Fonds med-104 - Medalta Potteries Limited fonds

Medalta Stoneware Limited was incorporated in December 1915, and bought the assets of the Medicine Hat Pottery Company which was formed in 1912. Medalta's principal Director was John Bending. Clay was purchased from an associate, Adison P. Day, owner of clay lands at East End, Saskatchewan. Production began in May 1916 and included stoneware, crocks and bowls. By 1921, the company was shipping wares to eastern Canada. In 1924, the company's assets were taken over by a new company, Medalta Potteries Limited, in order to bring new directors and capital to the business. The new company also took over the clay leases in Saskatchewan. New items were added to the Medalta line, including vases, ginger beer bottles and jugs for the liquor control boards of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In 1929, beverage bottlers changed to glass containers causing financial losses for Medalta, so the company was sold to Reginald Carlisle and O. Clair Arnott of Calgary. Many of the stoneware items were dropped from the line and the pottery slowed down to a limited production consisting mainly of lamp bases. In 1937, Ed Phillpson was hired as ceramic engineer who brought renewed success to the company by directing it into the production of hotel china and dishes for the armed forces. However in 1952, the company was again sold and the new management replaced the hotelware production line with earthenware items for movie theatre give-aways. This move failed and the plant ceased operations in 1954. Attempts to revive the factory were made in subsequent years by other companies, and a few former Medalta employees joined the unrelated Medalta Potteries (1966) Ltd. in Redcliff, Alberta. Recently claimed as a National Historic Site, efforts to resurect the factory have met with varying degrees of success. Currently, a small interpretive centre welcomes visitors throughout the summer months, while a strong "Friends of Medalta Society" continues to fundraise in the hopes of recreating and establishing the site as a working industrial museum in conjunction of other clay industries which were prevalent throughout Medicine Hat. Following the death of former Mayor Harry Veiner, who operated an adjacent clayworks factory, Hycroft China, lands and the existing factory buildings were turned over to the "Friends of Medalta Society". In 1994, the society organized "the world's largest exhibition of Medalta and Hycroft China, in the former Hycroft building, dubbed "The Great Wall of China".