In April the Clay Capital Heritage Center invited the Twin Cities into the old department store at North Main and East Third. In late September it did the same thing again. April was billed as a first-floor grand opening, and it was a weekend opening of the pieces that were ready. The finished museum is still coming. Executive director Wendy Zucal now hopes the museum will open in late 2027 or early 2028, and the date depends less on exhibits than on one funding gap: $400,000 to $500,000 to finish the first floor.
That makes every open house part of how the project gets built. If you've walked through the building this year, you have seen a museum raising its own money one weekend at a time.
What April Actually Was
On April 24, 2026, WJER reported that the center was "having a grand opening this weekend." The timing matched the America 250 Buckeye Train celebrations in the Twin Cities. Visitors could step into the clay mine entrance, watch films in the Beehive Kiln Theater, meet Dominic the Donkey, the new mascot, and shop the gift shop. Hours were 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. WJER also noted that the Dennison Depot is overseeing the project.
The Depot's own event page listed the same weekend as a first-floor open house. People got to see the pieces that were ready, on a weekend schedule. Visitors got a first look, but the full museum wasn't open yet.
On Sept. 29 the center held another open house. According to The Times-Reporter's coverage on yourohionews.com, about 180 people came and roughly $40,000 was raised to finish the project. The article calls the building "unfinished." Zucal told the paper, "I wish it would happen a whole lot faster, but everybody has priorities in life."
The Money, Set Against the Building
The figures are clearest side by side. These come from that same Times-Reporter story:
- 1949: The H.L. Green store opens on Feb. 17 after construction began in April 1948. It cost $350,000, about $4.9 million in 2026 dollars.
- 2011: The City of Uhrichsville buys the building for $100,000.
- 2011 to 2026: Zucal estimates around $2 million has gone into the building.
- Still needed: $400,000 to $500,000 to finish the first floor.
- Sept. 29, 2026: One open house raises about $40,000.
Here's a rough way to read those numbers. Over the 15 years since the city bought the building, about $2 million works out to around $130,000 a year. At that pace, the first-floor gap would take three to four more years to close, which lands past the late-2027 target. Officials are working with the Appalachian Regional Commission to secure funding for the first floor. Whether that federal-state money comes through will largely decide whether 2027 holds.
On the ground, the open houses close the gap in smaller steps. A single September afternoon brought in somewhere between 8 and 10 percent of the remaining first-floor cost. The Depot's annual Clay Reverse Raffle works the same way. The 2026 tickets were $20, and the drawing ran on Facebook Live on March 27. You can find details on the Depot's raffle page.
What $400,000 to $500,000 Buys
George Laurence of Museum Acrylics in New Philadelphia is the exhibit contractor, and he has laid out the first floor in order. Each floor of the building is about 8,000 square feet.
- Front of the building: a coffee shop and a gift shop.
- One end of the exhibit hall: a clay mine entrance.
- The middle: a production floor modeled on Superior Clay Corp., showing hand molding, clay pipe extrusion and the air-drying stage before the kiln.
- The other end: the Kiln Theater.
- Walls and center: floor-to-ceiling murals of clay workers behind the production line, a timeline of the county's clay industry through the post-World War II era on the opposite wall, and changing exhibits in the middle.
- Also on the first floor: restrooms open to the public.
The second floor will hold exhibits on how clay products were marketed and sold, plus office space, storage and a community room.
So the April mine entrance, theater and gift shop were early pieces of a bigger floor plan. The coffee shop and the public restrooms are the parts that would change a regular downtown errand. Both sit behind the same funding line as the exhibits.
The museum will also show the folk art that clay workers made in their spare time. The Twin City Chamber's directory still lists an "Uhrichsville Clay Museum" with folk-art pieces at 330 North Main Street. The Depot's event page gives 135 E. Third St. Both describe the building at Third and Main, and the October report still calls it unfinished, so don't take the directory entry as current visiting hours.
The Plant the Exhibit Copies Is Still Running
Tuscarawas County once had 32 clay sewer pipe plants. Superior Clay is the only clay plant still running in the Twin Cities. "We have great technical support from Superior Clay and the people there," Laurence told The Times-Reporter. At the September open house, Superior Clay employee Deano Martini demonstrated clay molding.
The plant is at 6566 Superior Road SE. According to Superior Clay's website, it has run continuously for more than 100 years. Its current line includes fireplace components, chimney pots, masonry ovens, chimney flue liners, wall coping, wine-storage tiles and architectural terra cotta. The company's site sends customers to a dealer network.
That's also why the museum leans on its open houses. For most residents, the clay industry is something they drive past on Superior Road, and the open houses are where they get to see the craft up close.
Why the Building Sits at Third and Main
Zucal described the goal as a tourism and economic development corridor, with the Dennison Depot at one end and the clay museum at the other. "We want a museum on each end to help drive tourism," she told The Times-Reporter.
Third Street is already filling in between them. Sidetracked Hobbies recently moved to 327 E. Third St. and opened early for the Oct. 10 Twin City Fall Festival. It hosts Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering activities, sells related items, and runs a book club, crafts and special events. "We wanted to try to increase foot traffic, get some new people through the door and show the community what we're about," Beth Goodwin told yourohionews.com in its fall festival story. She said the store saw extra traffic that day.
That festival story describes downtown shops, vendors and nonprofits reporting strong turnout. The clay center works on the same idea. Events bring people to East Third, and the money and attention from those days go into the next step.
At Margo Real Estate & Property Mgmt., Jason Margo's family construction background means we pay attention when a 1949 brick storefront gets a second life, because the work behind it is real work. If you own an older building in Uhrichsville or Dennison and are wondering what it would take to bring it back, or what it's worth as it stands, request a free home valuation & consultation and we'll walk the property with you.
