The tableware was �sometimes so pretty you didn�t want to use them�many people don�t realize what came out of here,� says AK glass collector Sandy Andrews. It sells on eBay for $40-$50 apiece, roughly. Some of it is even being offered for sale right now on the Web at unlikely-to-sell prices of $2500 to $3600!!

It�s even in the Smithsonian Museum! And in a slightly different form, it helped launch one of the world�s most successful companies, still alive today after 123 years. The glass industries in Creighton, Brackenridge and Tarentum had a significant presence at the turn of the 19th century, with one company still a major player in the field.

These communities had as many as SIX different glass factories at one point during the 1880s and 1890s. They employed hundreds, if not thousands, of employees from the time the first one began in Tarentum in the 1870s until the 60s when glass was last produced (though a glass fabricating plant is still in production in that area�more on that below.)

Pitchers, Tumblers, Bottles, Jars and Glass Plate

At least three different main types of glass were made along the Allegheny River from Brackenridge to Creighton, according to Cathy Wencel, Director of the A-K Valley Heritage Museum (at the corner of Lock Street and East Seventh Avenue in Tarentum.) Commercially-produced tableware, such as pitchers, tumblers, butter dishes and even small glass trays that held Victorian-era calling cards were mass-produced by the Challinor, Taylor & Company, Ltd., and by the Richards & Hartley Flint Glass Mfg. Company (who made vaseline glassware�made with Uranium!! Harmless to the end user, Vaseline glass glows under black light.)

Bottles and jars for medicine, tobacco, milk and perfume were made by C. L. Flaccus and Fidelity Glass (Borden Milk was Fidelity�s largest customer for years.) These four companies were located along the Allegheny River near the Tarentum/Brackenridge border, approximately where Dayspring Christian Center was located, and near a site currently owned by Allegheny Ludlum.

The third type of glass was an entirely different animal. Making sturdy plate glass was not the same as making fragile tableware. No American company had been successful in competing with European manufacturers until these Creighton plate glass makers came along. The first plate glass had been made in 1848 in Lenox, Mass.

But it wasn�t until the late 1800s right here in the Alle-Kiski region that America learned how to compete in this field and make its own glass for storefronts, mirrors and display cases. One of these companies was so successful it literally changed the course of American businesses. No longer did they have to import expensive glass for stores from Europe. Instead they only had to look, in the beginning, to the Alle-Kiski region and then Pittsburgh for plate glass. But we�ll look at who that was in a minute. First let�s see the �Tarentum Pattern.

The Tarentum Pattern

�You�d be amazed at people all over who have Tarentum-pattern glass,� Sandy Andrews says. She has bought it from people on eBay in Oregon and Ontario. Glass-collecting is serious business today. Just google �Tarentum pattern glass� or �Tarentum glass� and see how many results you get. And that�s just one small facet, if you�ll excuse the pun (I can�t help it!) of collecting Early American Pattern Glass: glass tableware, bottles, and jars from the 1800s.

But collecting this style of glass from our region has grown in popularity since a former Apollo-Ridge educator, Robert Lucas, literally wrote the book on it in the late 1970s/early 80s. He studied archives in New York, where local glass factories had their corporate showrooms. Tarentum-Pattern Glass (which is the title of Lucas� book) refers particularly to glass made by Challinor, Taylor & Company, Ltd., which later joined with Richards and Hartley in 1893 to become a part of a U.S. Glass entity put together by Henry Brackenridge (for whom Brackenridge was named.) It was, simply, �Tarentum Glass Company.�

Challinor-Taylor Company "mosaic glass" pitcher made in Tarentum 100 years ago. photo courtesy of Sandy Andrews

Slag-Free

In the late 1800s, David Challinor had a patent on making a certain kind of glass he called �Mosaic Glass�. It fit right in with the kinds of glass hitting their peak of popularity during the Victorian era: tinting glass with rose, amber, ruby or developing new colors. But he wasn�t real happy about the more popular name people used for his mosaic glass: �slag glass�. The glass had a swirl to it, and was usually purple, white and blue. It was called slag glass because people thought it looked as if someone had taken the molten slag from the end of the day leftovers and mixed it with other colors. But that wasn�t true.

Challinor�s patent was very exacting and required certain specifications due to the temperatures involved. �Tarentum-pattern glass was known for its high quality, beauty and attractiveness. It was the highest quality of glass made,� says Andrews, who also is a docent at Heinz Regional History Center who gives instructional tours about area history.

The Tarentum Glass Company kept making its particular glass through 1918, when its factory burned down and was not rebuilt. That was also just after the area�s glassmaking peak began to subside, though the bottling companies here continued until the start of the Great Depression.

Sandy recommends an exhibit on Pittsburgh glass making at the Heinz Center, called �Shattering Notions� (great name for a glass exhibit, huh? Sounds like somethin� I woulda wrote!) It features an actual silent movie made during the era of glass-making�s heyday.

See Here

But you can also get a good look at what came out of the glassworks in our area. A part of Sandy Andrews� own personal glass collection of Tarentum-pattern glass is on display for you to see now through the end of August at the A-K Valley Heritage Museum on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 9am to 3:30pm. (724 224-7666) It�s a rare opportunity to see what was made here and sent all over the country. �As time goes on, there is less and less glassware left that came out of here,� Sandy notes.

In addition to her collection, you can see portions of the museum�s own collection, which President Bill Hall says is rotated regularly. The collection includes, according to Wencel, Depression glass, different samples of glass made locally, and�this ya gotta see�beautiful cobalt-blue carrera glass walls. They were installed into the museum�s building (originally housing the American Legion decades ago) after World War II in honor of WWII vets who were employed by today�s still-surviving plate-glass maker in Creighton.

Captain Ford�s Company

That plate-glass maker is one of two companies began in Creighton in the early days of glass. Allegheny Plate Glass was formed in East Deer in 1881. It was still continuing in the 1920s when it was bought by Henry Ford Motors, who operated it until its closing in 1935. A different Ford owned the other Creighton plate-glass plant as well; Captain John Ford and John Pitcairn started it in 1883.

Ford had given up in two other plate-glass manufacturing attempts in other parts of the country. Attracted in part to Creighton because of its closeness to the river and local resources of ash, sand, coal and limestone, Ford also built there to utilize recently-discovered natural gas wells for powering glass-melting furnaces. Its name: Pittsburgh Plate-Glass (PPG).

Tarentum Glass Company Custard pitcher, made in Tarentum 100 years ago. photo courtesty of Sandy Andrews

By 1886, Ford�s PPG #1 plant was so successful, he�d opened a second factory (PPG #2) with 12 enclosed acres near Bull Creek in Tarentum. Both operations had over 4000 employees by the time PPG #2 exploded in 1908, according to Greetings From the A-K Valley: A Picture Postcard History of the Communities in the Allegheny-Kiskiminetas Valley by Charles Culleiton (for sale at the afore-mentioned A-K Valley Heritage museum.)

Captain Ford expanded his corporation all over, including upriver to the site we now know as �Ford City� today�named for Captain Ford. PPG, as noted earlier in this article, made America�s businesses able to get affordable plate-glass and stop reliance on more expensive European imports.

After becoming the leader in the plate-glass industry, Ford�s company diversified into paints and chemicals. By 1900 PPG included 10 plants, which made 65 percent of all plate glass made in America. It was also the second largest producer of paint at the time. Today its headquarters are in one of the most prominent buildings in downtown Pittsburgh, PPG Place, and give the building its name. And the glass plant in Creighton started over a century ago is still open and fabricating auto glass as a part of the same company, PPG Industries.

Tarentum-area Glass-Making Timeline

• 1848 first plate glass in U.S. made in Lenox, Mass. Not a success

• 1864 Pittsburgh Glass started in Pittsburgh

• 1866 David Challinor buys Pittsburgh Glass

• 1869 Richards & Hartley Flint Glass Mfg. Co founded in Pittsburgh

• 1870-71 John Ford and a Mr. De Pauw built plate glass works in New Albany, Indiana.

• 1875 Ford leaves apparently unsuccessful Indiana works & begins at Louisville. Apparently still unsuccessful.

• 1879 Flaccus glass takes over bankrupt Lippincott glass; Flaccus builds it into first of big manufacturing companies in Tarentum

This Tarentum Glass pitcher was listed on the Internet for $2250 in July 2006. It probably did not go for that; however some pieces do fetch nearly $500

* Flaccus workers on strike form Fidelity Glass sometime between 1879 and 1895

• 1881 Allegheny Plate Glass formed in East Deer/Creighton area, possibly in area known today as Glassmere

• pre-1883 dozen American plate glass manufacturers try to compete with European manufacturers and fail

• 1883 - The Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company is established in Creighton, PA by Captain John Ford and John Pitcairn

• 1884 Richards & Hartley Glass Mfg. Co. move to Tarentum

• 1885 Challinor moves company to Tarentum, takes on Taylor as a silent financial partner. Challinor, Taylor & Co., Ltd. is born

• PPG works #2 built near Bull Creek in Tarentum

• 1889 Ford expands PPG operations to site upriver & Ford City is born

• 1891 nearly 18 U.S. glass factories form glass conglomerate to form United States Glass Company. Challinor, Taylor & Co., Ltd. became Factory C; Richards & Hartley Flint Glass Mfg. Co. became Factory E

• 1892-3 as merger details are worked out, Challinor sells his factory for a buck, probably to U.S. Glass. Apparently during this time Challinor�s plant is burned & not rebuilt

• 1893 Tarentum Glass Co formed

This Tarentum Glass Compote listed for $3600 on the Internet in July 2006, though it likely did not sell for anywhere near that amount

* 1894 Tarentum Glass Co. buys Richards & Hartley plant

• 1895 Fidelity Glass buys old Challinor property

• 1900 PPG has 10 plants making 65 percent of all plate glass made in America and is second largest producer of paint

• 1904 Allegheny Plate Glass has 4 plant buildings on 12 acres

• 1908 PPG works #2 explodes, burns. All left today, according to Culleiton�s book, is a column in Bull Creek.

• 1910 PPG builds its first glass research and development center.

• 1918 Tarentum Glass Co. plant (apparently old Richards & Hartley site) burns, plant closes.

• 1919 Fidelity Glass still listed in as in business

• 1920s Fidelity producing 4 railroad cars of milk bottles a day

• 1920s Allegheny Plate Glass bought by Ford

• 1929 Flaccus goes out of business

• 1930s Fidelity closes doors during the Great Depression in 1930s; operated at times as Atlantic Bottling, Baltimore Glass House

• 1935 Ford sells former Allegheny Plate Glass Company