Louisville Glassworks
The Snead Building located at 815 W. Market St. is a multi-use facility housing two working glass studios (two glass galleries): a Walk-In Workshop and tours by appointment. History. From 1850 to 1901, at least seven different glass manufacturing factories operated in Louisville. Six were utilitarian bottle houses, and the other manufactured window and plate glass. In 1850 the first glass bottle- and jar-making firm, known as the Kentucky Glass Works was formed, which, by 1855, was being referred to under the name "Louisville Glass Works". ("Louisville KY Glass Works" is the actual wording on  some of their embossed whiskey flasks of the 1850s and 1860s era). However, that firm was defunct by 1873, and bears no relationship to the former glassmaking business which operated under the name "Louisville Glassworks". In 1896 Edwin Penna began operation, and has gone under five generations of Penna ownership. The downtown location has historically been known as the Snead Manufacturing Building, and was put on the National Register in 1978. Snead was responsible for building many iron buildings around the country. After the old building burnt down, the architect was told to build a "first-class fireproof power building