About Us
From Left to Right:
Stan Cowen (Co-founder/Owner)
Sean Manning (Owner)
Charlie Parker (Co-founder/Owner)
Not Pictured:
Russ Gustafson-Hilton
(Co-founder/Life Member)
The St. Petersburg Clay Company was founded in 1996 by Charlie Parker, Stan Cowen and Russ Gastafson-Hilton. The St. Petersburg Clay Company was focused on four areas - studio space rental, retailing of clay supplies, gallery sales and education. Originally located in a former machine shop comprising 6000 square feet, the company doubled in size in 1997. Still unable to meet the needs of an ever-growing public interest in clay, the search began for a new facility.
At about this same time, The St. Petersburg Clay Company (SPCC) was contacted by Highwater Clays, located in Asheville, N.C. and asked to become their Florida distributor of clay, supplies and materials. Two years later, an agreement was reached between the two companies that resulted in a new partnership. Highwater Clays now handles all clay, supply and material sales.
Today, the St. Petersburg Clay Company is located in the historic Seaboard Coastline Frieght Depot in St. Petersburg, Florida along with Higwater Clays and the newest addition, the Morean Arts Center for Clay. Not only is the actual building quite unique, SPCC is also different in many ways, one being that our retail space is located in our working studio. This arrangement allows the public to watch artists work while they shop for finished pottery. In addition to our pottery sales and studio rentals SPCC is also very focused on education. SPCC offers workshops, one day classes, and an Artist in Residence program. The Morean Arts Center for Clay also focuses on workshops, events and extended classes. With Highwater Clays now handling all clay, supply and material sales with the Morean Arts Center for Clay helping to boost clay education, SPCC is once again able to focus more time on its partners' orginal vision of creating the premier ceramic facility in the United States.
Facilities
Our pursuit of excellence begins with our facililites. A 16th Century Japanese-style anagama kiln, a wood-firing train kiln, soda and salt atmostpheric gas kilns, 2 Minnesota flat top gas kilns, a pit kiln, raku kilns and over a dozen electric kilns provide the member artists of SPCC a complete array of firing possibilities. Along with our kilns, our members have acess to all studio equipment including slab-rollers, extruders, work and wedging tables, clay mixers and an expansive glaze mixing area all contained in an historic 1920s train depot.
For more information on our facilities or memberships, please visit us or contact us at (727) 896-CLAY Tuesday through Saturday, 10am - 5pm.
The Train Station
In the late 1800's, the Orange Belt Railway was the first railroad to come into St. Petersburg. In 1914, Seaboard applied to the City of St. Petersburg to bring their railway into town but was met with heavy opposition by the existing railroad. The City put the measure to a referendum, which the voters of St. Petersburg unanimously passed. The Seaboard Coastline Freight Depot opened on Sept. 13, 1926 and served as a freight depot until 1967.
Upon closing, the Freight Depot was used for a variety of businesses, such as offices, a flea market, feed store, an import and antique business and a warehouse. In 1993, the City of St. Petersburg placed the Depot on the local Historic Register. The Depot was built in the Masonry Vernacular style of architecture and is one of the last remaining examples of railroad architecture in Pinellas County.
In 2000, the Seaboard Partners LC was formed and purchased the Depot with the purpose of transforming it into the new home of St. Petersburg Clay Company, Inc. Renovations took two years and cost a little over $1,000,000.
Our gallery is named after Tim Salen, a talented potter and photographer and one of our inaugural members. We had run out of studio space but Tim wanted to be a part of St. Pete Clay so badly, he asked if he could work in a storage closet. Tim built our first raku kiln and was always the first to volunteer when anything needed to be done. 
When we learned he had cancer, we decided to name our gallery after him in appreciation for all he had done on our behalf. We also told him that he would have the first official show in the gallery bearing his name. 