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Mountain Hopping 2016:
McNicol

Above, the McNicol site would have been just beyond these mailboxes on Water Street, and north of the Universal Sales building (formerly Pittsburgh Plate Glass), shown below.
Above, this shows the old PPG building, south of the McNicol site. Across the street in this wooded strip between Water Street and Elk Creek is where we found shards.
McNicol shards
McNicol China drawing and photo
Above, a drawing and plant photo taken from a McNicol catalog.
Click here for Google's Street View of the plant's location. It will be ahead and to the right. To the left, across the street in the grassy area, is where we found shards and bricks. Below, the site was bounded by Water Street, the PPG plant and Woodland Avenue. Latitude, longitude: 39.257572, -80.3169982.
McNicol: West Virginia State Parks
Above, McNicol was one of several manufacturers (along with Carr) that made china for the West Virginia State Parks cabins. There were three drawings, this deer, a quail and a log cabin. On some pieces, only the small, circular West Virginia State Seal would be used. Below, a Carlton pattern plate topmarked for the New Celestial Chinese restaurant in Baltimore. And at the bottom of the page, a mug made for The Old Mill Club, location unknown.
McNicol: New Celestial Chinese restaurant
McNicol: The Old Mill Club

We thought McNicol – in Clarksburg – was going to be the hardest site to find, and it was, mainly because anytime we asked people we met if they knew where it was, they'd rub the toe of their their shoes slowly back and forth in the dirt and say things like: "McNicol ... (long pause) ... I don't think anyone alive still knows where it was ... (long pause) ... and if you do find it, it's going to have been paved over."

So we turned to Roger Hardy, the most likely suspect we could think of while we were in Clarksburg. He owns West End Antiques on West Pike Street in Clarksburg and seemed by consensus to know where all the bodies are buried in Harrison and Taylor Counties. (Roger also has a magnificent collection of Carr and McNicol and an entire room devoted to Akro Agate, which was well known for its marbles and slag glass.)

Sure enough, when we asked Roger, we got the typical extended pause, but then he started giving us directions straight to it – more or less – but ended by saying he'd never actually been there!

It was the best we had; we headed from his shop downtown south on Route 20 and through Nutter Fort, then turned left across Elk Creek and then up Water Street, which apparently is in Stonewood.

There we were on our own. We picked an old brick building that seemed most likely, but we couldn't find anyone with much information except to say that it used to be the Pittsburgh Plate Glass building.

But in a grassy area across from there we started finding shards and bricks and knew we were there, even if we still weren't positive exactly where "there" was.


Follow up: When we came home, Dave McGrann told us that our mutual friend Bill Mongtomery used to work at McNicol when he was in college. And in going back and forth with Bill to pin down the location, we found that McNicol was to the left (north) when you look at the old brick buildings that have "Universal Sales" on the front – the old PPG plant. When you look at it on this Google Street View link, you'll see that the site is ahead and slightly to the right.

McNicol backstamps

A few McNicol backstamps, from top, the banner on white body (1931-60s); Roloc, McNicol's tan-bodied ware; Paragon, McNicol's blue-bodied ware; and a tan body made by McNicol-Martin (circa 1966 to end of business in 1969).


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Digging in West Virginia, Pennsylvania & Ohio

The Carr China site
Page 1: The grounds
Page 2: The shards
Page 3: After the first cleanup in 2009
Page 4: The final cleanup

 

Page 5: Mountain Hopping 2016
             Trenle-Blake
             McNicol
             Carr (again)          
             Mayer
             Shenango
             Jackson
Page 6: River Hopping 2017
             McNicol (again)
             Warwick
             Sterling
             Hall/Homer Laughlin
             Bedford China/                   
             Bailey-Walker/Walker

             Fraunfelter

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