Medalta Potteries

Medicine Hat

Street Address:	713 Medalta Ave SE
Community:	Medicine Hat
Boundaries:	Block B, Plan 4824EO
Contributing Resources:	Building: 9

ATS Legal Description:

Mer	Rge	Twp	Sec	LSD
4	5	12	29	15 (ptn.)

PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):

Plan	Block	Lot	Parcel
S4824 EO	B	N/A

Latitude/Longitude:

Latitude	Longitude	CDT	Datum Type
50.032271	-110.649606	GPS	NAD 83

UTM Reference:

Northing	Easting	Zone	CDT	Datum Type

Recognition

Recognition Authority:	Province of Alberta
Designation Status:	Provincial Historic Resource
Date of Designation:	1996/01/12

Historical Information

Built:	1912 to 1950
Period of Significance:	1912 to 1960
Theme(s):	Developing Economies : Extraction and Production
Historic Function(s):	Industry : Crafts Production Facility
Current Function(s):
Architect:
Builder:
Context:	HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE In the 1920's Medalta was the major producer of stoneware in Canada, particularly Western Canada. In the 1940's the company cornered the market in manufacturing of semi-porcelain hotel ware. Contracts included C.P.R., C.N.P., R.C.A.F., Hotel Vancouver and restaurants throughout Western Canada. Medalta is certainly one of the oldest ceramic plants still standing, perhaps the oldest in the Western provinces. Limited machinery of museum interest remains in the 1912 structure. This includes dry pan for grogging, ball mill, sager blunger and original blunger. Four "beehive" kilns are extant; these may be rare. Little industry equipment is intact on the site. (Site Information Summary) ************************************************************************************* HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Started production in 1913. Major producer of stoneware in Canada, particularly Western Canada. In 1940, Medalta began manufacturing semi-porcelain hotel ware. Cornered the market in this product. Contracts included C.P.R., C.N.P., R.C.A.F., Hotel Vancouver and restaurants throughout Western Canada. Medalta is one of the oldest ceramics plant still standing, perhaps the oldest in Western Provinces. Ceased operations in late 1960's. Some machinery and processes developed at Medalta reputed to be innovative and had significant effect on ceramics technology. ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE Complex site: consists of 13 adjacent warehouse structures, 4 beehive kilns, 2 tunnel kilns, 2 small structures and beehive kilns have been removed. Little equipment left but the machinery, which remains museum material (dry pan for grogging, ball machine, sager blunger and original blunger); beehive kilns are quite rare. (Site Evaluation Form) ********************************************************************************** MEDALTA POTTERIES - A Brief History The Medalta Potteries was built in 1913 by a group of businessmen, primarily from Spokane, who were attracted by the potential for a pottery industry in Medicine Hat afforded by the area's natural gas, clay deposits and location on the railroad. They called themselves The Medicine Hat Pottery Company Limited. This first pottery in Alberta managed to stay in business for only about six months, producing a few lines of stoneware made of clays imported from Washington State. One of the directors of this company discovered on his land nearby in Saskatchewan the first deposit of clay in the area suitable for pottery manufacture. But, the company went out of business before it could take advantage of the local clays. The assets of the company were purchased by a local group and the buildings were reopened in 1916 under the name Medalta Stoneware Limited. The new company expanded the premises and gradually developed a thriving stoneware business, turning out crockery items, mixing bowls and flowerpots. The latter were made from the red clay dug out of the plant's back yard. In 1921, Medalta Stoneware shipped the first carload of manufactured goods, other than cereal products, from the West to points east of Lakehead. Promoting their goods as "Canadian Made Stoneware from Canadian Clay, and Financed by Canadian Capital," they took over the entire stoneware market west of Winnipeg and a considerable portion of the eastern market from the American companies, which had dominated the trade up to that time. In 1924, the Company liquidated and reformed under the name Medalta Potteries Limited. A skilled traditional potter was brought in from the East to supervise the plant and to expand the product lines. The plant nearly doubled in size during the Twenties with the addition of several new structures and three beehive kilns, which were patterned after the three kilns already standing on the premises. The kilns were working to capacity supplying the liquor control boards of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba with all the jugs they required and several major Canadian bottlers with thousands of stone ginger beer bottles a week. The stoneware market plummeted in 1929 when glass replaced Medalta's products in the bottling industry. The Company barely managed to stay in business and was shut down several months of the year throughout the Depression. However, new management, which took over in 1930, gradually developed several lines of lamp bases, which competed favorably with the American product and sold heavily in Vancouver and Toronto, the centres of the Canadian lamp trade. With the exception of one very small eastern pottery, Medalta was only Canadian lamp base manufacturer during that period. At the end of the Depression, Medalta hired a ceramic engineer from the University of Saskatchewan to take over supervision of the plant. The man was primarily a chemist and, while experimenting with the Saskatchewan clays, developed the first all-Canadian semi-porcelain clay body, ideal for the production of hotel china. Prior to the discovery, Canadian potteries, which attempted hotel china had to import their clay from the United States at a prohibitive cost. Within months, Medalta had contracts with C.N.R., the C.P.R. and major hotels in the West for their hotel china. Over 300 hands were employed to meet production schedules. World War Two intervened and for the duration of the War, Medalta and all other large potteries were placed by the Canadian Government into wartime production. Domestic production was kept to a minimum while Medalta supplied the armed services with green dishes, cups and saucers. With most of its skilled employees serving in the Canadian forces, Medalta kept the planet going by hiring German prisoners of war from the Medicine Hat internment camp. During the Forties, the Company installed two tunnel kilns, worth about a quarter of a million dollars each, for the large-scale production of hotel china. Almost without competition, Medalta shipped hotel china to both railroads and to hotels, restaurants and institutions from coast to coast. As a side venture, the Company built an insulator plant in 1947 just across the tracks from the main plant. Medalta equipped the plant, staffed it and later sold it. At the height of its hotel china business, in the early Fifties, Medalta was taken over by a Montreal firm. The Eastern management had little feel for the pottery business and decided to convert the plant, at great expense, to the production of earthenware items for movie house giveaways. Television had just captured Canada and movie attendance dropped drastically. The company stayed in business for about a year and went bankrupt in 1954. Since then, a number of local attempts to reopen the pottery were made with little success. Medalta, as such, died in 1954.

Additional Information

Object Number:	4665-0183
Designation File:	DES 0190
Related Listing(s):
Heritage Survey File:	HS 29877
Website Link:	www.medalta.org
Data Source:	Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Resources Management Branch, Old St. Stephen's College, 8820 - 112 Street, Edmonton, AB T6G 2P8 (File: Des. 190)