Locals keep Vitrolite glass memory alive
By BRETT DUNLAP, bdunlap@newsandsentinel.comPARKERSBURG - Although Fenton Art Glass is known nationally as the area's premiere glassmaker, a number of local residents are trying to keep the memory of another glass-making company alive as its legacy is beginning to fade from memory.
In the early 20th century, a plant in Vienna, where the old Johns Manville plant now stands, made a thick decorative structural glass called Vitrolite, which was used in decorating homes and buildings as ornamental finishes on surfaces exposed to moisture or the weather, said Edelene Wood of Parkersburg, chairwoman of the Vitrolite Collectors Club.
Wood became interested in the material when she bought a depression era house in Parkersburg and became fascinated with the opaque glass wainscotting in the bathroom, which she came to discover was Vitrolite. Since then she has collected assorted pieces and untaken a campaign to remind people of the material and its local significance.
''Only a few people remain who know of its origin or the fact that it was the area's largest employer before American Viscose came to the valley in the early 1930s,'' Wood said. ''At the time it was considered the elite place to work.''
Vitrolite, which for awhile was made exclusively in this area, was used to make soda fountain tables, in business signs, store fronts, the colorful glass fronts of movie theaters and more. The Knights of Columbus lodge on Market Street has an intricate art piece made of Vitrolite hanging up that used to hang in the Parkersburg National Bank. Wood discovered Vitrolite is still in bathrooms and hallways in the Empire State Building in New York City. It was made differently than traditional glass, making it more sturdy.
''They sold it all over the world,'' Wood said. ''There are many buildings and homes throughout this area that still have it.''
Wood said Vitrolite was West Virginia-born, although at its peak it was also made at a factory in Ohio. The name was originally a trademark of the Meyercord-Carter Co. Meyercord-Carter was Vienna's first industry, she said, adding the plant had 75 people on the payroll when it opened in 1908. The company was reorganized and incorporated as Vitrolite Co. in 1910.
However, people have begun to forget the company's legacy.
''Many people may find it in their homes, not know what it is, tear it out and throw it away,'' Wood said.
Only a few local people know of the significance of the the local glass company.
Billie L. Corbitt, a local collector, had worked at the Vitrolite plant with his father Albert, four brothers and other family members. He passed away on June 9 and Wood said the area has lost one of Vitrolite's longtime champions. He worked at the plant and returned to the plant after serving in the Navy during World War II until the Vitrolite plant was absorbed into the Johns Manville plant.
''In all of his years since, Billie gathered up the reminants of Vitrolite and remembered the jobs he, his brothers and father did there,'' Wood said. ''One of his brothers, a decorator of Vitrolite at the plant, made many distinctive pieces for well-known restaurants, such as the Mayflower in Chicago.
''We think Billie was one of the last people to actually have a hands-on connection to the manufacturing of the Vitrolite.''
Corbitt's widow, Betty Ann, said he was always pleased when he could find pieces of Vitrolite that he knew a member of his family worked on.
''That was the first thing he would look for when going to auctions or yard sales,'' she said. ''He collected it because people were destroying it. People didn't know what it was. He didn't think all of it should be destroyed. It was a lost art. We collected pieces that we knew his family had a hand in making.
''Billie loved Vitrolite, but above all else, he loved its connection to his family.''
Mrs. Corbitt said her husband also found factory journals detailing the processes used in making the Vitrolite as well as old catalogs.
''He wanted to save what he could,'' she said.
The last piece of Vitrolite was made at the plant in 1947.
Wood said the written history of Vitrolite is beginning to gloss over the connections to the Mid-Ohio Valley, giving credit to the Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Co. of Toledo for starting it, but they only bought the company in 1935.
''It appears that Vienna and Parkersburg's importance in the history of this distinctive glass is no longer mentioned,'' she said. ''When the writers write about it, they get it all mixed up. They never gave the local plant here any mention. They have lost their identity to non-descript places.
''Billie Corbitt's longtime passion for keeping the Vienna-Parkersburg Vitrolite connection alive may have passed away with him. Many of the people who knew about the Vitrolite plant here are gone now. People who have it, didn't realize it and have sold it off piece by piece. It is just very sad.''
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Lookin4truth
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07-22-08 6:01 PM
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Bring back Vitrolite...Bring back Vitrolite....Bring back Vitrolite.....
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