SYRACUSE -- It's a turn-over of a different kind, and not the one people have been doing with their plates for generations.
The Onondaga Historical Association on Wednesday acquired 25,000 pieces of Syracuse China from the former plant. That includes china collected for 130 years in every shape and decoration, some even dating back to the 1870s.
When the plant closed in April, it left more than 200 people without a job and the community missing one of its points of pride. Lilian Tokarz, one of the volunteers helping move the china into its new home, worked at the plant for six years. Tokarz said, "There is kind of a sentimental feeling."
The company's historic collection will be housed on the fifth floor of the museum. It will be available for special behind the scenes tours starting in the fall.
"The rest of the stuff we intend to rotate in and out of our major Syracuse China exhibit and the rest of the stuff we'll figure it out in the near future," says Thomas Hunter, assistant director/curator of collections. "It's somewhat unfortunate that we are becoming the caretakers of the material of closed factories."
