Ostensibly built in 1952, the ceramic cornerstone low on the northeast corner of the building reads "1951 1966", the "1966" possibly referring to later renovations, the "1951" the year the building was begun, 1952 the year of the building's completion.
The Pottery was purpose built as an artist's studio, housing a display and sales room and studios with potters wheels and other equipment for throwing pots and other ceramic arts.
As do many locations within the the
Archie Bray Foundation, the building itself displays ceramic artworks in the form of ceramic panels, most, if not all, created by artisans on site. Throughout the site one will encounter a plethora of ceramic artworks, some incorporated into structures, many seemingly scattered about among the buildings and other structures.
The Western Clay Manufacturing Company Historic District contains the relatively intact buildings and structures which once comprised the major brick manufacturing facility in Montana, producing brick for many of the most architecturally and historically significant buildings in Montana. As well, the complex manufactured other important clay products such as paving brick and sewer tile. The complex still houses a significant collection of late 19th and early 20th century brick and tile manufacturing machinery and apparatus.
Begun as a brick factory in Butte, MT by C.C. Thurston in the 1870s, the Butte business was moved to the Helena area in 1883, and bought in 1885 by Nicholas Kessler, a native of Luxemburg, who emigrated to the United States in 1854. Kessler had begun producing brick in another Helena brickyard in 1866. Another major Helena brick maker, Jacob Switzer, operated a brick making facility near his clay pits at Blossburg. In 1905 the Switzer and the Kessler works merged, incorporating the
Western Clay Manufacturing Company. By 1915, Western Clay had become Montana's largest clay product manufacturer.
Western Clay Manufacturing produced some of the highest quality brick in Montana. Bricks from this plant were specified by architects for some of the most prominent public buildings around the state and can be seen today in such buildings as Fort Harrison in Helena, the Federal Courthouses at Butte and Helena, the Civic Center and the First National Trust Co. in Helena, the state hospital at Galen, the campuses of state universities at Missoula, Bozeman, Butte, Havre, and Dillon, aw well as other buildings as far away as Kalispel and Billings.
Today the complex is also home to the
Archie Bray Foundation, a ceramics school which grew out of the clay products manufacturing business and which enjoys a national reputation in pottery and the ceramic arts.
The Pottery
The Pottery is an irregularly shaped one story brick and tile structure with intersecting gable roofs. Windows are fixed. The building houses a front display and sales room, the office of the Archie Bray Foundation, store rooms, and studios with potters wheels and other equipment for throwing pots and other ceramic arts. Over the main door is a plaque of fired clay which says "The Pottery". Throughout the brick exterior of the building are set other decorative clay pieces as well, many of which were produced by the Western Clay Manufacturing Co.
Archie Bray Sr., owner and manager of the Western Clay Manufacturing Co. from the time of his father's death in 1930 until his own death in 1953, was also a patron of the arts in Helena. For example, he helped found the Community Concert series for that community. One of his long-time dreams was to establish a foundation which would support the ceramic arts. His dream was realized in 1951 when the pottery was founded in the drying shop of the Western Clay Manufacturing Co. The next year, two of his first potters, Rudy Audio and Peter Voulkos, laid the brick and tile for this building and the pottery annex which would house the Archie Bray Foundation. The Foundation continues to this day as a significant ceramic arts educational institution.
Other than the rearrangement of store rooms and so on, The Pottery has not been significantly altered since it was built. The Pottery contributes to the Western Clay Manufacturing Co. district as the central building in the Archie Bray Foundation complex of buildings.
From the NRHP Registration Form, Page 21