How a Columbus couple brought a mid-century glassware business back to life after 60 years By John M. Clark | Photos by Jen Brown Story Design by Tori Smith
J
ason Annecy never planned to spend his days designing glassware. His husband David certainly had no intention to run a small glassware business. All they wanted was to find a nice home in a smaller town within driving distance of their jobs in Columbus…and take vacations. So much for planning ahead. The two moved to Lancaster in 2016 and promptly set out to learn more about the quaint Ohio town, including its rich history in glass production. As a side project, Jason, a graphics artist, began painting a few murals. Four years later, local leaders asked him to create a colorful, new mural for a neglected, downtown alley. The result was a bright blue wall with MidCentury Modern decorative touches and the distinctive logo of a long-forgotten local glassware studio. “I had given them several options, including one that included the logo, the colors and the design elements of the old glassware company. No one on our committee knew much about it. But they liked the look, and that’s what we painted.” Eager to know more, the couple discovered a local historian who presented them with stacks of printed stories that had been preserved by a Gay Fad collector—an elderly woman who also owned 6,000 pieces of the original glassware. A passing interest soon became an obsession. “Donna McGrady was about 89 when we learned of her,” David said. “She had moved from Lancaster in the early 2000s, after spending 35 years collecting and documenting everything she could on Gay Fad.” Her collection told the story of Fran Taylor, a young Detroit housewife who had studied art and decided to create modern housewares. In 1938, with $30 to invest, she started a business hand-painting tin wastebaskets, which she sold through area department stores. → 614NOW.COM
FALL 2025
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