Glass making is important part of Charleroi’s history

Glass is Charleroi.

Built on the foundation of thousands of workers, although the name has changed over the years, Pyrex has deep roots in the Magic City.

It started when the Macbeth- Evans Glass Company was formed in 1899 by the merger of two Pittsburgh glass firms: Thomas Evans & Co. (1869-99) and George A. Macbeth Co. (1872-99).

Thomas Evans & Co. produced lamp chimneys, while George A. Macbeth Co. manufactured lamp chimneys, reflectors and lantern globes.

The Macbeth-Evans Glass Company was located in Charleroi, where George A. Macbeth purchased land and opened a production facility in 1893.

When the two companies merged in 1899, they also purchased American Lamp Chimney Co. in Toledo, Ohio, and its license to produce lamp chimneys on the Owens glassblowing machine.

By 1919, the company made not only lamp chimneys, but also globes, shades and bowls for lighting, a number of railway and shipping lighting products, and lighthouse lenses with prisms. Other products included laboratory ware, tumblers, vacuum bottle glass, plates for dental chairs, glass for automatic milking machines and automobile headlights.

Automatic glass pressing was introduced in the late 1920s, leading to the manufacture of tableware.

Opalescent glasses and structural glass blocks began to be made in the 1930s.

In 1936, Macbeth-Evans was purchased by Corning Glass Works and was renamed Corning Glass Works Macbeth-Evans Division, and later Corning Glass Works Charleroi Plant.

In 1998, the plant was sold to World Kitchen as part of the company’s divestiture of its consumer products division.

The company has been known for its production of many things, including Pyrex, the iconic heat- and shatter- resistant glassware that has been a staple in American kitchens for generations.

Pyrex (trademarked as PYREX) is a brand introduced by Corning Inc.

In 1998, Corning sold the Pyrex brand name to World Kitchen LLC.

In 2018, Corelle Brands received a $2.5 million grant from the Redevelopment Capital Assistance Program to modernize the world-renown Pyrex brand glassware manufacturing facility in Charleroi.

That same year the facility in Charleroi received the Governor’s Award for Safety Excellence.

In February 2019, Corelle Brands announced a $16 million facility upgrade, supported by the previously announced grant. The upgrades were expected to help retain jobs and modernize the facility, but it switched hands again to Instant Brands about four years ago.

Instant Brands, which runs household brands Corelle, Pyrex, CorningWare, Snapware and Chicago Cutlery, was majority owned by private equity firm Cornell Capital, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2023.

In October 2023, private equity firm Centre Lane Partners acquired the company after a competitive bankruptcy auction when the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas approved the company pursuing the sale of its housewares and appliance businesses to affiliates of Centre Lane Partners, one of Anchor Hocking’s largest stockholders.

Anchor Hocking took over the Charleroi plant in March.

Anchor Hocking fired up the first glass plant in Lancaster, Ohio, in 1905.