Bybee Pottery

Last updated
Bybee Pottery
Bybee Pottery.jpg
USA Kentucky location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location Kentucky Route 52, Bybee, Kentucky
Coordinates 37°43′58″N84°7′29″W / 37.73278°N 84.12472°W / 37.73278; -84.12472 Coordinates: 37°43′58″N84°7′29″W / 37.73278°N 84.12472°W / 37.73278; -84.12472
Area2 acres (0.81 ha)
Builtc.1845
NRHP reference No. 78001380 [1]
Added to NRHPJuly 24, 1978

Bybee Pottery was a pottery company based in Bybee, a community in Madison County, Kentucky, USA. It was founded in 1809 by Webster Cornelison and members of the same Cornelison family continued to make and sell pottery until 2011. Bybee Pottery sold a wide variety of products and encouraged customers to interact with the artisans and tour the building that had survived six generations and the Civil War. [2]

Located in a vernacular structure with the appearance of a barn, Bybee Pottery was considered the oldest pottery operation in the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains. [3] Employees procured the yellow clay from a nearby source close to the banks of the Kentucky River.

The pottery's earliest years are undocumented; the earliest clear references to the facility are sales records from 1845, but even this date demonstrates that Cornelison is Madison County's oldest industry. Pottery was first thrown at Cornelison by a local farmer, James Eli Cornelison, who observed that his farm contained substantial amounts of high-quality clay that was ready for industrial purposes without any preparation. [3] A family cousin, Ron Stambaugh, owned a retail outlet that sold Bybee pottery among other items under the name, A Little Bit of Bybee.

The pottery facility was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 as Cornelison Pottery. [1] The fifth and sixth generations of the Cornelison family in the business continued to operate the pottery on a commercial basis. [4]

In February 2011, Bybee Pottery laid off its eight remaining employees, sold off remaining in-store inventory, and suspended operations. While it was neither producing nor selling products at the time, the owners stated that there was product formed that could be fired. [5] As of 2019 new pieces were still being produced, but at a much smaller rate, and sold out of a new shop in Middletown, Kentucky. [6]

Related Research Articles

Seagrove, North Carolina Town in North Carolina, United States

Seagrove is a town in Randolph County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 285 at the 2019 census. It was named after a railroad official when the area was connected by rail. The center of population of North Carolina is located a few miles east of Seagrove.

Greensboro, Pennsylvania Historic district in Pennsylvania, United States

Greensboro is a borough in Greene County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 267 at the 2020 census, up from 260 at the 2010 census.

Kolomoki Mounds Archaeological site in Georgia, US

The Kolomoki Mounds is one of the largest and earliest Woodland period earthwork mound complexes in the Southeastern United States and is the largest in Georgia. Constructed from 350CE to 600CE, the mound complex is located in southwest Georgia, in present-day Early County near the Chattahoochee River.

Bombergers Distillery United States historic place

Bomberger's Distillery, more recently Michter's Distillery, is a non-operating distillery facility that was, at the end of the twentieth century, believed to be the oldest remaining such building in the United States. The distillery closed in 1989. Although there are whiskey products currently on the market using the Bomberger's and Michter's brand names, they are more recently introduced products that have no direct connection to the old distillery.

Riverside, The Farnsley–Moremen Landing Historic house in Kentucky, United States

Riverside, The Farnsley–Moremen Landing is a historic 300-acre (120 ha) farm and house in south end Louisville, Kentucky, along the banks of the Ohio River. The house, a red brick I-house with a two-story Greek Revival

National Register of Historic Places listings in Jefferson County, Kentucky

The table below includes sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in Jefferson County, Kentucky except those in the following neighborhoods/districts of Louisville: Anchorage, Downtown, The Highlands, Old Louisville, Portland and the West End. Links to tables of listings in these other areas are provided below.

Grinter Place Historic house in Kansas, United States

Grinter Place is a house on the National Register of Historic Places above the Kansas River in the Muncie neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas.

Grand Canyon Village Historic District Historic district in Arizona, United States

Grand Canyon Village Historic District comprises the historic center of Grand Canyon Village, on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. The district includes numerous landmark park structures, many of which are National Historic Landmarks themselves, or are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The town design as a whole is also significant for its attention to integration with the Grand Canyon landscape, its incorporation of National Park Service Rustic design elements, and for the idiosyncratic design of park concessioner structures such as the El Tovar Hotel.

National Register of Historic Places listings in Washington County, Kentucky

This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Washington County, Kentucky.

National Register of Historic Places listings in Barren County, Kentucky

This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Barren County, Kentucky.

National Register of Historic Places listings in Christian County, Kentucky

This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Christian County, Kentucky.

Stone House by the Stone House Brook Historic house in New Jersey, United States

Stone House by the Stone House Brook, also known as Old Stone House, is located at 219 South Orange Avenue in South Orange, Essex County, New Jersey, United States. It is one of the oldest extant structures in New Jersey, the original portion house built prior to 1680. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 22, 1991, for its significance in historic archaeology, education, community planning and development, and politics/government.

Joseph Mitchell House Historic building in Indiana, USA

The Joseph Mitchell House is a historic residence in southern Monroe County, Indiana, United States. Located on Ketcham Road west of the community of Smithville, it is one of the oldest houses in Monroe County, and it has been designated a historic site.

Beech Grove Cemetery (Muncie, Indiana) United States historic place

Beech Grove Cemetery is a large historical cemetery and national historic district located at Muncie, Indiana. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

Woodward Heights, Lexington United States historic place

Woodward Heights is a neighborhood and historic district located immediately west of downtown Lexington, Kentucky. It is bounded by Maxwell Street and the Pleasant Green Hill neighborhood to the southwest, by the parking lot for Rupp Arena to the southeast, by the Lexington Convention Center property to the northeast, and by Herlihy, Cox, and High Streets to the north.

Botherum Historic house in Kentucky, United States

Botherum was built for Madison C. Johnson in 1850 or 1851 by John McMurtry, a well-known architect and builder based in Lexington. The house was intended, in part, as a shrine to Johnson's late wife Sally Ann, a sister of Cassius Marcellus Clay who died giving birth in 1828.

Startup Candy Factory United States historic place

The Startup Candy Company is the oldest candy company in Utah and one of the oldest candy companies in the United States. William Startup started making candy in his basement in Manchester, England in 1820. He developed the first hard candy and called it “American Cough Candy” because he hoped to bring his new recipe to America one day. However, William died before making it to America, but he left his legacy to his son and namesake. William Startup Jr. learned the candy-making process as a young boy and continued to run his father’s candy business. 

Jugtown Pottery United States historic place

Jugtown Pottery was founded in 1921 by Jacques and Juliana Busbee, artists from Raleigh, North Carolina, who in 1917 discovered an orange pie dish and traced it back to Moore County. There, they found a local tradition of utilitarian pottery in orange, earthenware, and salt glazes. The Busbees saw an opportunity to help save a dying craft, and in 1918 they set up the village store in Greenwich Village, New York, in order to sell the pottery. Potters they worked with over the years included J. H. Owen, Charlie Teague, and Ben Owen.

Kenton Hills Porcelains

Kenton Hills Porcelains were high-fired soft paste porcelain products manufactured by Kenton Hills Porcelains, Inc. Ceramics were produced from 1940 to 1943 in Erlanger, Kentucky, with sales continuing to 1944. All ceramic products were made from native clays. Products include vases, bookends, figurines, lamp bases, and flowerpots.

James E. Pepper American whiskey brand

James E. Pepper is an American whiskey brand. The brand is named after a historic American whiskey maker with that name who built and operated a distillery in Lexington, Kentucky, and marketed his whiskey under his family's brand name "Old Pepper" and under his own name. The brand's distillery, known as the Henry Clay distillery and later as the Old Pepper distillery and James E. Pepper distillery, was shut down in 1958 and was left abandoned for more than 50 years until Amir Peay purchased the historic distillery site and relaunched the brand name in 2008. Distilling resumed at the site in 2017.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Eblen, Tom (2009-02-22), "Bybee Pottery celebrates 200 years", Lexington Herald-Leader. Retrieved on February 23, 2009.
  3. 1 2 Wilson, Frederick T. (December 1976). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Cornelison Pottery / Bybee Pottery". National Park Service. and accompanying three photos
  4. "Little Bit of Bybee, Handmade Pottery" . Retrieved July 19, 2013.
  5. Robinson, Bill (2011-05-31), "After two centuries, Bybee Pottery now facing its toughest challenge", Richmond Register. Retrieved on June 12, 2011.
  6. Carlson, John (13 March 2019), "It's Bye-Bye Bybee", Muncie Journal, Muncie, Indiana