Check out the World's Largest Teapot in Chester, West Virginia

Chester, West Virginia, is mighty proud of their giant teapot. Signs around town direct visitors' attention to this landmark, and it looks as good as new thanks to the efforts of a local Eagle Scout and his friends.

We first spotted the World's Largest Teapot this past May while exploring Ohio's leg of the Lincoln Highway. The teapot sits just over the state line in West Virginia, and when we first saw it, it looked like it needed a bit of repainting and repair.

We visited Pittsburgh in June, so we decided to take the Lincoln Highway out of Pittsburgh on our way home. The route again took us through the tiny corner of West Virginia that is home to the teapot, and because there is a geocache there, we wanted to find it and check off a new state on our cache list.

We found the cache and also found that Eagle Scout John "J.P." Raynor adopted the teapot as a community project, so it was in the middle of a restoration.

This landmark started life as a huge barrel and part of a Hire's Root Beer promotional campaign during the 1930s.

Pottery merchant William "Babe" Devon bought it in 1938 and shipped it to Chester. Pottery was big business in the region, and Devon converted the barrel into a giant teapot to sit in front of his pottery outlet.

Devon added a spout and handle to the barrel, covered it all in tin, painted it red and white, and finished off his creation with a large glass ball on the roof as a knob for the lid of the kettle.

Devon also hired some local kids to run a food concession and souvenir stand from the 14-foot tall, 14-foot diameter structure.

During World War II, gas rationing caused a decrease in traffic and decline in the pottery business, so Devon closed the teapot.

In 1947, Devon sold his business with the teapot to Mary Wucherer and Rhonda Cain. They operated the teapot as a concession stand until it became too costly in the late 1960s, but continued to sell lawn and garden gifts from the building for a few more years.

Cecil and Alice Fletcher bought the business and teapot in 1971, painting the landmark pot blue and white and continuing to sell pottery and other gifts from the little building until closing down the business.

By 1984, the teapot sat abandoned and a local telephone company bought the site. The phone company razed the larger building that housed the main pottery businesses and considered demolishing the teapot as well.

Local residents rallied to save the teapot, getting voters in the city of Chester to approve its restoration and raising $3,000 to do the work. The phone company offered to donate the structure to the town.

The teapot moved around Chester as debate raged over where to permanently locate it. Bad weather continued to take its toll on the teapot's condition.

In 1990, Chester's City Council approved additional money for the teapot restoration and relocated it at a high-traffic corner at the junction of State Route 2 and U.S. 30, the current route of the classic Lincoln Highway and a part of the popular Rock Springs amusement park from 1897 until 1970.

Restoration continued through 1990, replacing the deteriorating parts with more durable materials and repainting the teapot in its original red-and-white color scheme. Workers sealed and reframed the doors and windows from the concession-stand era. The teapot got a new spout and handle, a painted basketball "knob" to replace the long-lost glass finial, and a fenced, landscaped space.

There were occasional efforts to repair and repaint the landmark throughout recent years. It underwent a major restoration in 2007 as part of the Hampton Hotels Save-A-Landmark program when 15 volunteers rehabbed the teapot and Hampton Hotels donated money to help fund future repair and restoration efforts.

In early 2011, Eagle Scout John Raynor attended a town meeting while earning a communications merit badge. He learned that the teapot needed repair and repainting, so he adopted it as a community service project, enlisting his mom, fellow scouts and friends to help.

We happened to stop by to find the geocache mid-way through the most recent restoration, when I took photos of the teapot missing its spout and sporting an all-white primer coat of paint.

Raynor and his crew completed the work by July. You can see a couple of photos of the completed project in the photo gallery for the cache.

Great job, John!

I wrote a bit about pottery history in this region in Visit the Fiesta factory in Newell, West Virginia.

You can also learn more about the history of pottery making in Ohio Valley towns like Chester by checking out Ohio Valley Pottery Towns by Pamela Lee Gray.

Check out Rock Springs Park by Joseph A. Comm to learn about the defunct amusement park that formerly occupied the teapot's current site.

© Dominique King 2011 All rights reserved

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Comments

[Nicole at Arrows Sent Forth]

My cousin is an eagle scout and the town asked him to put doggie poop scoop stations in the local parks for his project. I think he would have much preferred painting the teapot!

[Dominique King]

I bet you're right! Painting the teapot looked like a great project, and from the photos I saw of the finished project, they did a great job.

[Traci]

I can't believe I've missed this for so long! Awesome!

[Dominique King]

Traci-I thought of you when I wrote it! :)

[Joseph A. Comm]

Thanks for the book link! Next time you are in Chester check out the Memory Lane room in the old high school building - now the city's municipal building. They have a display showing the very poor shape the Teapot was in prior to the 1990 renovation as well as photographs and memorabilia from Rock Springs Park.

[Dominique King]

Joseph-Thanks for stopping by! And thanks for the tip about the Memory Lane room...that's just the sort of thing I like to stop and see when we're traveling.