Heritage in the Hat: The war in china

By Medicine Hat News on May 26, 2018.

Except for former employees and neighbours, many people confuse Medalta, Medicine Hat Potteries and Hycroft China. Medicine Hat Potteries is the original name for Hycroft, but Medalta is a separate site. Both are in the Historic Clay District and under the stewardship of the Friends of Medalta today but were once fierce competitors in pottery.

The various clay products industries located in the River Flats near the CPR were once the foremost employer in the city. Many clay industry workers lived in the neighbourhoods north and south of the railway. Alberta Clay Products (ACP) was the largest producer of sewer pipe and associated glazed products in Western Canada. Medalta and the Medicine Hat Brick and Tile were just down the road to the east.

In the late 1930s, the manager of ACP, J. Harlan “Hop” Yuill, decided to build a new pottery plant as a division of ACP on a site immediately to the east. The Medicine Hat Potteries began production in 1938, offering more delicate and ornate products than Medalta and identifiable by their Little Chief trademark.

Featuring curved walls and glass block windows typical of Art Moderne architecture, and equipped with cutting edge technology, the factory was designed to combine utilitarian considerations with the period concern for creating attractive and safe workplaces.

A long bank of clerestory windows bathed the soothing, muted blue interior colour scheme with natural light, intended to promote worker satisfaction. A loudspeaker system to broadcast radio programs and records, a soft drink cooler and water fountain on the factory floor, and modern safety devices were features that allowed the Medicine Hat Potteries to attract skilled workers away from its rival Medalta.

The factory also featured the latest in clay products technology, including a circular tunnel kiln measuring over 20 metres in diameter, at the time the largest such kiln in Canada, and much more efficient than the beehive kilns of its competitor. An adjacent warehouse was constructed in 1947.

In 1955, the company was purchased by Marwell Construction of Vancouver and the name of the venture was changed to Hycroft China. Only two years later, the operation was sold again, this time to Harry Veiner, entrepreneur and the mayor of Medicine Hat. Veiner diversified its product line, adding sanitary ware such as toilets (the “Albertan”) and sinks to the company’s traditional pottery and souvenir items.

Veiner’s innovations boosted the company’s sales and Hycroft China continued to operate until the plant was closed in the late 1980s due to stiff foreign competition. Everything was left largely intact, complete with moulds, tools and time clock with employee punch cards.

The Medicine Hat Potteries/Hycroft China was acquired by the Friends of Medalta in 1992 and designated a Provincial Historic Resource in 1995 due to its association with southern Alberta’s important clay products industry and its fine and largely intact example of modern factory architecture of the era. The factory complex suffered settlement damage from the 2013 flood and a recent attack of vandalism, both challenges to Medalta’s recent efforts to restore this important historic site.

Malcolm Sissons is the Chair of the Heritage Resources Committee. This column drew heavily on the Statement of Significance for this Provincial Historic Resource.

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