At one time, as much as 70 percent of the world’s glass was manufactured in a small Westmoreland County city 30 miles outside of Pittsburgh.
“There were two glass factories being built at the same time, side by side, in 1888. And as quickly as they built the factories, the city of Jeannette grew around it,” said John Howard, the president of the Jeannette Historical Society.
Windows, tableware, bottles -- glass products poured out of the seven glass factories operating in and around the city, and shipped all over the world. The early 1900s saw the city double in population, then triple.
And then Jeannette became one of the first victims of the demise of manufacturing in America. Like dominoes, the factories fell throughout the 1980s until only one remained.
“I have three kids, none of them work in Jeannette,” Mr. Howard said. “Their friends, none of them work in Jeannette. I would say the path for a young person is to go where the jobs are. I don’t want to say they leave Jeannette, but they go where the jobs are. I mean, we’ve lost half our population.”
Those who have remained in the city are facing a dwindling population, an opioid epidemic, and empty storefronts along the once-bustling main street of Clay Avenue.
One lone glass factory remains in the city: Jeannette Specialty Glass, or JSG Oceana, which has been in glass production since 1904. Christina Jansure, vice president of sales and marketing, credits the company’s longevity to its ability to roll with the punches of the 1980s.
“Whenever glass lighting had moved to China and overseas, we diversified and brought out the decorative glass sink line,” Ms. Jansure said. “We’ve just looked at different industries to see where borosilicate glass is needed, and we’ve kind of targeted those areas.”
But business and political leaders in Jeannette are determined to not let the city die along with its glass industry. Local manufacturers like the Elliott Group, which makes turbo-machinery and employs almost 10 percent of Jeannette, not only remain but even is expanding. The land where Jeannette Glass once stood recently was purchased by the county and is earmarked for industrial development.
Jeannette Mayor Curtis Antoniak has said he feels “very confident” that a sale of the property from the county to the Elliott Group will be finalized. Christianne Bash, a communications manager for the company, said construction would begin as soon as ownership is transferred.
“The Jeannette Glass site is one of the remaining prioritized brownfield sites, and it’s been identified for redevelopment for the last 20 years,” said Jason Rigone, director of the Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corporation.
The county purchased the site in a 2016 tax sale from former property owner, Abe Zion, who battled the city of Jeannette for decades in court over legal issues regarding the land. Mr. Zion purchased the Jeannette Glass site in 1983 after the factories there closed, and promised to develop it, but the plans never materialized.
Mr. Rigone said when the county entered the site, it was contaminated with asbestos and required a considerable clean-up effort.
In the wake of recent progress on the site after decades of stagnation, city officials are cautiously optimistic about Jeannette’s future.
“Unfortunately, with Jeannette Glass … I always say things serve their purpose, and it’s sad to see them leave,” said Mr. Antoniak. “But in the city, we have the Elliott Company doing well, and OMNOVA Solutions, they’re doing well. And there’s going to be a lot of development going on in that area where Jeannette Glass was.
“We won’t be like we were before, but we’re going to come back.”
Even those in the medical marijuana industry have seen the city’s potential. Cannabis producer Hippocratic Growth LLC, a company that runs a dispensary out of Maryland, is hoping to turn a vacant warehouse property in the city into another dispensary.
“Jeannette is a town that industry abandoned when the glass trade left,” said Ashley Colen, Hippocratic Growth’s CEO. “We want to make a lasting positive impact on a community that will truly benefit from our dedication to not only cannabis, but the health, safety and welfare of Pennsylvania’s population.”
No one believes Jeannette will return to its glory days. But there is hope.
“We died out as a glass town, many moons ago,” said Diana Reitz, who heads Jeannette’s community development department. “We don’t want to lose that heritage, we don’t want to lose what the history of all that is. We keep that in the back of our minds, that we manufactured glassware all over the place, we were number one, and that’s why everyone came here initially.
“But where do we want to go? Where is the country going?”
Ms. Reitz pointed to just down the road to Pittsburgh, which has reinvented itself.
“I hope ten years down the road I’m still living here and I can say, ‘Wow. Look how far Jeannette’s come,’” Ms. Reitz said. “That’s what I want to see.”
Diana DiGangi, freelance writer: suburbanliving@post-gazette.com
First Published: July 27, 2018, 12:04 p.m.
