Saturday, June 29, 2019

Catalina Tiles


I enjoyed an amazing tour of the Wrigley Mansion in Phoenix. I highly suggest it. While there, I saw amazing tiles everywhere. I came to find out on the tour that Wrigley had bought 99% of Santa Catalina Island in California when his life fell in love with it. To promote business on the island, he started Catalina Tile Company.

After discovering red clay in the mud, Wrigley was an astute enough man to see an industry potential. The tile company was fairly short-lived, but today there is an artisan who continues the practiced look that was unique to the tile. You can find the work at The Steamer Trunk.

Here's some examples of Catalina Tile from the 20,000 square foot mansion on a hill that Wrigley bought his wife for their 50th anniversary. He died in her bedroom a month later. They called it the "Winter Cottage" as it was the smallest of their many homes. 






The mansion is unbelievably beautiful and very well maintained and the views from up there on the hillside are astonishing  -



They aren't easy to find these days as the company was sold in the 1930s, but here's some places on ebay selling original tiles. LINK


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