Northwestern Terra Cotta Company

The Northwestern Terra Cotta Companywas founded in 1878 by G. Hottinger, President and sculpture, John R True, Vice President and Treasurer, and F. Wagner, Secretary and architect. By 1890, the company had 500 employees and made $600,000 in annual sales. Just 30 years after its founding, Northwestern Terra Cotta Company was the leading manufacture of terra cotta in the United States and by 1910, it had 1000 emmployees in its main plant on the corner of Clybourn and Wright Avenues, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places

The popularity of decorative terra cotta on building facades reached its pinnacle in the 1920s. Northwestern Terra Cotta Company supplied a majority of the terra cotta to meet this demand, both in Chicago and throughout the United States. The company supplied terra cotta for some prominent architects, including Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as some important buildings, which include, the Chicaco Theater, The Wrigley Building, and Randolph Tower, all in Chicago.

The Great Depression, unfortunately, was the beginning of the end for Northwestern Terra Cotta Company. As construction fell off, so did the demand for terra cotta. After the Second World War, the use of terra cotta never reached the peak that it experienced in the 1920s. Northwestern Terra Cotta Company closed the doors to its last plant, located in Denver Colorado, in 1965.