Depression glass museum’s ‘unfortunate accident’ in Kansas leads to good fortune

It’s perhaps curious why anyone would be thankful for a disaster that forced the National Depression Glass Museum to close and eventually move, but let Pam Meyer explain.

Meyer, a Wellington native who now lives in Blackwell, Okla., is president of the National Depression Glass Association.

The group formed in 1974 to celebrate the colorful glass that had its roots in the Great Depression, when companies that made things such as oats and detergent would put plates and glasses inside their product boxes to entice shoppers during lean times.

For two decades, Meyer said the association collected that and other glassware — American-made glass from the mid-1800s through the middle of the 20th century — with the idea of one day starting a museum.

“I mean they stockpiled this forever.”

Most glass museums and manufacturers are on the East Coast, but the association wanted to reach more people with its museum.

“Our dream was always to put it in the middle of the country,” Meyer said.

Association members had a lot of suggestions on where the museum should go, such as in a big city and on a busy interstate.

“It’s got to be this, it’s got to be that,” Meyer said they would say.

Except there was no money for that wish list.

Meyer still has lots of family in the Wellington area, and she knew there were a lot of empty storefronts on Washington, the city’s main street through its small, late-1800s downtown.

The association decided to try an affordable space at 117 S. Washington, even though it barely had enough money to do it.

“I mean zero money,” Meyer said. “We stepped out on thin air when we did this.”

The narrow, dark building was cramped and couldn’t even display all of the museum’s glass, much of which was stashed in boxes.

Still, Meyer said, “We thought it was just perfect.”

The museum opened in 2011, and quickly — resignedly — the association realized it was not big enough.

“Well, we’re stuck here,” Meyer said they thought.

“None of us wanted to take on the job of packing all of us this up . . . and (moving) it someplace.”

‘Unfortunate accident’

Then came what Meyer calls an “unfortunate accident.”

She said some bricks were coming loose from the top of building in March, and work to fix them kept getting delayed. Meyer said the landlord put up some plywood for protection and had plans for repairs, but then the facade came down in July. It happened in the middle of night, she said, so no one was hurt.

“We were so fortunate.”

The museum was fortunate in a couple of other ways no one expected.

The falling brick “caused a lot of interest,” Meyer said. “There was a lot of interest and concern about the museum and being able to reopen.”

Repeated delays on fixing the building forced the association to consider a move when a building a block north, at 107 N. Washington, became available.

Meyer, her husband and three main volunteers faced the daunting task of “constantly packing and stacking and moving.”

She said she can’t even guess how many thousands of pieces of glass there are, much of which Meyer said she feels like she’s seeing for the first time.

In some cases, she is — because some glass finally is out of boxes.

Some of it, though, is simply more visible now because it’s able to be displayed better.

The space is not quite as long as the former museum, but it’s twice as wide.

“It just makes it feel so much more open and airy,” Meyer said. “It’s really interesting how that looks and feels.”

There’s also another room in the back where more glass will be displayed by sometime next year. Off of that, there’s an area that will house a library of books on glass and collecting.

“There’s still a lot to do,” Meyer said.

There’s also now a small glass store within the museum. Previously, duplicate glass pieces were for sale in cases amid glass displays.

“We’ve expanded it a lot,” Meyer said.

She said the building is better situated on Washington as well.

“There’s just more activity in this block,” she said.

It’s now closer to the popular Beehive Quilt Shop and Bee Creative Toys store, and there’s a lot of crossover traffic between them.

Meyer isn’t sure of exact numbers, but she said the museum gets more than 1,000 visitors annually. She said she thinks the museum’s new, expanded presence will become more of a regional draw.

“Already we’re getting more visitors.”

‘Tremendous asset’

The museum is having a soft opening in anticipation of a noon grand opening on Dec. 7 following Wellington’s Christmas parade.

“It gives our community a sense of pride,” Wellington Mayor Shelley Hansel said. “That is a one-of-a-kind museum, and it is in downtown Wellington.”

She said the museum not only brings local and regional visitors but international ones, too.

“It’s been a tremendous asset to our downtown.”

While not all the glass will be on display for the grand opening, there will be lots to see, including hard-to-find, high-dollar pieces along with molds and tools used by factories and examples of glass that came from the molds.

There are some unique pieces, such as glass knives, along with some adorable children’s sets of miniature vintage dish patterns.

There are cases upon cases of various patterns collected together, such as milky green 1930s-era jadeite and 1950s-era Candlewick, which is part of a category called elegant glass that a lot of brides of that time purchased instead of china.

In the front of the museum, there’s a large display of stretch glass — a type of glass from the early 1900s made with an iridescent effect — that Stretch Glass Society president Cal Hackeman loaned the museum.

“He drove from North Carolina to put this display in so we would have something pretty in the windows while we were moving,” Meyer said. “Isn’t that cool?”

Hackeman said it’s the museum that’s fabulous.

“The museum is wonderful because it is promoting and preserving that glassware, and they’ve done a fabulous job,” he said. “They have cases there that take you from A to Z.”

This is the second time Hackeman has loaned some of his glass to the museum.

“We’re helping people discover the beauty of the glass.”

Meyer said the museum’s glass helps people tap into memories, too.

She said she hears people say things such as, “Grandma used to serve our potatoes in this at Thanksgiving,” and “When we would visit grandma, we would get our milk out of these glasses.”

“I challenge you to walk in and and not smile,” Meyer said. “It makes you feel good.”

Her family lived with her grandparents when her father served in World War II, and Meyer said, “I remember my grandmother collected the Dogwood pattern out of Dove’s detergent.”

Meyer was just a few years old.

“I can remember those coming out of the box thinking how fun that was,” she said. “Sometimes they came in chicken feed sacks.”

Often times, people then made aprons and dresses out of the sacks.

“There’s a lot of different things that you learn,” Meyer said.

Her collection of Cambridge glass swans is on display at the museum.

“My husband calls it my duck pond.”

It had been sitting in a box since she downsized her home.

“So I can see it again, too.”

If glass ever breaks at the museum, Meyer said it gets made into jewelry that’s then sold at glass shows.

“You hate to throw it away.”

The museum gets monetary donations from all over the country to help with its survival, but it also regularly seeks more glass locally and nationally, too.

“Always, always,” Meyer said. “We’re just scratching the surface here.”

That’s even though she said that “you can walk in here forever and not see everything.”

“Every day I see something . . . that I haven’t seen before or I learn something about the glass . . . and it’s a lot of fun to see what’s next. I never know.”