Pewabic Pottery
Pewabic Pottery was built in 1907 for ceramic artist Mary Chase Perry. Concerned with raising the artistic standards of American ceramicists and influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, Perry enjoyed designing pottery pieces in simple shapes and used spectacular irridescent glazes in rose, green, gold, purple, and copper. Pewabic is a Chippewa Indian term that means "clay with a copper color" and is a tribute to the Upper Michigan Peninsula Copper Country where Perry was born.
Under Perry's leadership, Pewabic Pottery gained national recognition for its iridescent glazes, as well as for its production of architectural tiles that were installed in such buildings as the Guardian Building, the Detroit Institute of Art, the Ford Factory in Oklahoma, and the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Washington, DC. Pewabic Pottery was designed by Frank D. Baldwin and William B. Stratton, who later wed Mary Chase Perry in 1917. Stratton and Baldwin were two of the most influential architects in Detroit during the early twentieth century and their firm was the first in Michigan to be headed exclusively by architects trained in American schools. The building has changed little since its construction and the original cabinets, tables, clay-making machine, and dumbwaiter are still in use today by the ceramists of the Pewabic Society. Pewabic Pottery was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991.
Pewabic Pottery is located at 10125 E. Jefferson Avenue and is open to the public Monday through Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm.
Information and photos courtesy of the National Register for Historic Places Detroit, MI Travel Itinerary, a subsidiary of the National Park Service.
