Remembering Westmoreland County's glassmaking history
May 2—Glass pieces varying in color and style were spread out across a table at the Greensburg Country Club on Sunday afternoon, offering a quick peak into the history of Grapeville's former Westmoreland Glass factory, which shuttered in 1984 after almost 100 years in business.
The pieces were on display as part of the Westmoreland Historical Society's Remember When event that attracted more than 60 people to the Pleasant Valley Road country club.
"I think it's great for the county," Alan Wells, vice president of the National Westmoreland Glass Collectors Club, said of the event where he presented his glass collection. "A lot of people don't remember that stuff now because it's been how many years since they've been out of business."
Westmoreland Glass grew out of Specialty Glass Co. of East Liverpool, Ohio, opening in Pennsylvania in 1889 by making goblets, pitchers, novelty items and more.
A few years after it opened, the company was purchased by the brothers George and Charles West with financial support from Ira A. Brainard, according to the National Westmoreland Glass Collectors Club website. Despite seemingly running smoothly, the company once again changed hands in 1920 after the brothers began having disagreements.
At the time, George West sold his interest to Charles West and Brainard. Years later, when the Great Depression hit, Charles West sold his interest to the Brainard family, who appointed James J. Brainard as president, according to the site. By 1981, the company left the hands of the Brainard family and was sold to David Grossman.
During his presentation, Wells took attendees through a history of glass pieces made at the factory, starting with mustard jars produced in the 1900s. As time went on, pieces changed to carnival glass, or pieces of glass people would get at a carnival, and to milk glass, which largely was produced in the 1950s.
How the pieces were decorated also varied over time. In the early years, glass pieces were hand-painted by 25 decorators employed at the factory, Wells said.
"These decorators they had back then were amazing," Wells said.
As demand and costs began to change, however, hand-painting was phased out and replaced with decals, which were simply placed on the glass, saving time and money.
Westmoreland Glass — often identified by a stamped WG on the bottom of a piece — still is collected today, largely through auctions.
Westmoreland County glass
Other glass producers also are part of the county's glass production history.
As Eugenia Kubinec browsed pieces of Westmoreland Glass ahead of the presentation, she recalled the summer she spent working at the Jeannette Glass plant.
"It was an experience," said Kubinec, 93, who packed glass at the factory while she was in high school. Kubinec graduated in 1945.
Once dubbed the Glass City, Jeannette grew from farmlands into a bustling city of workers after Jeannette Bottle Works opened in 1887, becoming the Jeannette Glass Co. a year later. At its peak, the city was home to seven glass factories, with the company dabbling in sheet glass, and in the 1950s brought in Cameo Glassware to produce milk glass.
Despite the success of Jeannette Glass Co., renamed Jeannette Corp. in 1970, production ended in 1983.
Mt. Pleasant also was a popular site for glass manufacturers, once being home to to the L.E. Smith Glass Co.
The company was founded in 1907 by Lewis E. Smith and got its start at the Jeannette glass plant. In 1909, Smith acquired the closed Anchor Glass Co. plant in Mt. Pleasant and a year later reopened the facility. The company remained privately owned in 1975, when it was acquired by Toledo, Ohio-based glass container maker Owens-Illinois Inc.
It was sold again in 1986 to a group of local investors but changed hands five years later to Uniontown businessman Michael Carlow. Throughout the 1990s, the company struggled but was purchased out of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in 1995 by a Belle Vernon money manager.
After that, glass from the facility was promoted by high-profile individuals and companies such as Martha Stewart, Neiman-Marcus, Williams Sonoma, Spiegel and Bloomingdale's.
Given the rich history of glass in Westmoreland County, Wells knows the importance of keeping it alive. The problem, he said, is attracting young collectors.
"To strike the interest of the young people, if it's something pretty, they'll buy it," he said. "But if it's something that's not so pretty, they won't buy it."
Megan Tomasic is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Megan at 724-850-1203, mtomasic@triblive.com or via Twitter .
