Development eyed for former glass factory

WELLSBURG — As crews set about razing the front portion of the former Brooke Glass factory on Eighth Street, David Rithner, who served as the company’s last vice president, shared history and memories of the 140-year-old building with leaders of the Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle, who hope to redevelop the property.

The BDC has used about $240,000 in federal, state and local funds to assess and perform environmental remediation of the two-story building and two-acre site.

BDC Acting Director Marvin Six said the group had planned to demolish the entire structure but learned the central section, which had been occupied by the company’s production line, was structurally sound.

He said the original building had stood at the rear but was razed years ago after a portion of it fell onto the adjacent paved trail.

Six said the roof of the front section, which had been used for offices and storage, was found to be very unstable, with support beams for the roof at risk of collapsing.

Rithner said the original rear section was built in 1879 by Riverside Glass, an earlier glass manufacturer that closed in the early 1900s. He said it was bought in 1911 by his great-grandfather, Henry Rithner I, and a business partner who then owned a company known as Crescent Glass after their own glass factory on the city’s north end was destroyed by a fire.

Established in 1908, Crescent was one of 37 glass factories that once operated in Brooke County, most of them in Wellsburg.

During the years, two sections were added to the former Riverside Glass building to facilitate Crescent’s production of an assortment of glass products, including lenses for railroad lanterns, head and taillights for early automobiles and bottles for various products.

In 1980 its name was changed to Brooke Glass.

Rithner recalled a period when up to 125 workers produced more than 30,000 candle holders per day.

“It was a madhouse. It was crowded in there,” he said.

His late father, Henry Rithner III, was the company’s last president. A graduate of Bethany College, where he majored in chemistry, he had completed studies in glass technology at the New York State Ceramics School.

David Rithner said the company had a record year in sales just a few years before it closed in 2001.

Rithner blames the closing on competition from Chinese glass companies which, in addition to being subsidized by their government, used designs stolen from Brooke Glass, he said.

Rithner said it’s rare that former glass factories are repurposed because they were built with little insulation to allow the tremendous heat used in glass production to be released outside.

“In the shops it might be as hot as 120 degrees,” he said.

Under the BDC’s direction, crews have removed assorted hazardous materials commonly used in the production of glass.

They include arsenic, cobalt and cadmium, which all were used to produce colored glass.

“We came across several unmarked containers,” said Six, who added that like many old buildings, the former factory also contained lead paint and asbestos.

Six said some asbestos remains in the existing section but it is in panels that can be removed without harm “as long as you don’t break them.”

He said for such projects the BDC may apply for funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that aren’t available to private property owners.

“We get bad buildings and properties and try to clean them up the best we can and try to get them into the hands of private developers,” Six said.

He said because the building is part of the city’s historic district and federal and state funds are being used, its history must be acknowledged in some way inside to comply with the state Historic Preservation Office.

Six noted he and former BDC director Pat Ford have donated to the Brooke County Museum various items found in the building, including glass samples, molds and a briefcase containing brochures and business cards used by Henry Rithner III to market his company’s product.

The former Brooke Glass president said at a meeting held by the BDC prior to his death that he hoped the building could be made productive again, saying it should be more than a target for vandalism.

David Rithner expressed a similar sentiment, saying, “It served a purpose for more than 100 years and I hope it can be of use to the community again.”

(Scott can be contacted at wscott@heraldstaronline.com.)