James Bennett established the first commercial pottery in 1840 and marketed ware beyond the local area using the Ohio River.
The boom
The shift from yellow ware to whiteware in the 1870s accelerated growth. By the turn of the century, local producers were making roughly half of America’s ceramics.
The scale
The Museum of Ceramics says more than 200 pottery factories operated in and around the district over time. Cleveland Memory notes more than 100 in the 1840–1940 period alone.
