Kokomo Opalescent Glass, an Indiana manufacturer of hand-cast sheet glass for stained glass work, stopped producing glass on 10 September 2026. The decision was announced the same day on the company’s Facebook page. The firm traces its hand-mixed glass tradition to 1888 and is described in press reports as the oldest producer of its kind in the United States.
The owners attributed the halt to rising costs, continuing repairs and other difficulties, without giving further detail. Visits to the factory have been suspended. The company’s retail shop remains open, where it continues to sell glass, run classes and handle custom work, and customers with existing orders are being contacted.
The owners describe the stoppage as a period of change rather than a farewell. They say they are looking for a buyer with the resources to continue the business, and they hope sheet glass production can resume. No buyer had been named in any report available at the end of October 2026.
The company was founded in November 1888 in Kokomo by Charles Henry, a New York chemist specialising in glass, who moved to Indiana during the local natural gas boom. The town offered him land, and his first order came from the Tiffany Glass Company. Most of the buildings on the site date from the 1890s, and equipment used in the early production of glass for Tiffany lamps is reported to remain there.
The stoppage matters to the craft because sheet glass of this kind is the raw material for traditional stained glass, including opalescent work in the Tiffany manner. Studios in the United States and elsewhere have relied on a small number of manufacturers for it, and a long closure would reduce the range available to artists and to restorers matching historic glass. Whether production restarts depends on the search for a buyer, and the position will be reported here if it changes.