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Brush Pottery Fire -

Any history buff will tell you, the one word commonly and tragically associated with pottery manufacturing facilities is "FIRE". The building that once housed the J.W. McCoy Pottery, the Brush-McCoy Pottery and finally the Brush Pottery Company was unable to escape this devastating trend.

Firemen were called to the building on Perry Street at 2:00 A.M., Thursday, July 15, 1999. After hours of fighting flames, and an exhausted water supply, firemen continued their efforts by pulling water out of the Roseville Village Pool. By morning,

very little remained. And what did remain was disassembled with back hoes and other machinery for safety measures. A very tragic sight........yet one that we, as pottery collectors, are all too familiar with.

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The Building's History

In 1899, the J.W. McCoy Pottery Company began. Located on Perry Street in Roseville, the company steadily grew. In 1903, a fire destroyed most of the facility. It took over two years to restore the building.

In 1911, J.W. McCoy and George S. Brush joined forces to create the Brush-McCoy Pottery Company. This newly formed company ran two facilities, one of which was housed in the original J.W. McCoy building on Perry Street. This facility produced the utility ware for the company, while their plant in Zanesville mostly manufactured artware.

1918 brought about yet another fire. The Zanesville plant was lost and all manufacturing was moved to the Perry Street facility.

In the 1920's, the plant was expanded to keep up with manufacturing demands. With the McCoy family having sold their interest in the company back in 1918, the company was renamed the Brush Pottery Company in 1925.

After many years in the pottery business, the company was sold in 1978, although operations continued under the Brush Name until 1982.

The building that housed these pottery manufacturing facilities is gone, but the history lives on in each of our collections!

Photos provided by Royal Ritchie. Thanks Royal for giving us one last look at a building that .....in a way....has brought us all together.

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