History
East Liverpool traces its beginning to 1798 when Thomas Fawcett purchased 1,100 acres of land along the Ohio River in what was then Jefferson County. In 1802 he platted the town of St. Clair, named for Arthur St. Clair, who at that time was Governor of the Northwest Territory. It was called Fawcettstown for a time by the residents. In 1816, the name was changed to Liverpool. It was incorporated as East Liverpool in 1834 when a Liverpool in western Ohio (now defunct) protested the use of its name by this newer town.
James Bennett, an English potter, established the pottery industry in East Liverpool, and it became the community's leading employer. East Liverpool became known as "The Crockery City." East Liverpool once produced more than half of the United States's annual ceramics output. Throughout East Liverpool's ceramics history there were more than 300 potteries. Of these, three remain: The Hall China Company, the Homer Laughlin China Company (located across the Ohio River in Newell, West Virginia) and Pioneer Pottery.
East Liverpool also produced most of the yellowware pottery used in the United States in the mid-19th century.
Among the most famous of East Liverpool's ceramics was the porcelain known as Lotus Ware. Produced by Knowles, Taylor & Knowles in the 1890s, this Moorish- and Persian-influenced artware swept the competition at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. It is generally considered to be the finest porcelain ever produced in the US. The Museum of Ceramics in downtown East Liverpool has the country's largest public display of Lotus Ware.
Since the mid-1960s or so, East Liverpool's pottery industry has steadily declined. This has been because pottery workers in less-developed countries—among them China, South Korea and Taiwan--are paid a small fraction of the wage of American workers.
In the mid-1990s, the city renovated its downtown district, with Great Depression-era lightposts, a new center of town called Devon's Diamond, and the reconstruction of the old High School's clocktower, which is now home of the East Liverpool High School Alumni Association.
Read more about this topic: East Liverpool, Ohio
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