Medalta Potteries Medicine Hat turned out about 67 per cent of the pottery made in Canada between 1928 and 1950, according to the provincial heritage register. Two of every three pieces, from one site in the flats below the clay cliffs.
It started on shakier ground. The Medicine Hat Pottery Company opened in 1912 and failed in 1914. Charles Pratt, Ulysses Sherman Grant and William Creer bought what was left, registered the Medalta Stoneware Company in December 1915, and the name became Medalta Potteries in 1924. Crocks, jugs and churns came first. Colourful glazed vases and bulb bowls joined them in 1927.
Four kilns and a few firsts
Four beehive kilns still stand on the site, domed brick giants built around 1920 to 1926 and wrapped in steel straps. Canada’s Historic Places calls the place the fullest example of its kind left in the country, still sitting where it worked. Medalta was the first manufacturer in western Canada to ship goods east of the Great Lakes, and from the 1920s to the 1940s it was the biggest pottery maker west of Toronto. It became a National Historic Site of Canada on 17 June 1985.
Clay still gets made here
The Friends of Medalta Society formed in 1986 to restore the site and the Historic Clay District around it. Now artists arrive for residencies that run anywhere from one day to one year. They work at the Shaw International Centre for Contemporary Ceramics, a studio of about 12,000 square feet, and sleep in an artist lodge on site.
Saving old Alberta places takes big effort. Heritage Park in Calgary moved in two dozen buildings, and Fort Calgary spent sixty years under a rail yard. The Banff Centre grew from a single drama course into a magnet for working artists, which is a spirit Medalta’s residencies share.
Check medalta.org before you drive down, because the site’s own page flags days when it is closed.
Quick answers
Medalta Potteries is in Medicine Hat, Alberta, in the flats between the clay cliffs and the railway tracks. It has been a National Historic Site of Canada since 17 June 1985 and still has four beehive kilns.
The provincial heritage register says Medalta averaged about 67 per cent of Canadian pottery production from 1928 to 1950. It began with crocks, jugs and churns, then added coloured artwares in 1927.
Yes. Medalta hosts artist residencies lasting from one day to one year at the Shaw International Centre for Contemporary Ceramics, a studio of about 12,000 square feet, with housing on site in an artist lodge.
Sources: Canada’s Historic Places, Medalta Potteries (Alberta register); Canada’s Historic Places, Medalta Potteries National Historic Site; Medalta, About; Medalta, Artist Residencies.
