.

The “handlers” are aptly named. It’s almost shocking, in our technological age, to learn that each and every Fiestaware handle is individually applied to its cup or mug by a person. As the cups slide through on the conveyor belt, the handlers moisten the ends of each handle, attach it, and smooth the joints with their thumbs.

The tableware is glazed by machines, but embellishments like painted edges or holiday decals are all added by hand before firing. Visitors meet Kevin, a longtime hand liner. For over 40 years, he’s been reaching for a plate, twirling it on a spinner with his left hand and using a brush or a sponge in his right hand to apply decorative painted edges. His siblings worked there too, and their parents before them. Many workers here share a similar family legacy.

There’s a sense that this place, with its workers gently laboring the same way their parents did a century ago, is nothing less than living history. There’s no doubt that modern, sanitary, automated, industrial factories can be fascinating and impressive. But here in Newell, on the banks of the Ohio River, the ivy covered brick building with the dusty, broken windows near the roof is not fancy or spectacular. There’s no air conditioning in the Fiesta factory, but the workers don’t seem to mind. Visitor tours are cancelled when the summer days grow too hot, but the workers still arrive to punch the time clocks and press their thumbs into the seams of still-damp gravy boats.

The Ohio Valley area suffers deeply in the vacuum left by the decline of coal mining and steel manufacturing jobs. These vividly colored Fiesta dishes seem to offer a bright spot for about a thousand employees making a living in an otherwise dreary economy. Fiestaware workers take pride in their skills, are happy to demonstrate their work, and sometimes even allow a visitor to attach a handle, or take home an unfinished piece. Indeed, there’s something else hovering in that clay dust; it’s the unmistakable essence that one is witnessing true American craftsmanship, right here on the production line.

Last stop on the tour is the Homer Laughlin museum on the ground floor, which houses shelves of delicate china patterns, as well as the sturdier Fiestaware. Some of the vintage tableware evokes memories of Sunday dinners at grandma’s, or holiday feasts at a fancy downtown hotel.

The retail room has all the Fiestaware a connoisseur can imagine, but the real treat is the Seconds room. Carts piled high with Fiestaware containing slight imperfections are wheeled into the room and sold for just a few dollars each. Several times a year there’s a tent sale or a dollar sale, when the prices plummet even further. After a visit to the factory, those small imperfections on the seconds ware take on a whole new meaning. An accidental thumbprint on a saucer somehow seems to make it even more cherished than the “perfect” ware offered on the retail side.

If you’re hungry for lunch, Fiesta factory staff recommend Connie’s Corner, a friendly family restaurant a couple of miles down the river, in Chester, WV. Connie’s serves all its home cooked meals on Fiestaware. Chester is also the home of the world’s largest teapot, which holds court at an exit ramp off US 30, and has been a roadside attraction since the 1930s. The teapot is a fun photo op, even if it isn’t made of Fiestaware.

The factory tour must be arranged in advance, and the drive to Newell takes a little over four hours from Frederick via Rt. 68. Plan to take your time and see the sights, as the last hour or so of the trip has winding roads, and this part of the country definitely moves at a slower pace.

One final note: If you use a GPS to find your way to Newell, a funny thing happens on the way to the factory. Remember that bridge to Newell over the Ohio River? You will cross it, even when you arrive from the West Virginia side. The Homer Laughlin Company built this suspension bridge in 1905, and they still own it; it’s one of the last privately owned toll bridges in the U.S. Although pedestrians can cross for only a nickel, it will cost you 75 cents one way to cross in a car.

A round trip ticket is the best deal at a dollar, especially since the cheerful toll takers will tell you the ticket never expires. But you won’t have to wait long to use the return ticket, because after you cross, your GPS will direct you to make a U-turn in East Liverpool, and go right back over the bridge. After all, the factory has been located in West Virginia--not Ohio--for 109 years.

Apparently the little side trip over the bridge is just a scenic Ohio Valley diversion, an added experience embedded by Homer Laughlin and GPS. Go ahead and take the trip over the bridge and enjoy this one more bit of local color, it’s well worth the dollar.

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