Frankoma Pottery, a historic company with deep roots along Route 66 in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, held its grand opening Saturday in nearby Glenpool, Oklahoma, after years of uncertainty about whether a brick-and-mortar site for the company ever would be revived.
According to the Tulsa World, several longtime Frankoma employees were scheduled to attend the event. The store gave out door prizes to the first 100 customers.
One was Orville Knight, the designer of the Orville Knight Vase for the company. He said in a Facebook post his vase sold out in the first 30 minutes of the grand opening.
“I was pleased to see the abundance of pieces glazed in ‘Desert Sand’, a glaze I created when I was GM,” he stated.
Knight also posted a photo of dozens of people lined up outside of Frankoma Pottery’s front door.
“Probably 120-200 people waiting in the cold because the retail store had full occupancy,” he wrote in a comment thread. “Parking lot full, and cars parked bumper-to-bumper two blocks in every direction.”
Frankoma posted photos from its new facility before its opening:
The new Frankoma facility has a pottery manufacturing center, as well as a storefront where people can buy its pieces.
The company’s owner, Dennis Glascock, built the facility at 171st Street and U.S. 75 in Glenpool, south of Tulsa and east of its longtime home in Sapulpa.
The store is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Monday and from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Glascock purchased the company, including its trademark and original molds, in 2012 after a long career with the Phillips 66 petroleum company.
Until Saturday, sales of Frankoma pottery were done solely through the internet.
KTUL-TV in Tulsa did a good interview with Glascock a few days before the opening.
Frankoma’s pottery reputedly came from clay on a hill in Sapulpa. Glascock said that’s only partially true, as the company originally was founded by John and Grace Frank in Norman, Oklahoma, in 1933. Back then, the company used clay from Ada, Oklahoma.
Sugar Loaf Hill in Sapulpa, a longtime source for Frankoma’s pottery, “is pretty much gone” at this point, Glascock said in an interview earlier this year, though he will continue to use Oklahoma-sourced clay.
Frankoma Pottery moved to Sapulpa in 1938 along Route 66. The company actually got the name of the road north of town changed to Frankoma Road.
Frankoma’s financial troubles began to mount in the 1990s, including a bankruptcy filing, and went through several ownership changes. The factory on Frankoma Road finally closed in 2010 and, at last report, was a housewares factory.
(Image of a Frankoma Pottery piece for sale via Facebook)