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Tourists
Descend For Pottery Hunt
Monday, July 3, 2006
Tourists
descend for pottery hunt
By RACHEL STREITFELD
Staff Writer
ZANESVILLE - The Zanesville
area becomes a tourist hot spot this month, as thousands of pottery
collectors descend on local hotels, restaurants and museums during
Pottery Week. |
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Buckeye
Stoneware was one of many vendors at Zanesville Pottery and China
in the file photo above. Groups like Pottery Lovers, the McCoy
Pottery Collectors Society and the Hull Pottery Convention have
booked hotels almost solid for Pottery Week.
Groups
like Pottery Lovers, the McCoy Pottery Collectors Society and
the Hull Pottery Convention have booked hotels almost solid.
Tourists have detailed schedules for the week, including auctions,
pottery shows, museum tours and reunions. The week of July
7 through 16 is the city's largest convention of the year.
Economically,
the festival is a boon for the area. "The
pottery lovers use this time as their vacation," said Kelly
Ashby, vice president of the Zanesville-Muskingum County Chamber
of Commerce. "They're eating at our restaurants
and they're staying at our hotels, they're shopping at
our antique stores. They're spending their extra time doing
what tourists do."
The
Holiday Inn-Zanesville on East Pike is completely booked
the weekend before the festival, and is almost full during
the week. The collectors' group Pottery Lovers books rooms
at the inn every year, and most visitors check into their
regular room.
"We
block the whole hotel for them," said David Huston, Holiday
Inn director of sales and marketing. "Zanesville's
pretty much theirs for about a week and a half."
Jen
Stofft, of Pottery Lovers, has used the same hotel room
for more than a decade. She started coming to the festival
about 35 years ago. She and her husband collected Roseville
and Weller pieces.
Now, Stofft has formed
lasting friendships with the people she sees
every year in Zanesville. People come from
as far away as Canada, California and Texas.
"Our
motto is, come and have a good time," she said.
The
National Ceramic Museum and Historical Site in
Roseville has planned a host of activities for
pottery enthusiasts in July, including
parking lot sales, tours, auctions
and displays. To open pottery week,
the museum starts with a plate-breaking
ceremony. Someone will take a hammer
to a freshly made plate, then auction
off 10 other plates just like it.
The museum's
big draws this year include exhibits
of McCoy and Gondor pottery.
"We absolutely
get a great deal of out-of-town
traffic," said Director Mary
Ellen Winegartner. "Our visitation
is always expanded during
that time frame. We do more
tours. It's such an enjoyable
period since we have so many
activities that are available
here during the day."
A
tourist from the McCoy
Pottery Collectors Society
is eager to see the new
museum exhibit of her favorite
pottery line. Society President
Chiquita Prestwood first
met Nelson and Billie McCoy,
who ran McCoy Pottery,
at the society's first
meeting in Zanesville.
The McCoys are still involved
in the group's yearly reunion
here.
Prestwood
said her yearly visit
is an opportunity to
see the pottery legends.
"Camaraderie
is just as important
if not more important
than buying pottery," she
said. "Zanesville's
just like a
second home."
Originally
published July 3, 2006
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