Listen to this articleSummary:
– Judith Wagenseller has run the House of Clay since 1980, inheriting it from her parents.
– The Oklahoma City pottery supply business, now 75 years old, began even earlier under different owners.
– Wagenseller runs the shop with her daughter and offers classes and full-service ceramic supplies to local artists.
When most people get a birthday gift as a kid, it may last one or two years. If they are really careful, it can stretch out a little bit longer.
Judith Wagenseller has proven to be an outlier. On the day she was born in 1950, her father purchased the House of Clay, a small pottery supplier in Oklahoma City. Seventy-five years later, she is holding onto that same gift with no plans to let it go any time soon.
Wagenseller posted a sign in front of the House of Clay at 1100 NW 30 that announced their 75th anniversary. However, the actual business has been around even longer than that.
“If I remember correctly, it was two little old ladies who started it,” Wagenseller recalled. “My parents (Norman & Levern Meriwether) happened to be driving by one evening and saw the shop. They went in and talked to them, and they said that their husbands wanted them to retire. Daddy bought the building from them. He paid cash and a handshake. He bought it from the ladies the day I was born.”
According to Wagenseller, both of her parents had worked for Tamac Pottery in Perry before moving back to Oklahoma City. Her father’s entrepreneurial spirit kicked into gear when they saw the business was for sale.
A decade after buying the original building at 2416 N Western, the Meriwethers moved the business to its current location. Wagenseller said her father built the building she works out of now with his own hands.
They soon expanded and purchased the building next door as well as the apartments above the shop.
Wagenseller didn’t become the primary owner and operator of the House of Clay until 1980. Previously, she had been working as a teacher in Dallas when her parents started thinking about retiring and selling the business.
“I was ready to quit teaching school. So I was kind of looking for another job,” Wagenseller said. “My sister and I came, and we took over for them and ran it. My sister decided that this wasn’t what she wanted to do, so I just stayed. I’ve been here since 1980.”
Unlike her previous occupation, Wagenseller says she has not had a day when she has dreaded coming to work in the past 45 years.
While selling ceramic supplies is a niche field, Wagenseller has been able to keep the House of Clay’s doors open on the strength of the community interest in handmade art.
“We sell a lot of supplies. Mainly, we’re a supply house, a full-service supply house,” Wagenseller explained. “We sell lots of clay and glazes. People come in and paint and all that. We have classes as well. We have sculpting classes, raku classes, throwing classes, painting.”
Yet, even Wagenseller has been surprised by the store’s longevity. She knows small businesses do not last long these days.
Wagenseller runs the House of Clay with her daughter, Hattie. If Hattie chooses to, she will be next in line to take over the business when Wagenseller decides to retire.
While Wagenseller’s mother came to work well into her 90s, Wagenseller doesn’t envision going that long. But then again, she knows it may just be in her blood.
“My mother worked here until she was 96. She came to work until she was about 94,” Wagenseller said. “Now, I use the term work a little loosely, but she did come down here, which is crazy. It’s crazy to think that somebody could do that. I think it is kind of what kept her going. I can’t imagine doing that, but who knows?”
