For its September program meeting the Bridgeville Area Historical Society welcomed Mr. Terry Necciai, a licensed architect who specializes in historic preservation. His subject was “Through a Special Lens: Some Notes on the Geography of the Glass Industry in Our Region”.
Because of my self-imposed quarantine, I was unable to attend this presentation in person; however it was filmed by Tim McNellie and is available on the website “Bridgeville.Org”. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it in the confines of my home.
The speaker initiated his talk by complimenting the Society on their website, where he learned, much to his surprise, that Bridgeville had played a significant part in the evolution of the industry locally. Unfortunately he briefly discussed Bryce, Higbee and Company and appeared to be ignorant of its local descendant, the J. B. Higbee Glass Company. I wish I could have discussed this with him in person.
The first half of his presentation was an excellent overview of the evolution of the glass industry in Western Pennsylvania, from a much broader perspective than the Pittsburgh one to which we are accustomed. We are quite aware that the first local glassworks was established on the South Side, opposite the Point, by James O’Hara and (Collier Township resident) Isaac Craig in 1797, to produce window glass, bottles, flasks, and jars.
We also know that Albert Gallatin opened a glassworks almost simultaneously in New Geneva, on the Monongahela River near the West Virginia border. We are aware of Benjamin Bakewell’s arrival in 1808 and the establishment of Bakewell and Company, which eventually became the most prestigious glass company in the country.
Mr. Necciai’s perspective was indeed much broader. He began with a map showing the location of the earliest glass works, all along the Monongahela River – from Birmingham (now Pittsburgh’s South Side) through the mid-Mon Valley all the way to New Geneva. According to him, these locations were appropriate because of the cheap transportation available to the rapidly expanding Mid-West via the Ohio River and then onto the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi.
Next came the familiar concentration of glass factories in Birmingham, driven by the availability of coal there, primarily because the Pittsburgh Coal Seam intersected the face of Coal Hill (Mt. Washington) a few feet above river level. According to him this concentration eventually involved over one hundred different plants.
When natural gas replaced coal as a primary source, it became practical to locate glass works in a variety of locations. New facilities were established in Washington, Wheeling, Morgantown, New Martinsville, Rochester, Butler, Jeannette, and numerous others. The speaker pointed out a dot of his map of glassworks for Bridgeville. Eventually the “Glass Belt” extended west through Ohio into Indiana.
At this point Mr. Necciai changed his focus and reviewed the technological advances that changed glassmaking nearly every generation. The technique of glass blowing was perfected nineteen centuries ago and was used for centuries to produce hollow ware. During the early (in this area) days of glassmaking it was customary to pour molten glass into a mold. The finished product could then be cut to produce very attractive crystal, an expensive process that required skilled craftsmen.
The speaker also mentioned several glassmaking methods used to produce window glass. Crown glass was produced by blowing a disc of molten glass, transferring it a flat surface and then rotating it to form a circular piece of transparent glass. Alternatively the glass blower could blow a hollow cylinder, which would then be slit longitudinally, and flattened. Neither method could compete with the plate glass technology in Europe, primarily in Belgium.
Modifying the process to force glass into an engraved mold under pressure made it possible to produce large quantities of the same pattern from a single mold, minimizing the necessity for craftsmen. It also made it possible to produce attractive pieces of tableware at a price the general public could afford. The pieces produced by J. B. Higbee are perfect examples of this technology.
At this point Mr. Necciai’s presentation became specific to his favorite glassmaking location – Charleroi. Following John Ford’s successful entry into the field with his plant in Creighton, other entrepreneurs attempt to emulate him in communities with ready access to natural gas. M. J. Alexander built a successful operation in Jeannette, then turned his attention to the Mid-Mon Valley.
In 1890 he built a glass plant in what is now Charleroi, simultaneously with laying out a brand new community and selling building lots. The city was named for the most prominent glass producing city in Belgium and did eventually attract many Belgian immigrants experienced in glassmaking technology.
Known as the Charleroi Plate Glass Company, the facility competed successfully with Ford’s Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company (PPG) until the 1930s when PPG acquired it and ultimately shut it down.
The Macbeth-Evans Glass plant was a different matter. Beginning operation in Charleroi as the George A. Macbeth Company in1893, it has managed to survive and prosper ever since. In 1937 Macbeth-Evans was absorbed by Corning Glass and began to produce Pyrex kitchen ware. Corning eventually sold its consumer product business to a subsidiary company of Borden, named “Kitchen Ware”. The current organization has been renamed “Corelle”. The Charleroi plant presently employs 350 people and is a major employer in the region.
Mr. Necciai showed the audience examples of the products manufactured in these two Charleroi plants since 1890. Included were oil lamp chimneys, pressed salt shakers, Cararra tiles (lining the Holland Tunnel), Pyrex and Corelle kitchenware, and Depression Glass.
The fact that glass is still being produced in Charleroi fourteen decades after its beginnings is indeed impressive; Bridgeville is still lamenting the recent closing of the G. E. “Glass House” at the ripe old age of 110.
Fortunately Bridgeville, as a community, has aged more gracefully than Charleroi and its Mid-Mon Valley neighbors – Brownsville, Donora, Monessen, and Monongahela City. Their combined population in 1950 has shrunk from 56,000 to 23,000, while Bridgeville’s has stayed essentially constant. Per capita income in the five communities is about eighty percent of that in Bridgeville.
We are grateful to Mr. Necciai for his presentation, to Rosemary Kasper for her skill as Society Program Director, and especially to Tim McNellie and “Bridgeville.Org” for filming the presentation and preserving it.