Hazel-Atlas Glass Company

Overview

The Hazel-Atlas Glass Company was an American manufacturer of machine-molded glass containers and tableware, headquartered in Wheeling, West Virginia, and formed in 1902 by the merger of four earlier companies (West Virginia Encyclopedia). It became one of the largest glass producers in the United States, best known for inexpensive Depression glass tableware, Atlas home-canning jars, and the milk-glass liners inside zinc fruit-jar lids. In 1955 it shipped about 1.857 billion glass containers — roughly 9.6% of U.S. glass-container shipments — on net sales above $79 million (U.S. Supreme Court). That scale made it the prize in a 1956 acquisition by Continental Can Company that the U.S. Supreme Court held violated federal antitrust law in 1964, after which its plants passed to Brockway Glass Company. One of its plants, at Blackwell, Oklahoma, was destroyed by the 1955 Blackwell tornado and never reopened (Blackwell Journal-Tribune).

Origins, growth, and what the company made

The firm’s roots reach back to 1885, when it originated in Wellsburg, West Virginia, as the Hazel Glass Company, before establishing plants at Clarksburg, Grafton, Wheeling, and Washington, Pennsylvania (West Virginia University). The 1902 merger combined the Hazel Glass Company (in business since 1887) and the Atlas Glass Company (dating from 1896), both of Washington, Pennsylvania, into the Hazel-Atlas Glass Company based in Wheeling (Glass Bottle Marks; West Virginia Encyclopedia). Its West Virginia operations anchored the business: a plant along the Tygart River in Grafton (1916–60) largely produced wide-mouth canning jars, while the Clarksburg works (1902–87) was described as the world’s largest tumbler factory — by 1920 it had 15 acres of floor space, employed 1,200 people, and shipped worldwide — and the company’s Wheeling metal factories made lids and closures for glass containers (West Virginia Encyclopedia). Expansion carried it well beyond West Virginia: its Oakland, California factory opened in 1929, and by the late 1930s the company operated 15 factories across the United States (Pacific Coast Architecture Database).

Hazel-Atlas made glass for nearly every corner of American household life. It produced large quantities of inexpensive Depression glass table sets in pink, green, blue, colorless, and black glass, and hundreds of thousands of its glass premiums were given away inside oats, coffee, and other packaged products (West Virginia Encyclopedia). Its “Atlas” brand was its most popular line of fruit jars for home canning, and it turned out enormous numbers of white “Boyd” milk-glass liners — the small glass discs fitted inside zinc screw-threaded lids for Mason-style fruit jars — alongside packer ware for foods such as mayonnaise, mustard, jams, peanut butter, and coffee, plus cosmetics, salves, medicines, and chemical liquids (Glass Bottle Marks). Collectors identify its Depression-era tableware by patterns including Aurora, Cloverleaf, Florentine No. 1 and No. 2, Modernistic, Ovide, Newport, Roxana, and Royal Lace, mostly made in the early and mid-1930s (Glass Bottle Marks). In 1936 the company introduced Platonite, a translucent glass resembling milk glass that was surface-colored by a fired-on process in shades from yellow and pink to salmon, rust, and chartreuse; its “Swanky Swigs” decorated glasses, made for Kraft food products in the 1940s and 1950s, are another widely collected line (Glass Bottle Marks).

The company’s maker’s mark — a large capital “H” with a smaller capital “A” beneath it — is one of the most commonly found marks on American glass containers from the early 1920s to the late 1950s, second only to the Owens-Illinois mark, according to a collector reference citing trademark literature that dates the mark’s use from 1923 (Glass Bottle Marks). The same source warns that the mark is frequently confused with the Anchor Hocking mark, which used an anchor over or inside an “H” (Glass Bottle Marks).

Measure (1955)	Hazel-Atlas	Market leader
Glass-container shipments	~1.857 billion (9.6%)	Owens-Illinois, 34.2%
Net sales	Above $79 million	—
Assets	Above $37 million	—
Plants	13	—
Combined metal-and-glass container rank	6th (3.1% of all containers)	Continental Can, 2nd (21.9%)

Figures from the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in United States v. Continental Can Co. (U.S. Supreme Court). Stat plus source plus implication: a company holding 9.6% of glass-container shipments and 3.1% of the combined container market was large enough that swallowing it let the second-largest metal-can maker jump from 21.9% to 25% of the combined market — the concentration increase the Court held unlawful.

The Continental Can acquisition and the antitrust case

In 1956, Continental Can Company — then the nation’s second-largest producer of metal containers — acquired all of the assets, business, and goodwill of Hazel-Atlas in exchange for 999,140 shares of Continental common stock and the assumption of all of Hazel-Atlas’s liabilities (U.S. Supreme Court). The federal government sued, arguing the deal violated Section 7 of the Clayton Act, which bars acquisitions that may substantially lessen competition. The trial court dismissed the case after the government’s evidence, but the Supreme Court reversed in 1964, holding that competition between metal and glass containers was broad and real — the two industries fought over the same end uses, from baby food and beer to soft drinks and household chemicals — and that the merger was therefore unlawful (U.S. Supreme Court). The Court noted that Hazel-Atlas had itself helped shift baby food from cans to glass by designing what became the typical baby food jar, with about 80% of the nation’s baby food moving in glass by the time of the merger (U.S. Supreme Court).

The aftermath unwound the company. The Hazel-Atlas plants were sold to Brockway Glass Company in 1964, and the company’s handsome 1931 headquarters at 15th and Jacob streets in Wheeling — a local landmark — was donated to West Liberty State College that year and is now part of West Virginia Northern Community College (West Virginia Encyclopedia). A collector reference adds that Continental sold all of the glass plants except the Plainfield, Illinois facility to Brockway, and that the Plainfield plant was later sold to A. H. Kerr Glass Company (Glass Bottle Marks). The Hazel-Atlas mark continued to appear on at least some products until about 1964 (Glass Bottle Marks).

The Blackwell plant and the 1955 tornado

Hazel-Atlas’s Blackwell, Oklahoma plant stood on the east side of the city, where the May 25, 1955 tornado caused its worst destruction. The National Weather Service’s damage survey records that the F5 tornado destroyed two of Blackwell’s major industries — the Hazel Atlas Glass plant and the Acme Foundry — and about 190 homes and buildings in total (National Weather Service). The Blackwell Journal-Tribune’s retrospective reports that the Hazel-Atlas Glass Factory was demolished and never again reopened, a loss that cost the city nearly 200 jobs, while the Acme Foundry was eventually rebuilt (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). Fire trucks raced to the glass factory after the storm, but firefighters found it fully engulfed in flames and were helpless: the city’s water system was wrecked, with no water pressure on the east side (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). The Blackwell plant’s destruction came just a year before the Continental Can acquisition, closing the company’s Oklahoma chapter while the parent firm was still at its peak.

FAQ

What did the Hazel-Atlas Glass Company make? Hazel-Atlas made machine-molded glass containers and tableware: Atlas home-canning jars, Boyd milk-glass jar-lid liners, packer ware for foods, medicines, and cosmetics, Depression glass table sets, Platonite ware, and decorated Swanky Swigs glasses for Kraft products (Glass Bottle Marks; West Virginia Encyclopedia).

How can you identify Hazel-Atlas glass? Look for the maker’s mark on the base: a large capital “H” with a smaller capital “A” beneath it, used from 1923. Do not confuse it with the Anchor Hocking mark, which used an anchor with an “H” (Glass Bottle Marks). Many Depression glass patterns were unmarked and are identified by pattern instead.

What happened to the Hazel-Atlas Glass Company? Continental Can Company acquired all of its assets in 1956. The U.S. government challenged the deal, and in 1964 the Supreme Court held the merger violated Section 7 of the Clayton Act. The plants were then sold to Brockway Glass Company, ending Hazel-Atlas as an independent company (U.S. Supreme Court; West Virginia Encyclopedia).

Why did the Blackwell, Oklahoma plant never reopen? The F5 tornado of May 25, 1955 demolished the plant, and the company never rebuilt it. The loss cost Blackwell nearly 200 jobs, while the city’s other destroyed major factory, the Acme Foundry, was eventually rebuilt (Blackwell Journal-Tribune; National Weather Service).

What this profile does not claim

This profile does not claim Hazel-Atlas was the largest glass company in the United States, even though the West Virginia Encyclopedia describes it that way for the 1930s–1950s: the Supreme Court’s 1955 figures place it third among glass-container makers, behind Owens-Illinois (34.2%) and Anchor-Hocking (11.6%), so the “largest” label likely reflects tableware or Depression glass, or is simply imprecise, and the container-market data is reported instead. It does not fix the acquisition year at 1957, as some collector sources state; it follows the Supreme Court’s account that the acquisition was accomplished in 1956, with 1957 likely reflecting when Hazel-Atlas began operating as a Continental division. It does not repeat one architecture database’s statement that the Supreme Court “blocked the sale” under the Sherman Act — the acquisition had already closed in 1956, and the Court ruled in 1964 under Section 7 of the Clayton Act. Plant counts vary by source (12 in 1956, 13 in 1955, 14–15 at peak), and sources differ on which plants Continental retained after the 1964 divestiture: the West Virginia Encyclopedia says Continental kept the Clarksburg tableware plant and the Wheeling metal factory, while a collector reference says all but the Plainfield plant went to Brockway. The two constituent firms beyond Hazel Glass and Atlas Glass in the 1902 merger are not named because no independently verified source in this research pass identified them. Finally, this profile does not assert a company-wide employment figure or a roster of founders and executives, which the sources read did not establish.