Vigo County Historical Society

Historical Treasure Article

Historic Treasure of the Week - July 20, 1986
by David M. Buchanan
Executive Director
Vigo County Historical Society

Terra cotta in Terre Haute
Tiles provided frugal alternative

Keeping up with the Joneses' is a common statement, but completely untrue. Anyone wanting to "keep up," actually wanted to surpass, with better looking clothing, furniture, transportation or buildings.

However, the effort of keeping up usually meant cutting down in other areas or producing imitations. Designer clothing with fake designer names, brilliant gemstones of glittering glass, heavily carved woodwork of lightweight plastic, all are produced to give their owners the feeling of luxury without the original's cost.

Construction of buildings follows the same "keeping up" path. It's easy to say, "Use only the best," but cost factors dictate otherwise. Only an autocratic dictator is able to build no matter what the cost. The rest of us settle for lesser imitations.

Terra cotta (Latin for "burnt earth") was one method of providing the ornate and richly carved appearance of stone without the cost of stone carvers, the length of time needed for production or the cost of transportation. It was quickly embraced by builders because of the low cost of production. It also was far lighter in weight than stone, which meant building walls and foundations could correspond, another cost savings.

In 1866 in Louisville, Ky., a builder named Joseph N. Glover began producing clay copies of cast iron or stone garden urns. He made copies of the original in plaster and then pressed his wet clay into the mold to form his copy. Though the final piece was a little smaller than the original (clay shrinks when fired) his ornaments were inexpensive compared to the originals and proved popular.

He felt the same process could be transferred to buildings and began a company to manufacture terra cotta ornaments, arguing that a stone carver might have to work months to produce two or three pieces of ornately carved matching blocks. Terra cotta pieces could be produced in the hundreds in the same amount of time.

And, though the cost of producing a single piece of terra cotta was about the same as producing the piece in carved stone, the terra cotta mold could be used over and over again by workers who did not have to have the skill and training required by a master stone carver.

He eventually moved his business to Indiana, because of the clay beds mined as a by-product of the coal fields and then, in 1868, started Terre Cotta Co. in Chicago. The great Chicago fire spared his factory and the resulting boom in construction material proved a boon for Glover's business.

In the 1880s a number of companies were producing the ware and by the 1890s whole buildings were being clad in a facade of terra cotta tile and the ware was being exported throughout the nation.

The use of terra cotta remained popular in both home and commercial construction throughout the rest of the 19th century and into the first third of the 20th century. In the 1930s the Great Depression coupled with the influence of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who began advocating simplicity, straight lines and square unornamented mass, led to the decline of the terre cotta industry.

Flat sheets of terra cotta were no less expensive than flat sheets of glass, cut stone or brick. The many companies throughout the nation producing terra cotta began to close. Few companies remain today that still practice the craft of casting or carving terra cotta ornamentation.

Though the industry died, many of the buildings survive today. Those that have been maintained appear relatively unchanged, proving that terra cotta will hold as well, sometimes even better, than its stone or iron counterparts.

Examples of terra cotta ornamental facings on building may be found throughout the downtown area, including the old Swope jewelry store (524 Wabash Ave.), the Merchants Bank Building, Terre Haute Gas Co.'s building and the Indiana Theatre. Many other buildings in this area also feature terra cotta in their architectural .

The ornament featured this week is a small tile measuring 8 inches. It's decorative surface has four stylized leaves formed in a cross. The tile once decorated the Fairbanks Building that stood on the northwest corner of Seventh and Wabash. The back of the tile still shows the finger marks where the unknown worker scooped our excess clay before the tile was pulled from its mold and fired.

The historical treasure is a part of an exhibit at the Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley featuring Victorian architectural elements.

The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday through Friday.