Charles Gladding (1828–1894) was born in Buffalo, NY and served as a First Lieutenant in the Union Army during the Civil War and later moved to Chicago where he entered into the clay Sewer Pipe Business. He came to California in 1874 looking for new business opportunities. While in California, he read an article in a San Francisco newspaper about a large clay deposit near the town of Lincoln, California. Investigating, Gladding verified that it was an "unusually fine deposit of white kaolin clay" located close to a railroad line, and selected the spot as the site for a new business. Gladding, along with Peter McGill McBean and George Chambers, established Gladding-McBean in 1875. Its original product was clay sewer pipe. By 1883, the company had grown to 75 employees, and it then evolved into a major manufacturer of architectural terra-cotta. Peter McBean became president of the company after Charles Gladding's death in 1894, and his son Athol McBean later served as chairman of the board.
the Auburn plant closed in 1932. All operations were consolidated with the Renton plant. The Taylor coal and clay mines and the town were condemned by the Seattle Water Department in order to include the area inside an expanded watershed.
Since the demand for building materials dwindled, the company began to look for new products. The company expanded into tableware. In 1932, experimental work in Dinnerware began at the Glendale plant in Los Angeles. In 1934, Gladding, McBean introduced the Franciscan Pottery line of dinnerware and art ware, named after the Franciscan Friars who established missions throughout California in the 18th and 19th centuries. The lines were very successful. In 1937, Gladding, McBean and Co. purchased the Catalina Clay Products Division of Catalina Island Co. The company closed the pottery moving all molds and equipment to the Glendale plant. The company continued to use the tradename of Catalina Pottery on select dinnerware and art ware lines produced in the Glendale plant until 1942. In 1940, the company introduced the hand-painted embossed pattern Franciscan Apple, and in 1941 Desert Rose. Both patterns became the company's most popular patterns. The company introduced fine china dinnerware in 1942 and due to World War II, discontinued all art ware lines.