Glass Heritage Gallery

Fostoria, Ohio, became a major glassmaking center between 1887 and 1920, with 13 different glass companies operating there and as many as seven or eight plants running at one time during the boom years from 1887 to about 1892. The earliest plants came because large amounts of natural gas had been discovered in the area, and with five major railroads and access to free gas, investors considered the city an ideal place to build glass plants. Investors and workers from West Virginia and Pennsylvania, along with people from other glass areas abroad, settled in Fostoria and produced some of the most beautiful glass made in America. Among the leading firms, the Fostoria Glass Company began there in 1887 and left on December 31, 1891, when signs of a depleting natural gas supply appeared, though it retained the name Fostoria because of the quality and nationwide reputation associated with it. The Nickel Plate Glass Company, named for one of the city's railroads, became especially known for imaginative colored glass, particularly opalescent glass in unusual patterns, and for kerosene lamps with sweeping alternating clear-to-opal designs, but it suffered when the gas supply slowed and business conditions worsened with the Panic of 1893. The Fostoria Shade and Lamp Co., renamed Consolidated Lamp and Glass Company in 1893, made highly colorful glass and every type of lamp imaginable, at one time reportedly producing 60% of the lamps in the United States while in Fostoria, and Consolidated also made tableware of every type, especially skillful cased glass with more than one layer in a single piece. Mosaic Glass Company was noted for glass tiles, many of which still appear in windows, transoms, and doors of old Fostoria homes. The Fostoria Glass Specialty Company operated there from just before the turn of the century until 1914, and during its most colorful years from 1910 to 1914, when General Electric owned the local specialty plants, it produced Tiffany-type glass so well made that some pieces are indistinguishable from contemporaneous Art Nouveau work by Tiffany, Quezal, Steben, and others.

Fostoria, Ohio · United States