The American Legion owned the amphitheater and held meetings there in the attached clubhouse beginning in 1935. The original constructers of the theater were the Works Progress Administration. Before it even became a theater, the Battle of Lookout Mountain of 1863 took place here on location during the American Civil War. Also on location, it also featured a dispute between native tribes in the battle dubbed “Last Battle of the Cherokees.” During WWII, the amphitheater became a center for the United Service Organization providing entertainment for service members from the nearby Camp Sibert. Afterwards, boxing matches, concerts, political rallies, plays, and other events began to be held at the theater.The stage is located on the northern end with the seating area being shaped like a half-hexagon. The entrances to the theater can be found behind the seating area. The totals number of seats in the amphitheater is 1,600 and it has a club room with a lower entrance to theater near it. Public events continued being shown there until the 1970s when the structure itself began to show signs of age. The City of Gadsden purchased the theater in 1986 in order to do some restoration work on it to keep it from falling apart.The theater would be placed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on September 28, 1988. It was built alongside the Gadsden Municipal Auditorium that is along the Coosa River. The Mort Glosser Amphitheater has seen much more use during the pandemic. For example, the Downtown Dance Conservatory’s production of “The Nutcracker Princess” took place here. The theater allows more open space for social distancing requirements and is outside for much-needed fresh air.

Built in 1935 by the Works Progress Administration, this theater was one of the New Deal programs created by the federal government to put people to work. The Mort Glosser Amphitheater is a 1,600- seat outdoor theater designed by Paul Hofferbert. It was designed as builders used stone that was originally from Lookout Mountain, a mountain range located between Alabama and Georgia. It is still used today for concerts, plays, and other events. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and it was added there in 1988.

Mort Glosser Amphitheater

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In the 1930s, poor farming conditions and the financial strain of the Great Depression caused many family farms to suffer foreclosure while many industrial workers also lost their jobs and homes. In 1934, the Division of Subsistence Homesteads chose Cumberland County as a site for a new homestead location thanks to its agricultural potential. Most families received small farms for living space and worked in community-owned businesses. However, around the beginning of World War II, many of these ventures failed and the location was abandoned. The government focussed more on the war effort and ceased its support of the homestead.The tower on the property served as a headquarters office building for the Cumberland Homesteads, one of the most unique projects of the New Deal era. The tower featured a 50,000-gallon water tank and a 97-step stairway to the lookout platform at the top which offered a view of each of the 252 homesteads. The base features a museum at its base with exhibits about the history of the Homesteads project and its residents. It also has exhibits of artifacts from the ’30s and ’4os.The tower is made of Crab Orchard stone and adjacent to the community school. In addition to learning about the construction of the homes and buildings, visitors can learn about important legislation such as the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 which helped established public works programs.

This museum opened in 1984 and is located within the Cumberland Homesteads, a New Deal-era program that is now the site of the largest historic district in Tennessee. The museum is located within a tower that served as the administrative hub for the vast New Deal project and is surrounded by homes that were constructed during the New Deal. The museum offers exhibits and programs that demonstrate life in that era along with the unique history of this government relief program that sought to resettle out-of-work families in an agricultural setting. The museum also includes furnishings and items from families from the area. The historic district also includes a house museum within one of the original homes. That home was damaged by a tornado in 2002 and rebuilt by volunteers from the surrounding community.

Originally home to a water tower and administrative office building, the tower has been home to a museum since the mid-1980s.

 Homesteads Tower Museum

The Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center was under construction in the early 2000’s and opened up officially in 2006. The mission of this center is to preserve the history of the mountain communities and the residents who lived in the mountains. This also includes history on Native American Indians who settled up in the mountains and the pioneer history surrounding the Appalachian communities. the center was thought of and conceptualized by a local preservationist named Richard Way and The Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Guild. They hosted fundraisers to raise money for the construction of the center in both 2004 and 2005.The first few displays inside the museum was artifacts and masks used by the Cherokee Indians that represented their seven clans. There was a mountain medicine exhibit that displayed replicated medicine bags and equipment used by Dr. Granville Dexter LeQuire, who practiced medicine in the rural parts of Tennessee during the first half of the 20th century. The center also has a display called “Tennessee on the Move” which showed a gallery of a car driving on mountain roads. There is also a log cabin outside the center on display called the Cardwell Cabin. It was donated to the center by Wilma Maples, who lived in Gatlinburg.During the first three years since it opened, the center has reported that over 75,000 visitors came to their museum. In 2010, they reported and announced plans to build a new climate-controlled museum in order to house additional displays. Also in 2010, the Wilders Cemetery Association donated the Wilders Chapel to the center and moved it from its previous location in Maryville where it stood since 1910. A moonshiner that was once operated by Charlie Williams was also donated by his son. The Tennessee Association of Museums awarded the Heritage Center with three Awards of Excellence the following year.

Opening in February 2006, The Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center is dedicated to preserving the history and culture of people who resided in Eastern Tennessee in mountain communities. In an effort to educate visitors on the history of the region, the Heritage Center offers a museum of permanent and temporary exhibits on topics like natural history, mountain culture, and Native American history. The Historic Village has thirteen original structures that have been furnished to replicate the lifestyles of their former inhabitants.  The outside area around the museum includes a few structures such as a full-scale log cabin, a Methodist chapel, and a local moonshiner.

The Heritage Center that opened up officially in 2006. 

Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center

Institution

Founded in 1967, the South Street Seaport Museum celebrates the rich maritime history of NYC’s 19th Century waterfront. The Museum’s building is a part of the Schermerhorn Row complex, a series of warehouses built in the early 19th century. Within the buildings there are remains of two mid-19th century hotels. The museum preserves and interprets the history of New York City as a world port place where goods, labor, and cultures are exchanged through work, commerce, and the interaction of diverse communities. From transatlantic shipping and immigration to New York’s rise to economic pre-eminence, New York City’s waterfront has played a critical role in developments that have transformed the entire city, state, and nation. Designated by Congress as America’s National Maritime Museum in 1998, it is located in a 12 square-block historic district on the East River in Lower Manhattan, the site of the original port of New York City. The museum is home to Bowne Printers, who carry on the age old tradition of job printing (small batch printing), and Bowne &amp; Co. Stationers, which is New York’s oldest existing business under the same name, originally founded in 1775. The museum is also home to a fleet of 6 ships including the 1907 lightship Ambrose, a "floating lighthouse which guided ships safely from the Atlantic Ocean into the broad mouth of the lower New York Bay, the 1885 ship Wavertree, one of the last large sailing ships built of wrought iron, the 1885 schooner Pioneer, and an authentic 19th Century Schooner with public sails daily from May thru October. Also berthed at Pier 16 are the 1911 barquePeking, a nitrate clipper of the famous F. Laietz line of Hamburg, the 1893 Essex-built fishing schooner Lettie G. Howard, now sailing as a Sailing School Vessel, and the 1930 tug W.O. Decker, the last surviving New York-built wooden steam tug.By the late-1950s, Pier 15, 16, and part of 17 were mostly vacant. South Street Seaport Museum was founded and opened by Peter and Norma Stanford. When originally opened as a museum, the focus of the Seaport Museum conservation was to be an educational historic site, with shops mostly operating as reconstructions of working environments found during the Seaport's heyday circa 1820-1860. Visitors can not only tour the displays, but they can also enjoy voyages on many of the above listed ships.

Opening in 1967, The South Street Seaport Museum tells the history of New York City’s 19th century waterfront. The Seaport is a designated historic district, distinct from the neighboring Financial District. It features some of the oldest architecture in downtown Manhattan, and includes the largest concentration of restored early 19th-century commercial buildings in the city. This includes renovated original mercantile buildings, renovated sailing ships, the former Fulton Fish Market, and modern tourist malls featuring food, shopping and nightlife, with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge. At the entrance to the Seaport is the Titanic Memorial lighthouse.

The Peking is a four-masted ship constructed in 1911, one of many ships on display at the South Street Seaport Museum 

South Street Seaport Museum

The site of the Washoe Theater was a previous site to two other theaters in Anaconda. Those two theaters were The Margaret Theater, which existed since the founding of the town and remodeled in 1927, and the Sundial Theater, which burned down in 1929. An architect by the name of B. Marcus Priteca was the one who built the theater. Priteca had a reputation of work in his field designing places like the Seattle Coliseum and the Pantages Theaters in California. Interior decoration of the theater was supervised by Nat Smythe, who had help completing the interior murals.The Washoe Theater was built at a time where motion picture films had hit their peak in the 30’s. Several Art Deco movie theaters had been built around the country, but some were destroyed making this place one of the last few standing. The whole cost of building this movie theatre was $200,000. It was set for opening in 1931, but it’s opening had to be postponed since America was going through the Great Depression. The theater officially opened up in 1936.The first movie to ever be showed in this theater was a Western movie. The movie was called The Texas Rangers starring Fred MacMurray. It still operates as a movie theater in Anaconda today. The Washoe Theater was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The Smithsonian Institute ranked it fifth in the nation for the architectural style it was built with.

Built in 1936 as one of the last Art Deco style theaters, this site is a prime example of popular theater style in the 1930s. The architect is so significant that the Smithsonian Institute has ranked it fifth in the nation for its architectural value. Architect B. Marcus Priteca was responsible for designing the theater. Although it was ready for opening in 1931, the theater remained closed until 1936 due to the Great Depression. The Washoe Theater was listed on the National Register of Historic Sites in 1982. 

Washoe Theater

As the oldest Historical Society in the State of Wyoming, the Sublette County Historical Society was originally established in 1935 for the preservation of historic sites of the fur trade and markings of settler graves to collect all records pertaining to the historical background of Sublette County. Today’s SCHS is the parent organization for the Museum of the Mountain Man. The Historical Society holds over 15,000 artifacts ranging from pre-historic to the settlement era. Founding members of the Historical Society began the modern-day rendezvous reenactment program in 1936 in Daniel to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1836 rendezvous, which was attended by the first white women to cross the Continental Divide. The Rendezvous Pageant is still performed every year in July by the Green River Rendezvous Pageant Association during Rendezvous Day in Pinedale.The personal mission of the Museum of the Mountain Man is to preserve and interpret the history of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade. It also tells of the history of the mountain men who explored Pinedale and the region around it during the 19th century. The museum presents a visual and interpretative experience into the romantic era of the 1800s Mountain Man and provides a comprehensive overview of the Western Fur Trade’s historical significance. Situated in the heart of the county that was once the hub of the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous system, the Museum stands as a monument to the men and the commerce that opened the West. Artifacts directly traceable to the mountain men are extremely rare.The museum’s collection has many period-correct pieces from the fur-trade era. Genuine artifacts in the museum’s collection include a rifle owned by Jim Bridger after the fur trade era and archaeological pieces from the site of Fort Bonneville. Sublette County’s acquisition of the fur-trade papers significantly expands the museum’s authentic artifact collection and ability to interpret the Rocky Mountain fur-trade era. Each year, the Museum of the Mountain Man and the Sublette County Historical Society produce the “Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal” and other publications that educate and preserve the record of historical events and people across the country.

Founded in 1990, The Museum of the Mountain Man has been preserving and interpreting the history of the Rocky Mountain fur trade. It lets visitors explore exhibits based on the history of mountain menthol explores the region during the 19th century. It sits at the foot of the Wind River Mountains and the Continental Divide near the Green River. The museum offers exhibitions of objects, publications, tours, and research designed to engage the imagination of its visitors.

Museum signage. Credit: Museum of the Mountain Man

Museum of the Mountain Man

Built in 1813 under the supervision of superintendent David Shriver Jr., the Casselman Bridge was erected as part of the 620-mile Cumberland Road, which would later become part of the larger National Road, the first major federal highway, that connects the Potomac and Ohio Rivers. The bridge served as a major passageway across the Casselman River for early 19th century settlers and westward travelers, as well as pedestrians, stage coaches, wagons, motorized traffic, and livestock through its use 118 years of service. The Casselman Bridge extends 354 feet and spans 80 feet with a 30-foot-high arch, making it the largest bridge of its kind in the United States at the time of its construction. Construction began in late 1813, but was not fully completed until 1815 due to increased rains and other delays. The bridge features a single stone arch, constructed primarily of large stones and rubble, with large stone abutments on both ends. Maintenance of the bridge had to be performed throughout its history, most notably to accommodate for motorized traffic. The bridge remained in use until 1933 when a steel bridge was erected nearby as part of US Route 40. The bridge was then closed to vehicles in 1953, with additional maintenance being performed in later years. Restoration efforts included the repair of a large hole, as well as resetting some of the stones that had fallen out of place. The bridge was closed to motorized traffic in 1953 and subsequently restored through federal funding. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963 in recognition for its contribution to U.S. heritage. It is now owned by the State of Maryland and preserved as part of the Casselman Bridge State Park. A historic marker is posted on both ends of the bridge and reads: "Erected 1813 by David Shriver, Jr., Sup't of the "Cumberland Road" (The National Road). This 80 foot span was the largest stone arch in America at the time. It was continuously used from 1813 to 1933."5

The Casselman Bridge, also known as the Casselman River Bridge, Old Casselman Bridge, Casselmans Bridge, Castleman's Bridge, and Little Crossings Bridge, is a stone arch bridge that was constructed in 1813-1815 as part of the National Road. The bridge served as a major passageway for westward travelers and frontiersman crossing the Casselman River. It is now preserved by the State of Maryland as a National Historic Landmark.

Casselman Bridge

Instructor

At the core of the Museum's collections are more than 700 aircraft, most of which are on display at other museums, with approximately 150 located aboard Naval Air Station Pensacola. These include record-setting aircraft like the NC-4 flying boat, the first plane to fly across the Atlantic, as well as combat veterans, including the SBD Dauntless that flew at the Battle of Midway, two Vietnam MiG-killers, an A-7 Corsair II that logged missions over Iraq during Operation Desert Storm and the last F-14 Tomcat to fly a combat mission.Though the aircraft are the largest of the Museum relics, they are just one dimension of the collection. More than 4,000 uniforms, flight gear, weaponry, medals and decorations add a personal touch to the story of Naval Aviation. In addition, the Emil Buehler Naval Aviation Library, which houses personal and official papers of prominent Naval Aviators, squadron records and a photograph collection numbering more 350,000 images, is a significant repository of Naval history and draws researchers from around the world.As the Museum has grown, so has its popularity. In the last decade alone, visitation has more than doubled, approaching one million in some years. The National Naval Aviation Museum has achieved recognition as one of the world's premiere air and space museums and one of the most-visited museums in Florida. The Museum also received the prestigious American Association of Museums' accreditation in 2002. Our visitors come from every state in the Union and more than 60 foreign countries. On a given day, more than 70 percent of our visitors are from outside Florida. With each addition to the Museum, there has been a commensurate increase in visitation.Highlights of the museum include exhibits related to historic vessels such as the USS Midway and Constitution that are floating museums in various port cities. The museum also includes exhibits based on artifacts of ships that were lost in battle or decommissioned such as the USS Enterprise. The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) served in the United States Navy from 1936 to 1960. She became famous during World War II, participating in every major battle of the Pacific Theater and becoming the most decorated ship of the war. She was present during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, participated in the U.S. victory at Midway, supported offensives throughout the southern and central Pacific, and saw her final actions near Iwo Jima and Okinawa. By the end of 1945, more than twenty large, more advanced carriers made up the US Fleet. The damage inflicted by the kamikaze strike on May 14, 1945 coupled with the increase in jet technology were too much for the Enterprise. On January 18, 1946, the USS Enterprise entered the New York Naval Shipyard. A year later, on February 17, 1947, the Enterprise was decommissioned. Attempts to preserve the carrier as a museum ship were futile. Finally, on July 1, 1958, the "Big E" was sold for scrap at Kearney, New Jersey. Two years later, the world's first nuclear-powered carrier was commissioned under the same name as her predecessor: USS Enterprise (CVN-65). In 1984, a permanent exhibit was dedicated to the Enterprise at the Naval Aviation Museum at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida and houses artifacts, photographs, and other important items of interest from the carrier.

The National Naval Aviation Museum is operated by the Navy. In addition to being one of the leading tourist destinations in North Florida, the museum preserves the history of naval aviation through exhibits and static displays of historic aircraft. Highlights of the museum include artifacts from historic ships such as the USS Enterprise.

Visitors to the National Naval Aviation Museum are greeted by a F-14A Tomcat. The museum offers free admission and parking. 


National Naval Aviation Museum

The First Presbyterian
Church traces its origins back to June 1811, when the Rev. Robert Henderson
came to service the Presbyterian residents of what is now Murfreesboro. In
April 1812 the Presbyterian community formally established the Murfree Spring
Church; the name would change to the First Presbyterian Church, Murfreesboro in
1818. Originally congregants worshipped in a log structure on the property of
Colonel Hardy Murfree. Around 1820 the church’s first permanent sanctuary was
constructed on Vine Street. The brick building was said to be one of the
fanciest structures in Rutherford County at the time, and featured a five-story
bell tower. Members of the congregation were buried in a graveyard adjacent to
the church; in 1837 it expanded and evolved into a public burial ground, today
known as the Old City Cemetery. In August 1822 the church hosted a special
session of the Tennessee state general assembly. During this session the
assembly voted to endorse Andrew Jackson for the presidency. 

The church was hit hard
by the effects of the Civil War. The sanctuary served as a hospital for
Confederate soldiers during the Battle of Stones River, and afterwards was a
hospital for Union soldiers during the occupation of Murfreesboro. Troops also
set up camps in the area surrounding the church and cemetery. Sometime between
the winter of 1863 and the spring of 1864 the church building was demolished.
Details surrounding the circumstances behind its destruction are uncertain;
some reports claim that Union soldiers began taking bricks from the building to
make fireplaces for their shelters. Other accounts add that the soldiers
desecrated the cemetery as well, destroying tombstones. From 1862 until July
1864 it appears that the congregation did not assemble. Towards the end of the
war the church reemerged and in 1865 it filed a claim for damages from the
federal government; after years of efforts, the church was awarded $6,500 in
damages in 1899.

In 1867 the First
Presbyterian church purchased a lot on the corner of Spring and College Streets.
A new Gothic Revival style church building was constructed on the property and
designed by Nashville architect W. A. Kiddell. In 1913 the building was heavily
damaged by a tornado. Almost immediately the congregation moved to build a new
structure on the same spot, with construction completed by 1914. The new
building was constructed and possibly designed by the construction firm of
Maugans and Bell in the popular Classical Revival style. Additional sections were
built in 1959 and 1998. In 1993 the church was added to the National Register
of Historic Places on the grounds that it was an ideal example of Classical
Revival architecture. The First Presbyterian Church remains in operation and holds
regular services.

This historic Murfreesboro church dates back to 1812 when the congregation maintained a modest church edifice at what is now the Old City Cemetery. During the Civil War, that structure was occupied and eventually destroyed by Union troops. A new sanctuary was built at the church’s present location on North Spring Street in 1867. In 1913, that building was mostly destroyed by a tornado. The congregation responded by building this Classical Revival style structure on the same spot within less than a year. This 1914 church continues to serve the congregation and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

The current church building was constructed in 1914 after the previous structure was destroyed in a tornado in 1913. Image obtained from the Nashville Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. 

First Presbyterian Church of Murfreesboro

L.A. gold-mining millionaire&nbsp;Lewis L. Bradbury commissioned the building's construction. He hired architect&nbsp;Summer Hunt to design it&nbsp;and hired George Wyman to build it. This&nbsp;architectural landmark is noteworthy for its ornate iron railings, marble stairs, and elevators, which are especially well known both for being open-caged and for ascending 50 feet into the building’s skylights. And, although it is still a working building full of offices and tenants, tourists are allowed to enter and explore its lobby and landing area that sits on the stairway between the first and second floors.The building’s design was influenced by “Looking Backward,” Edward Bellamy’s 1887 science-fiction book about a utopian society. In keeping with the book, the Bradbury Building was designed to be "vast hall full of light, received not alone from the windows on all sides, but from the dome, the point of which was a hundred feet above ... The walls and ceiling were frescoed in mellow tints, calculated to soften without absorbing the light which flooded the interior." &nbsp;Though the building’s interior is decorative, its exterior is known for being undistinguished. Made in the Italian Renaissance Revival style that was popular back in the 1890s, its exterior is made up of brown brick, terracotta, and sandstone. Its front entrance has been likened by the Los Angeles Times’s David Ferrell to a “Parisian alley of arched windows” while it leads to a “awe-inspiring cathedral-like center court.” &nbsp;

Built in 1893, the Bradbury Building is one of the oldest buildings in downtown Los Angeles. Also, with its Victorian stylings, the building has starred in many movies including Blade Runner, Lethal Weapon 4, and Chinatown (1974). It was built at a cost of $500,000—three times its original budget—and restored and given a seismic retrofit for $7 million in 1991. It is both listed on the National Register of Historic Places (1971) and a National Historic Landmark (1977). There are only four such honored buildings in L.A. designated National Landmarks and the Bradbury is the oldest of the four.    

Bradbury Building: One of the Oldest, Most Filmed Buildings in LA

Born on February 7, 1867, to Charles and Caroline Ingalls in Pepin, Wisconsin, Laura Ingalls Wilder would eventually go on to be one of the most well-known children’s authors in the country. The Wisconsin cabin in which she was born would become the setting for her debut novel Little House in the Big Woods in 1932. The Ingalls family moved around quite a bit during Wilder’s childhood and many locations would become the settings for her books, such as Little House on the Prairie (1935), On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937), and By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939). Due to their frequent relocations, the Ingalls children were often schooled at home, though they attended local schools whenever possible. Due to this background and her family’s financial needs, Wilder became a certified teacher at age 15, in 1882.  Laura Ingalls married Almanzo Wilder in 1885. The following winter, they welcomed their daughter, Rose. In 1894, the Wilders bought what they would call Rocky Ridge Farm, which is currently known as the Laura Ingalls Wilder House Museum.  In the early 1910s, Rose, working as a reporter for the San Francisco Bulletin, encouraged her mother to publish stories about her childhood. Originally, Wilder penned an autobiography titled Pioneer Girl, which was rejected by numerous publishers. Over the next few years, Laura and Rose worked to alter the manuscript into a children’s book. Little House in the Big Woods was published in 1932, and Wilder continued to publish the “Little House” series until 1943; it contains eight novels. Wilder remained at Rocky Ridge Farm until her death in 1957.  In 1974, the made-for-television movie Little House on the Prairie premiered, which in turn sparked a television series of the same name. The television program brought in a new generation of “Little House” fans, and also renewed interest in Wilder’s original book series. The television show was nominated for eighteen Emmy Awards, three Golden Globes, and won two People’s Choice Awards.  In 2008, Little House on the Prairie: The Musical premiered to record breaking crowds in Minneapolis, and later toured 28 cities in the US and Canada. Notably, Melissa Gilbert (the actress who played Laura Ingalls in the 1970s television series) played the role of Ma in the musical. The musical was co-sponsored by both Habitat for Humanity and The Seeing Eye; in every city the show visited during the tour, a Habitat for Humanity home was built. The Seeing Eye is an organization which breeds and trains guide dogs for the visually impaired. According to the Little House website, a second musical is being written, and “will focus on the special relationship among the Ingalls sisters.”  In 2018, controversy surrounded Wilder’s name, as the Association for Library Service to Children chose to change the name of their Laura Ingalls Wilder Award to the Children’s Literature Legacy Award. The ALSC cited negative and stereotypical presentations of Native Americans in Wilder’s work for the cause of this change, but insisted that changing the name of the award did not denote censorship of Wilder’s works.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder House in Mansfield, Missouri, also known as Rocky Ridge Farm, was the home of author Laura Ingalls Wilder from 1896 until her death in 1957. Both the white farmhouse and the rock house are available to visitors, connected by the newly restored Wilder Family Walking Trail. Wilder penned the first four of her Little House books in the rock house, a gift from her daughter, Rose. 

Laura Ingalls Wilder House Museum 

In 1891 a group of Ohio investors including L. H.
Cox opened two glass factories in the new Central City community, the West
Virginia Flint Bottle Company and the Central City Window Glass Company. West
Virginia Flint was located on Fifteenth Street between Madison and Jefferson
Avenues. Both companies were owned by the same group but specialized in making
different products; West Virginia Flint manufactured fruit jars and bottles,
while Central City Window Glass made window panes. About two years later West
Virginia Flint was sold to Forbes Holton. The factory soon afterwards closed
around 1895 or 1896; this was possibly due to an economic recession that
impacted the nation during the mid-1890s. In 1901 the plant reopened under the
ownership of Anton Zihlman as the Huntington Tumbler Company. Central City had
not yet been annexed by Huntington, but the company name suggests that the
community anticipated its occurrence. 

Anton Zihlman was born in Lucerne, Switzerland in
1842. At the time the city was home to a flourishing glass industry, and
Zihlman received training to be a glass blower. He immigrated to the United
States in 1869 and spent the next few decades operating different glass
factories in Maryland and Ohio. Zihlman and his family came to the Huntington
area around 1900 to take over the former flint bottle plant. His leadership and
glass blowing skills enabled the company to prosper after having sat idle for
six years. Zihlman died in 1912, but his family continued to manage the factory
afterwards. 

Huntington Tumbler initially produced mainly
tumblers, glass cups that were typically used for drinking alcohol. In 1909
newspaper reports stated that the factory had either shut down or was contemplating
shutting down due to a drop in orders for tumblers because of the growing
temperance movement nationwide. At any rate the plant was operating again by
1910. It seems that the company survived by expanding its range of products. It
made everything from stemware and cut glass to vases and candlesticks; workers
even made ornamental glass canes for themselves. Huntington Tumbler became
known for producing very ornate, high quality glassware. One account claimed
that at some point Woolworths approached the company seeking to stock its
glassware in their stores, but Huntington Tumbler declined because their glass
was too upscale to be mass produced. The company sold its glassware all around
the nation and exported some to Latin America, Europe, and as far away as Java.


Huntington Tumbler employed anywhere from 150 to 400
workers according to differing accounts. For much of its existence the company
apparently dealt with unions and labor disputes. The glass blowers were
represented by organizations such as the American Flint Glass Workers’ Union
and the National Glass Workers Union. The earliest issue occurred in 1892 when
workers opposed the installation of eight new machines that made many jobs
redundant. In 1902 workers went on strike over a disagreement regarding how
often pots should be skimmed. Two years later they went on strike again over
wage scale negotiations. A strike was conducted in 1910 to receive company
recognition of their union. Another strike in 1913 resulted in Huntington
Tumbler agreeing to hire only union workers and pay union wages.

The Huntington Tumbler Company closed permanently in
1932. It was a victim of the Great Depression; the market for ornate, upscale
glassware had been severely diminished. All of its facilities were demolished
in the 1940s. Glass products from Huntington Tumbler can still be found around
the local area and they are popular collectors’ items.

The Huntington Tumbler Company was one of the earliest glass factories to exist in the area. It opened as the West Virginia Flint Bottle Company around 1891 along with the nearby Central City Window Glass Company, which was owned by the same investors. It was acquired by the Zihlman family in 1901, who renamed the company and expanded its range of products. Huntington Tumbler became known for making ornate, high quality glass pieces such as tumblers, stemware, vases, and candlesticks. Its glassware was sold both locally and internationally, with products exported to places such as Latin America and Europe. The economic downturn caused by the Great Depression forced the business to close in 1932. The factory was demolished in the 1940s, leaving no physical remnants.

Huntington Tumbler during the Flood of 1937. The factory, of which nothing remains, stood on Fifteenth Street between Jefferson and Madison Avenues. Image courtesy of Marshall University Special Collections. 

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