Lambertville – Then and Now

• Address: 239 – 243 N. Union St.
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• Historic Name: Lambertville Pottery Company
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• Today: Canal Studios

Lambertville Pottery Company began manufacturing toilets in 1909 with two kilns on North Union Street and by 1922, twelve kilns were producing 300 bowls and tanks daily.

In 1915, Phillip Faherty, vice president and sales manager for the pottery, and Cornelius Arnett, president of the Trenton Savings Fund Society, drove a customized 1912 “Jackson” truck with a Lambertville Pottery Company toilet set up in the back as a demonstrator, on a tour of New York State and New England.

On their tour, they visited plumbing supply houses to demonstrate their sanitary fixture. Faherty reportedly said that the roads were so bad that he and Arnett “had to carry with them skid chains, tow ropes, shovels, and hip boots.”

Sean Faherty, who provided the photo of the customized truck, is the great-grandson of Phillip Faherty (who is leaning on the truck in the photo above) and is an attorney at Hunt & Faherty Law Offices in Lambertville.

In 1925, the Pottery Company, unable to provide sinks and bathtubs along with its toilets and tanks, could no longer compete and closed after having been labeled the “cleanest and most sanitary ware in the east” for 15 years. It was located in what is today the “Canal Studios” building at 239 – 243 N. Union Street. Today, these buildings house The Roxy Ballet Company, Rojo’s Roastery, Liberty Hall Pizza, Basil Bandwagon Natural Market as well as offices and studio space.