I was thrilled to receive the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory Pewabic tile for Mother’s Day yesterday! If you do not live near the Detroit area, this company may not be familiar to you. Yet, if you have been to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., the C.S. Mott’s Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Comerica Park (home of the Detroit Tigers), and many, many other places, you probably have seen Pewabic tiles.

This company/art studio is located in downtown Detroit on Jefferson Avenue and has been in existence since 1903. Mary Chase Perry Stratton (1867-1961), was born in Hancock, Michigan. After losing her father, the family moved to Ann Arbor and eventually Detroit. There, her neighbor, Horace James Caulkin, who designed a kiln for the dental trade, became her business partner. Her art form of pottery was fired in the kiln he designed and the rest is, as they say, history. Pewabic pottery became a National Historic Landmark in 1991.

There is the Belle Isle Collection of tiles that I have been eyeing for quite some time and of course, if you’ve read my blog at all, you know the conservatory is a place near and dear to my heart. So, I now have one tile and the rest are going to stay on my wish list. Thank you Hayley! I love it!