Louisville Stoneware, Now Stoneware & Co., Is Still Hand-Painting Pottery in Paristown

A Pottery Older Than Most of Louisville

Ask a Louisville family for its "everyday" dishes and there is a fair chance the answer involves a cobalt-blue flower or a running horse painted on heavy stoneware. Louisville Stoneware, now operating as Stoneware & Co., has been making that kind of pottery in the city for generations, and it is one of the few remaining Louisville makers that still runs a working factory open to visitors.

As of October 2026, the company is still in business. Its website, which the old louisvillestoneware.com address now redirects to, lists current store hours, a factory tour schedule, paint-your-own pottery sessions and a bridal registry, along with a 2026 copyright. The store is at 731 Brent Street in the Paristown Pointe neighborhood.

1815: Jacob Lewis and Louisville's First Pottery

The company dates itself to 1815. According to its heritage page, a young potter named Jacob Lewis founded Lewis Pottery that year on Billy Goat Strut Alley, near the riverfront. Early products included 30-gallon storage crocks, butter churns, bowls and plates, which the company says were cheaper than the pewter plates common at the time. Crocks held grain and were sealed with a wooden top and beeswax to keep out rats.

Kentucky's state archaeologists have studied the site. The Kentucky Heritage Council's archaeology program describes Lewis Pottery, now under a downtown parking lot, as Louisville's first commercial pottery. Excavators found the base of a stoneware kiln, molds, kiln furniture and wasters, the cracked or misfired pieces potters throw away. Those finds show that by the late 1820s Lewis was one of the first American potters to attempt Queensware, a light-colored English earthenware associated with Josiah Wedgwood. He recruited experienced English potters to Louisville to make it.

The archaeological record also adds a note of realism to the "since 1815" story. By 1839, the state's summary says, Lewis's business had failed and he had left Louisville. The remaining potters gave up Queensware but kept making stoneware into the early 1850s. The state credits the operation with helping lay groundwork for the Midwest's fine dinnerware industry even though it lost money. The modern company's claim to 1815 runs through that chain of potters and later owners, rather than one unbroken business.

A Chain of Owners and Names

The company's heritage page and Wikipedia's summary trace the line forward:

• James Bauer ran the pottery under several names, including Bauer Pottery, Cherokee Pottery and Louisville Pottery.
• John B. Taylor bought it in 1938 and renamed it the J.B. Taylor Company, putting his name on the pieces.
• John Robertson, a ceramics engineer, bought the company after Taylor's death in 1970, saved it from closing, and renamed it Louisville Stoneware.
• Christy Lee Brown bought it in 1997. The company credits her with updating the branding and showroom, adding factory tours and launching an internet strategy.
• Stephen A. Smith bought it in July 2007 when Brown retired, and has owned it since.

The current name, Stoneware & Co., was adopted under Smith to emphasize the company's history and the artists who make and paint each piece, according to the heritage page. The site does not give the exact date of the change, and older pieces and many Louisville residents still use "Louisville Stoneware."

The company has also been in its current neighborhood for decades. Louisville Public Media reported in 2019 that Louisville Stoneware had been in Paristown Pointe since the 1970s.

The Patterns People Recognize

Much of the pottery's reputation comes from a handful of long-running painted patterns.

The best known is Bachelor Button, a cobalt-blue flower pattern originally called Cornflower Blue. The company says Edith Ellis created it during the Taylor years, and that Mamie Eisenhower reportedly used it as her everyday dishes in the White House, according to the heritage page. The company frames that claim with "reportedly," and so do we.

Taylor's workshop also produced one of Louisville's other well-known pottery names. Mary Alice Hadley worked at the J.B. Taylor Company before starting her own business, Hadley Pottery, which is still operating. Wikipedia dates Hadley's founding to 1939 and the Stoneware & Co. heritage page to 1940.

Under Christy Lee Brown, the company worked with artist David Mahoney on patterns including Augusta, Flora and Graffiti. Current lines on the company site include the Louisville Pottery Collection, Holly Graffiti, Embossed Running Horse, Embossed Fleur de Lis and Elodie, plus Kentucky-themed pieces, bakeware, garden pieces and personalized work.

Louisville Stoneware has also been a gift of choice for official occasions. When Queen Elizabeth II visited Churchill Downs for the 2007 Kentucky Derby, she was presented with a company-made music box that played "My Old Kentucky Home," per Wikipedia's account. The same summary lists commissioned work for corporate customers including Cracker Barrel and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

How the Pottery Is Made

Stoneware is a dense, durable ceramic fired at high temperature. The company's heritage page puts stoneware firing at roughly 1,200 to 1,315 degrees Celsius and notes that early American stoneware was usually salt-glazed and decorated with cobalt oxide, which produces the bright blues that still define Louisville patterns.

At Stoneware & Co., the company says artists hand-make and hand-paint every piece at its Paristown Pointe factory. A profile in the All American directory of U.S.-made brands describes products made "by hand, without any machines," with handles applied by hand, and items made to order by Kentucky craftspeople. The same profile says a new design can take about six months to reach production, simple everyday pieces two to three weeks, and larger pieces months. Wikipedia notes that the finished stoneware is oven, microwave and dishwasher safe.

The workforce is small. The heritage page describes a locally owned company with just over three dozen employees, a figure in line with the All American profile's "close to three dozen skilled artisans."

That scale is the result of a hard stretch. Wikipedia reports that sales averaged about $3 million a year between 1997 and 2007 as the business shifted from mostly wholesale to mostly retail, and that in March 2007, shortly before the sale to Smith, the company laid off 38 of its 49 employees and retooled its visitor center. After Smith's purchase, the company expanded its retail footprint with stores in Louisville and surrounding cities in late 2007. The current website lists a single store, on Brent Street, alongside the factory and visitor programs.

For makers studying the economics of craft manufacturing, Stoneware & Co. is a useful example of a company that survived by moving closer to its customers: direct retail, custom and personalized orders, a bridal registry, and visitors who pay to see and try the work.

Paristown and the New Homeplace

The factory sits in a neighborhood that has changed a great deal in the last decade. In 2015, the architecture firm KNBA announced a commission for a mixed-use Paristown Pointe development that included a performance venue for the Kentucky Center for the Arts, a brewery and taproom, and the renovation of the historic Louisville Stoneware building. The Kentucky Center's venue became Old Forester's Paristown Hall, a $12 million, 28,000-square-foot space for up to 2,000 people announced in February 2019, Louisville Public Media reported.

The renovated Stoneware building, known as the Stoneware & Co. Homeplace, now combines the retail store with a restaurant. The lifestyle blog Her Kentucky described the new Stoneware & Co. Homeplace as occupying the same spot as the original store, with part of the old factory converted into dining space for The Cafe and a courtyard beside Old Forester's Paristown Hall. The store sells the company's pottery alongside local folk art and other Kentucky goods. Today visitors enter through The Cafe's main entrance on Brent Street and turn right to reach the shop, according to the company's directions.

Visit and Work With Them

Details below come from Stoneware & Co.'s own pages as of October 2026. Schedules and prices change, so check before you go.

Store. 731 Brent Street, Louisville, KY 40204. The company site lists the store as open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Enter through The Cafe.

Factory tour. The factory tour page lists tours on Thursday and Friday at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., with reservations encouraged, and says to allow 30 to 45 minutes. Visitors follow artisans as clay goes "from raw form to completed piece" and can touch the clay at different stages. Posted individual prices were $15 for the factory tour, $30 for paint-your-own, and $38 for a combination ticket, with lower group rates for parties of 12 or more. Private group tours are by appointment.

Paint your own pottery. On the paint-your-own page, guests choose a plate, mug, bowl or platter, get a short tutorial, and decorate it with the same tools and glazes the company's artisans use. Staff then glaze and fire the piece, which is ready in about 7 to 10 business days for pickup or shipping at extra cost. Allow one to two hours. Posted prices were $30 for a small piece and $35 for a medium piece, and reservations are preferred for groups of five or more.

Custom and corporate work. The company sells personalized and hand-painted pieces, handprint keepsakes and a bridal registry, and lists corporate events on its site. Businesses looking for custom pieces should contact the store directly.

For other makers. If you are building a ceramics or home goods business, Stoneware & Co. is a working example of hand production at modest scale. Our craft makers directory and consumer products directory list other Louisville companies making physical goods, and our guide to manufacturing a product in Louisville covers the next step up in volume.

A Stoneware tour pairs well with a visit to the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory downtown, another family-scale production floor open to the public, and with FirstBuild, where appliance prototypes are built near the University of Louisville.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Louisville Stoneware still in business?

Yes. Louisville Stoneware now operates as Stoneware and Co. from its factory and store at 731 Brent Street in the Paristown Pointe neighborhood of Louisville. In 2026 its website lists current store hours, factory tours on Thursdays and Fridays, paint-your-own pottery sessions and a bridal registry. The old louisvillestoneware.com web address redirects to the Stoneware and Co. site.

Who owns Louisville Stoneware?

Stephen A. Smith has owned the company since July 2007, when he bought it from Christy Lee Brown on her retirement. Earlier owners included Jacob Lewis, who founded Lewis Pottery in 1815, James Bauer, John B. Taylor, who bought it in 1938, and ceramics engineer John Robertson, who renamed it Louisville Stoneware in 1970. The company adopted the Stoneware and Co. name under Smith.

Is Louisville Stoneware really made by hand?

The company says artists hand-make and hand-paint every piece at its Paristown Pointe factory, and a profile of the brand describes pieces made by hand without machines, with handles applied by hand. Visitors can watch artisans work on the factory tour. Simple pieces take about two to three weeks to make, larger pieces can take months, and a new design takes about six months to reach production.

How does paint your own pottery work at Stoneware and Co.?

You choose a blank piece such as a plate, mug, bowl or platter, get a short tutorial, and paint it with the same tools and glazes the company's artisans use. Staff glaze and fire it, and it is ready in about seven to ten business days for pickup or shipping. Allow one to two hours. Prices and seating times are posted on the company website, so check before you go.

What is the Bachelor Button pattern?

Bachelor Button is the company's best-known pattern, a cobalt-blue flower originally called Cornflower Blue. According to the company, Edith Ellis created it while the pottery was the J.B. Taylor Company, and Mamie Eisenhower reportedly used it as her everyday dishes in the White House. It is still made and hand-painted in Louisville today.