It’s a pretty safe bet to suggest that this photo probably wasn’t taken in South Carolina. But where is it? Send your guess about the location of this photo to feedback@statehousereport.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.
Our previous Mystery Photo
The subject of our April 19 mystery, “What’s this old photo?” proved to be pretty tough. Several readers thought it was an old photo of a Duke’s mayonnaise factory in Greenville, which was an outstanding guess. Others guessed a cane syrup bottler or the Blenheim Ginger Ale plant in Dillon County. In fact, this Mystery Photo portrays an old glass factory in Laurens County during the Depression.
Congratulations to three intrepid readers who correctly identified the photo: Karen Owens of Columbia; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; and Dale Rhodes of Richmond, Va..
Hard work pays off
Graf told us gave up on identifying the photo at one point after a lot of research on glass jar production in South Carolina. But after a break, he went back to the challenge and “was able to see that the jars had a certain texture. I did research on that and found the jars are called waffle textured. So, when I looked at waffle-textured jars, I saw one that looked promising and it was made in Laurens S.C.. I then researched historical glass jar photos in Laurens and after perseverance, I got the image in your mystery photo.”
He also sent this context about the Laurens Glass Works: “When deposits of the mineral silica, important for glassmaking, were found a few miles north of Laurens, a group of local businessmen organized Laurens Glass Works in 1910. Nathaniel B. Dial, who later became a U.S. senator, was among the organizers and was its first president. The local silica was never mined, however, because shipping it from the eastern part of South Carolina proved more cost-efficient.
“Laurens Glass struggled during its early years. Skilled glassblowers had to be brought in from Ohio and Pennsylvania. When the company was reorganized in 1913, Nathaniel Dial’s nephew Albert was named president and served until 1928. Shortly after this reorganization, Laurens Glass obtained the first license in the United States to manufacture Coca-Cola bottles. The company remained one of the few suppliers of Coke bottles until after World War II. By the mid-1940s the automated Laurens Glass had more than four hundred employees.
“Between 1959 and 1968 Laurens Glass expanded, opening plants in Henderson, North Carolina, and Ruston, Louisiana. As the soft drink industry switched to nonglass containers, the company’s main product became food jars. In 1968 the company merged with the Indian Head Corporation of Delaware, which moved its glass container headquarters to Laurens in the mid-1970s. Additional mergers further affected company operations, with subsequent corporate owners deeming the Laurens facility no longer cost-effective for modern manufacturing. In 1996 the Laurens Glass plant closed, putting four hundred people out of work.”
- Send us a mystery: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!