The 79 Year History of the Glass in Weston, West Virginia

The story of Glassworks must start with a glimpse of Mr. Louie Wohinc, the man who started Louie Glass Company in Weston, WV in 1926. Louie was born in 1880 in Lunlana, Austria. When he was 9 years old he began working in a glass factory in Sagor, Austria. Louie came to Rochester, Pennsylvania to join an uncle in the glasshouse there in 1905. He stayed briefly at various glass houses including one in Tiffin, Ohio then Huntington, WV then Shadyside, then Bastow Manufacturing Company, in Weston, WV and finally around 1910 Louie worked at Belgrade Glass Company in Buckhannon, WV where he stayed for the next ten years. Louie spoke no English and had very little money when he came to America, but by the time he got to Ohio he knew that one day he wanted to have his own factory.

After World War I, Louie returned to Weston but was almost penniless. Soon however, he had a job again at Bastow Manufacturing. In Weston he became a champion glassblower of America. His reputation was that he blew more stemware in a single shift than any other man has ever blown. This record supposedly still stands today! Before Louie had been back with Bastow very long, the firm was operating at a loss. In spite of the excellent quality of glassware produced, sales decreased. The directors offered the management of the company to Louie because he had demonstrated his ability to blow glass and had abundant experience with other glass blowers. But up to now he had no sales experience, the one line of training with extreme importance to the success of the factory. Louie was fearless and had limitless energy.

Although Louie became very good at sales, he could not control the policies of the Bastow company and after 6 years he decided to establish his own factory, the Louie Glass Company, in 1926. With his sales experience orders came from every section of the country. With Louie gone, the Bastow Company was seeing their business decline so they asked Louie to take charge again and he did. This gave him products of two large factories to sell. Louie Glass was in great demand. In fact, he was forced to build a third factory and in 1930 he organized the new West Virginia Glass Company, which was located in Weston as well.

Louie Wohinc operated these plants until his death in 1950 as a result of an unfortunate bar fight accident. Margaret Wohinc, Louie’s daughter, then took over management of the Weston plant until January 1972 when she sold the plant to Princess House, Inc., which sold the glassware through home party plans. In August 1977, the old plant was torn down to make way for a new building. In March 1978, the Colgate-Polmolive Corporation bought Princess House and Louie Glass. This factory operated as an exclusive producer for the Princes House sales organization for almost 30 years.

A change in the marketing direction by Princess House to continue their growth to a demanding American and in an international marketplace prompted Princess House to sell the facility in October 2000. Entrepreneurial and experienced in the glass industry, a team of four owners, including Robert Gonze, purchased the facility and immediately set out to market the strength of the largest remaining American mouth blown glass shop. Unfortunately, the imported products now available in the clear, thin walled commodity type of glass produced in the factory were much less expensive from countries in the Pacific Rim. Glassworks was forced to move to new types of glass and selected art glass and cameo glass to change its manufacturing tools to produce. A vision of American glass artists fusing with American glass manufacturing was in place and a Studio Glassworks product line was in development. Cameo Glass, a process of carving designs through layers of colors, was planned to become a factory mainstay. Artists, Kelsey Murphy and Robert Bomkamp, were leading the way for this unique West Virginia factory art form.

In 2004 Glassworks went bankrupt as a result of overseas trading. The factory was bought by Capredoni, a glass company specializing in glass “ice” sculptures, and was in business until December 2005, when it closed down.