Another Company About To Close

You didn’t read about it in your local newspaper, unless you happen to live in Williamstown, West Virginia, but the news traveled quickly through collecting circles when the Fenton Art Glass Company announced it is planning to close.

George and Nancy Fenton perhaps hinted that the company was in trouble at the Pacific Northwest Fenton Association convention in Eugene in June when they showed a new line of Chinese merchandise that Fenton is planning to market. It was pottery, of course, but the Fentons explained that they were utilizing their design and merchandising skills to bolster the fortunes of the 100-year-old hand-made glass business.

Fenton enthusiasts were not prepared for an article in the Williamstown newspaper a few weeks later that talked about unpaid local taxes.

And then we have the shocking news that the manufacturing and decorating part of the plant was closing at the end of October. That date has currently been set back to January because of an increase in orders. There was also a hint that a restructuring was taking place and plans could change.

For those of us who collect, or buy to sell Fenton glass, it is not a happy time, despite the potential of increasing values.

For those who love all kinds of glass, it is just a continuation of the closing of American glass plants. Fenton could be going the way of Heisey, Fostoria, Cambridge, Imperial, Pilgrim and literally thousands of other hand blown or hand molded glass plants that have disappeared from the American scene.

Historically, it would seem inevitable that Fenton could not be a survivor, even though it seemed to be doing well.

How I wish I could be a rusty mould in the corner where I could watch what is and was going on, and understand for myself whether it is truly inevitable.

Costs have certainly escalated. Prices moved higher and higher. Either we as buyers became more discriminating, or quality waned. Returns may have been more frequent, despite the bin after bin of rejects we witnessed ourselves. Delivery became problematic. There were more Fentons on the payroll in recent years and more decisions being made by committee. Bill and Frank Fenton, who provided strong leadership for years, were gone. QVC, which was said to have saved the company, put Fenton in competition with their dealers.

There is always hope that the picture will change. George Fenton says the gift shop and the museum will remain open. A buyer might come along. They might fend off the creditors for awhile longer.

Change, of course, IS inevitable. We just don’t have to like it!

Ron Miller

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‘Listen’ With Your Eyes, Not Ears

A color organ was an early 20th century invention, similar to a pipe organ in that it had a keyboard and various stops. However, it made no sound. It was called a “Clavilux” and was invented by Thomas Wilfred. The art-form projections produced by the Clavilux were named “Lumia.”

Wilfred, born in Denmark, came to the United States in the early 1900s and became involved with a group who wanted to build a color organ that would demonstrate spiritual ideas.

It was an instrument on which light was manipulated, just as air is on the pipe organ, and the light could be thrown against a white field with every variety of control in pattern, movement, color, intensity of color and tempo.

As the organ was played, the setting of the stops and pressure of the keys released the neutral white light from its source and started the Clavilux working.

Wilfred founded the Art Institute of Light in New York and toured,  beginning in 1922, giving Lumia concerts in both the United States and Canada.

Wilfred also built Lumia boxes, or Clavilux Juniors. These were self-contained units looking somewhat like a console model television set. The cabinet was made of walnut, with an upper half holding a curved screen and the lower half holding the operating machinery.  These could play for months, using changeable color records, without repeating the same exact imagery - definitely a forerunner of some of today’s computer screensavers.

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Seattle Streets Named For Settlers

In 1851, 12 adults and 12 children disembarked from the little schooner Exact. Their landing place was Alki Point, on the west side of Elliot Bay across from today's downtown Seattle. Among these 24 were Arthur and Mary Denny, with their three children. They were met by Arthur's brother, David, who had come ahead, overland and by canoe.

The Dennys, along with the others of that landing party, became prominent citizens of the brand new city. They are remembered today chiefly through place names.

Denny Way was named for David Denny. He and his bride, Louisa, began their housekeeping on the bluff where the street overlooked the sound. Actually, Denny had first named the street Depot Street. He thought it was the logical place for a railroad terminus to be built for the city. A portion of Denny Way was also called Division Street for a while since streets were numbered north from it.

John Street was named for two Dennys - Arthur and David's father, John Denny, and David's son, John B.

 The father, John, joined his sons in Seattle in 1859. He was a great public speaker, with an action-packed background. He had fought under General William Harrison and served in the Illinois legislature with his good friend, Abraham Lincoln. John Street forms the north boundary of Denny Park, with Denny Way itself providing the south boundary.

Louisa Street was David Denny's wife. She, too, was one of the original 24 to land at Alki Point and was a sister to Mary Denny. The women's maiden name was Boren, the family for whom Boren Avenue is named.

The marriage of David and Louisa was the first to take place in Seattle. The ceremony took place at Arthur and Mary's cabin on January 23, 1853.

In Pigtail Days in Old Seattle, author Sophie Bass, a granddaughter of Arthur and Mary de- scribed the wedding trip in an Indian canoe. The wedding gifts were piled high, topped by chickens - a present from the justice of the peace who performed the ceremony.

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