Gladding, McBean

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title: "Gladding, McBean" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["roof-tiles", "american-pottery", "ceramics-manufacturers-of-the-united-states", "manufacturing-companies-based-in-california", "architecture-in-california", "terracotta", "companies-based-in-placer-county,-california", "manufacturing-companies-established-in-1875", "1875-establishments-in-california", "manufacturer-of-architectural-terracotta"] description: "Industrial ceramics company in Lincoln, California" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladding,_McBean" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Industrial ceramics company in Lincoln, California ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

Field	Value
name	Gladding, McBean LLC.
logo	Gladding, McBean logo.png
logo_size	200px
type	Private
predecessor	Gladding, McBean & Company
successor	International Pipe & Ceramics (Interpace)
foundation	1875
founder	Charles Gladding, Peter McGill McBean and George Chambers
location_city	Lincoln, California
location_country	United States
key_people	Pacific Coast Building Products, President & CEO, Dave Lucchetti
industry	Ceramic manufacturing
products	Clay sewer pipe, chimney tops, roof tile, and terracotta garden ware
parent	Pacific Coast Building Products, Inc.
homepage	www.gladdingmcbean.com
::

| name = Gladding, McBean LLC. | logo = Gladding, McBean logo.png | logo_size = 200px | type = Private | genre = | fate = | predecessor = Gladding, McBean & Company | successor = International Pipe & Ceramics (Interpace) | foundation = 1875 | founder = Charles Gladding, Peter McGill McBean and George Chambers | defunct = | location_city = Lincoln, California | location_country = United States | location = | locations = | area_served = | key_people = Pacific Coast Building Products, President & CEO, Dave Lucchetti | industry = Ceramic manufacturing | products = Clay sewer pipe, chimney tops, roof tile, and terracotta garden ware | services = | market cap = | revenue = | operating_income = | net_income = | aum = | assets = | equity = | owner = | num_employees = | parent = Pacific Coast Building Products, Inc. | divisions = | subsid = | homepage = www.gladdingmcbean.com | footnotes = | intl = Gladding, McBean is an American ceramics company located in Lincoln, California. It is one of the oldest companies in California, a pioneer in ceramics technology, and a company which has "contributed immeasurably" to the state's industrialization. During the heyday of architectural terra cotta, the company "dominated the industry in California and the Far West."{{Cite book | last = Kurutz | first = Gary F. | title = Architectural terra cotta of Gladding, McBean | publisher = Windgate Press | year = 1989 | url = https://archive.org/details/architecturalter00kuru | url-access = registration | quote = Gladding McBean. | isbn = 978-0-915269-09-9}}

History

Founding

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Gladding,_McBean_1.jpg" caption="Gladding, McBean factory in [[Lincoln, California]]."] ::

Charles Gladding (1828–1894) was born in Buffalo, New York, served as a first lieutenant in the Union Army during the Civil War,{{Cite book | last = Smedberg | first = William Renwick | title = In memoriam. Charles Gladding: first lieutenant 72d Illinois volunteer infantry | publisher = Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States | year = 1894 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hrGHHAAACAAJ&q=%22Charles+Gladding%22 | last = Page | first = Bob |author2=Frederiksen, Dale | title = Franciscan: an American dinnerware tradition | publisher = Page/Frederiksen Publishing Company | year = 1999 | pages = 7–8 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gfRQqmyaF0YC&dq=%22Charles+Gladding%22+McBean&pg=PA7 | isbn = 978-1-889977-07-2

Growth, acquisitions, and merger

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Gladding,_McBean_panorama.jpg" caption="Gladding McBean's factory in Lincoln, California"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Hoover_Tower_from_Main_Quad.JPG" caption="Gladding, McBean roof tile and architectural terra cotta details decorate most buildings at [[Stanford University]]."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Gladding,_McBean_2.jpg" caption="Clay sewer pipe stored at Gladding, McBean"] ::

In June 1923, the company acquired the controlling stock of Tropico Potteries, Inc. of Los Angeles.{{Cite book | last = Elliot-Bishop | first = James F. | title = Franciscan, Catalina, and Other Gladding, McBean Wares | publisher = Schiffer Publishing | year = 2001

In 1927, the company acquired the holdings of the Denny-Renton Clay and Coal Company which included the terra cotta plant in Renton, Washington, the plant and mines in Taylor and Mica, Washington. The company closed their plant in Van Aselt, Washington in 1927. Tropico Potteries, Inc. filed for dissolution of the corporation in 1928 merging with Gladding, McBean. The former Tropico Potteries's plant at 2901 Los Feliz Boulevard became the company's Glendale plant.

Due to the Great Depression, the Auburn plant closed in 1932. All operations were consolidated with the Renton plant. The Taylor coal and clay mines and the town were condemned by the Seattle Water Department in order to include the area inside an expanded watershed. In 1933, the company bought the "entire holdings on the Pacific Coast of the American Encaustic Tiling Company, Ltd., of New York".{{Cite news | title = ENCAUSTIC TILING IN DEAL.; Sells Pacific Coast Holdings to Gladding McBean & Co. | newspaper = New York Times | location = New York City | date = August 4, 1933 | url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70C15F9345A16738DDDAD0894D0405B838FF1D3 | accessdate = April 8, 2011}}

Since the demand for building materials dwindled, the company began to look for new products. The company expanded into tableware. In 1932, experimental work in Dinnerware began at the Glendale plant in Los Angeles. The lines were very successful. In 1937, Gladding, McBean and Co. purchased the [[David Malcolm Renton#Catalina Pottery, 1927–1937|Catalina Clay Products Division of Santa Catalina Island Co.]] The company closed the pottery moving all molds and equipment to the Glendale plant. The company continued to use the tradename of Catalina Pottery on select dinnerware and art ware lines produced in the Glendale plant until 1942. In 1940, the company introduced the hand-painted embossed pattern Franciscan Apple, and in 1941 Desert Rose. Both patterns became the company's most popular patterns. The company introduced fine china dinnerware in 1942 and due to World War II, discontinued all art ware lines.

By 1950, it was considered one of the "world's largest ceramics manufacturers". In 1957, they purchased Washington Brick and Lime and its factories located in Dishman, Washington and Clayton, Washington. The company was described at that time as "the West's largest ceramics firm" with seven plants in California and two in Washington, in addition to those acquired in that purchase.{{Cite news | title = Brick Company Sale Approved: Washington Company Is Sold to Gladding, McBean | newspaper = The Spokesman-Review | location = Spokane, Washington | pages = 1 | date = May 30, 1957 | url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xjFWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LecDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7133,2893393&dq=gladding-mcbean&hl=en | accessdate = April 8, 2011}}

Because of "the importation of inexpensive Japanese ceramics", Gladding McBean's tableware sales declined in the post World War II period. This was a factor in Gladding-McBean's decision to seek a merger. shortened to Interpace Corp. in 1968.

Decline and revival

In 1976 Interpace Corp. "announced their intention to cease operations at the Lincoln plant" where Gladding, McBean began. Pacific Coast Building Products then purchased the Lincoln factory and restored the historic name of Gladding, McBean, | title = About Us: A Crafted History | publisher = Gladding, McBean| year = 2010| url = http://www.gladdingmcbean.com/aboutus.html | accessdate = June 19, 2011| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120212072917/http://www.gladdingmcbean.com/aboutus.html| archive-date = February 12, 2012| url-status = dead| df = mdy-all}} which remains in business today. Interpace Corp. sold its Franciscan Ceramics division to Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd. in 1979. In 1984 production was moved to Wedgwood's Stoke-on-Trent facility in England.

The company now operates as a division of Pacific Coast Building Products Inc under the name Gladding, McBean, LLC. Hard hit by the recession, the company had 110 employees in 2010, "down from an average of 240 workers between 2001 and 2007".{{Cite news | last = Johnson | first = Kelly | title = Gladding, McBean partners with Natomas firm: GC Products will move its molding and trim operation to Lincoln factory | newspaper = Sacramento Business Journal | location = Sacramento | date = February 21, 2010 | url = http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2010/02/22/story8.html | accessdate = April 8, 2011}} The company sponsors an annual "Feats of Clay" ceramic arts festival in Lincoln.

Products and legacy

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Gladding_tile_mural.jpg" caption="Gladding McBean tile mural at [[Los Angeles City Hall]]."] ::

From its base in clay sewer pipe and terra cotta, the company expanded into brick production and then branched out to dinnerware in the 1930s, with its Franciscan and Catalina lines.

In 1959, the company was awarded a "subcontract in excess of $500,000 for the production of ceramic radomes." That year, a spokesman for the company "cited research in oxides and other rare earths as providing a solution to the high heat, speed and radiation problems of the space age," and identified the company's best selling products at that time as "dinnerware, tile, refractories, facebrick, clay pipe and conduit, and technical ceramics." The company now identifies its main products as clay roof tile, piazza floor tile, chimney tops and caps, terra cotta, garden pottery and clay sewer pipe.{{Cite web | title = Gladding McBean: Home/Products | publisher = Gladding, McBean | url = http://www.gladdingmcbean.com/ | accessdate = June 19, 2011}}

The California State Library now holds the company's job files from 1888 to 1966, documenting the use of its products to decorate thousands of buildings, including most major structures on the campus of Stanford University.{{Cite news | title = Online Archive of California - Gladding, McBean and Company. Archives : job order documents, 1888-1966 | url = http://www.oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4;Institution=California%20State%20Library::California%20History%20Room;idT=AFL-0760 | accessdate = July 19, 2016}} The red roof tiles and architectural terra cotta details helped achieve the distinctive Spanish Colonial Revival style so common to coastal California. While many of the buildings throughout the west coast have been demolished, such as the Richfield Tower in Los Angeles, beautiful examples remain, including San Diego's Spreckels Theater and the Ventura County Courthouse.

References

References

1. Sandifer, Robert. (April 26, 1952). "Gladding, McBean Noted for Ceramics Pioneering". [[Los Angeles Times]].
2. Karpa, Grace. (May 22, 1997). "Crowds Fired Up For Clay Festival". [[Sacramento Bee]].
3. Rinker, Harry. (October 10, 2006). "Desert Rose' dinnerware's popularity means you might as well keep and use it". [[The Morning Call]].
4. Elliot-Bishop, James. (July 1996). "Green River Valley Clay Becomes Architectural Terra Cotta". White River Museum.
5. (February 15, 1926). "Two Clay Products Plants Consolidate". [[Berkeley Daily Gazette]].
6. Kovel, Ralph. (November 7, 1998). "No Kidding: Popularity Grows in 3-D". [[Hartford Courant]].
7. Elliot-Bishop, James F.. (2004). "Franciscan Hand Painted Embossed Dinnerware". Schiffer Publishing.
8. (April 19, 1950). "Leaders Tour Ceramics Plant". [[Los Angeles Times]].
9. (August 24, 1962). "Merger Is OK's by Shareholders". [[Spokane Daily Chronicle]].
10. (May 19, 1959). "First Ceramic Radome Work to Gladding". [[Los Angeles Times]].
11. (1960-08-24). "Boom Seen in Ceramics". [[Spokane Daily Chronicle]].

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