Historic Pottery Industry of Red Wing & Goodhue County MN

Red Wing, Minnesota

Mdewakanton Sioux occupied the site prior to the arrival of French explorers and missionaries. European and U.S. born settlement grew throughout the 1850's and 1860's. Early businesses included dry goods stores, saw mills, flour mills, lumber yards, banks, and saloons.

The map to the right shows Red Wing in 1868.

Early Red Wing Potters

In 1868 W. M. Philleo began manufacturing earthenware jars, jugs, and flower vases in Red Wing using local clay, but soon took up the production of unglazed architectural terra cotta under the name Red Wing Terra Cotta Works. His firm operated locally until 1880 before moving to St. Paul where it was known as Stillman & Philleo Terra Cotta Works.

The Red Wing Terra Cotta Company manufactured window moldings for some of the more prominent homes in Red Wing in the 1870's including the house of Philander Sprague at the corner of Hill Street and W. 3rd Street .

Stone Ware Works - Main Street 1894

Three main stone ware works factories were established along Main Street at the juncture of several rail lines and the waterfront. These factories include Minnesota Stoneware, Red Wing Stoneware, North Star Stoneware.

A non-stoneware Main Street factory site, John B. Rich Sewer Pipe Factory B, was located at the juncture of Main Street and Minnesota Street.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

Sanborn Maps was a creator and publisher of maps of U.S. cities and towns. The Sanborn Maps were originally created for assessing fire insurance liability in urbanized areas. The maps include detailed information about buildings and the built environment. The Red Wing Sanborn Map to the right is from 1902 and shows the Charles Betcher Lumber Mill and the City Pumping Station.

Red Wing Stoneware 1878-1906

The company supplied farmers with stoneware crocks and jugs for food and beverage storage. As the country grew and the Industrial Revolution took people off the farms and brought them together in towns and cities, health concerns prompted the development of sewer systems.

Red Wing Stoneware Sanborn Map 1895

Minnesota Stoneware Company 1883

Minnesota Stoneware Company was the first to use down-draft kilns. The old plant consisted of a 60' x 120' shop, a coal shed, two kilns, a 40' x 100' warehouse, straw barn and horse barn at a cost of $22,000. This shop served until the fire of 1900.

The photograph to the right shows the unexpanded shop between 1885-1887.

Minnesota Stoneware 1884 Sanborn Map

Minnesota Stoneware Company relied upon hand-turning on a potter's wheel to produce each piece. By 1889 the company employed 100 workers and consumed a total of 5,000 tons of clay to produce a 1 million gallon capacity.

Minnesota Stoneware 1883-1906

Stoneware Company Evolution

Minnesota Stoneware Company built a four-story factory building after fire destroyed the wooden building in 1900. The Red Wing Stoneware Company, the Minnesota Stoneware Company and their joint sales company, Union Stoneware Company formally merged to become Red Wing Union Stoneware Company in 1906.

The RWSCo building became known as Factory R and the MSCo plant became Factory M. Around 1910 Factory M was roughly doubled in size by the addition at the left of the main factory as seen in the photo to the right

Minnesota Stoneware 1910 Sanborn Map

North Star Stoneware Company 1892-1896

The factory was intended to have twice the capacity of the other two companies but a financial downturn closed North Star in 1896. The building was later converted to a malt house in 1900 and renamed the Minnesota Malting Company.

North Star Sanborn Map 1895

Sewer Pipe Factories A & B

John H. Rich formed his Sewer Pipe company in 1891 and with a capital stock of $200,000 purchased a tract of land near the old fairgrounds on the Duluth, Red Wing & Southern Railroad. He erected a spacious and substantial factory of cream-colored brick.

Sewer Pipe Factory Company B - 1910 Sanborn Map

Sewer Pipe Factory A - 1900

Red Wing Sewer Pipe Factory A produced clay-based pipes on a large scale. Advertisements boasted that Red Wing-made sewer pipe was the best available and asserted that pipe buyers insist upon Red Wing quality.

Sewer Pipe Factory A Sanborn 1910

Red Wing Union Stoneware 1906-1936

Red Wing Union Stoneware Company incorporated all the offshoot companies (Minnesota Stoneware/Red Wing Stoneware/North Star Stoneware/Union Stoneware).

Red Wing Union Stoneware workers unloading jugs. Note the large down-draft kiln in the background.

Red Wing Union Stoneware 1917 Sanborn Map

Red Wing Union Stoneware Company Pottery

Red Wing Union Stoneware Company produced a variety of lines including brushed ware, sponge ware, Grey Line, and glazed ware.

Clay Excavation Sites

Red Wing-based stoneware companies created the company town of Clay Bank on top of a clay deposit during the early 1890's.

Clay Mining

Clay mining was demanding work. Deposits typically laid about four feet beneath the land surface. Horse or mule-drawn scrapers slowly removed the topsoil to reveal the clay. In early years, workers hand-dug the heavy material. Later, steam-powered draglines attached to a large boom crane handled the job. Once the clay was exposed, workers shoveled it by hand into a bucket attached to the crane. Its operator dumped loaded buckets into railroad cars.

Clay Bank

Immigrants, mostly from Sweden and Norway, made up the workforce in Claybank. The stone ware firms built a dozen homes for families living on-site. Clay Bank's unmarried laborers paid for their board and room at company-owned-and-managed boardinghouses.

A post office and store were established to serve the pit workers which included two boarding houses and several family residences for 75 workers.

Clay pit mining went into decline and was abandoned in the 1960's.

Clay Bank Maps

Clay pits are still visible in Goodhue Township. The image to the right shows high-resolution Lidar digital elevation model data flown in 2020.

Zumbrota Clay Manufacturing

Zumbrota business owners also capitalized on Goodhue County clay. In 1906 Zumbrota Clay Manufacturing opened a large production facility in Minneola Township. Barr Clay products opened on a nearby site several years later. 

Barr Clay Products

Barr Clay Products found good prospects near Zumbrota Clay Manufacturing. Barr made silo tile, a building material used in the construction of silos.

Transportation Systems

The Duluth, Red Wing & Southern Railroad opened a Red Wing to Zumbrota route, later known as the "Clay Line," in 1889. Its owners saw money to be made in shipping clay to Red Wing production centers, building its first branch to Claybank in 1893. The DRW&S eventually owned thirty-two clay cars, and kept them running between Red Wing, Claybank, and Bellechester. Later railways included the Minneapolis & St. Louis RR.

Clay Cars - Red Wing Stoneware Factory

Special clay cars delivered broken-out lumps of clay directly to the pottery factories.

D.R.W. & S. railway was absorbed by Chicago Great Western in 1901.

Rail Lines 1894

Workforce Neighborhoods

Adjacent neighborhoods included Smoky Row, West Main Street, and West End (Old Fairgrounds). 

Workforce Neighborhoods Map

Completion of Highway 61 in 1960's destroyed much of what had been Smoky Row.

Smoky Rown 1940's

View of Smoky Row and Red Wing Potteries.

Smoky Row 1940's

View of Smoky Row and portion of West End along Grandview Avenue.

Red Wing Potteries 1936-1967

Red Wing Union Stoneware became Red Wing Potteries, Inc. in 1936. During the proceeding year they introduced their first non-experimental dinnerware patterns, solid color place settings, and additional art pottery pieces.

Art Pottery 1930's-1950's

As the need for stoneware products diminished with the rise of refrigeration and other household advancements, the company diversified their product line to include art pottery and dinnerware.

Rumrill Pottery was deisgned by George Rumrill of Little Rock, Arkansas and was produced by Red Wing Pottery from 1933-1938. Rumrill's designs remain some of the most distinctive of the Art Deco era.

Pottery Dump

Early pottery factory pieces with flaws and bubbles were discarded in a swampy area across the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway tracks. The Red Wing Potteries continued this tradition until plant closure in 1967. Whole pieces have been uncovered but the real treasure is in identifying and discovering uncommon forms.

An Enduring Legacy

That lure of history and the famous Red Wing Pottery is one of the reasons The Pottery Place, the state's first factory outlet mall, was opened in 1982. 

The building, where Red Wing Pottery was made for decades, is on the National Register of Historic Places. The mall still has part of the old boiler inside the main entrance, and photographs of the old pottery plant are scattered throughout the building.

Red Wing Pottery Museum

The Pottery Museum of Red Wing is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich and colorful story of Red Wing's clay industry. More than 6,000 vintage pieces of artisan-crafted stoneware, art pottery, dinnerware and folk art bring the story of historic Red Wing to life in dozens of dynamic exhibits covering 13,000 square feet.

Red Wing Collectors Society

The Red Wing Collector's Society is devoted to keeping the Red Wing legacy alive through newsletters, seminars, and summer and winter conventions. Highlights of the summer convention include release of annual commemorative pieces and an auction for members.

Historic Pottery Industry Web Mapping Application

This web mapping application shows historic pottery industry sites, historic railways, workforce neighborhoods, and Goodhue County color 1894 plats.

Story Map Sources