Boxing, Glass Pitchers and Massabesic Lake
At first glance, the subjects are a strange mixture and have nothing in common, or maybe not. You just have never heard of Harko glass!
John Harko was born in 1906 in Austria and came to this country as a small child and graduated from the Franklin Street Grammar School in Manchester. He received the New England Featherweight boxing championship title twice. He worked on construction and ran a used automobile dealership before retiring in the 1970s.
His new hobby was glassblowing. He made cobalt-blue glass pitchers using sand he got from the shores of Massabesic Lake. First he needed permission from the Manchester Water Works, overseers of the lake and the silica sand. Working at high temperatures, he made the molds and blew the glass for the pitchers. Each one was different but they all had the same theme, the American Presidents and freedom.
Harko never sold his treasures, he gave them away to friends and acquaintances. In his nineties, John Harko passed away in 1997.
A display of three Harko glass pitchers is located in the library’s
New Hampshire Room. See our web site, www.manchesternh.gov
or the hours of the room.
Cynthia O
Harko Glass on display | goodgood manchester // Jan 18, 2011 at 4:09 pm
[…] Manchester City Library Made from the sands of Lake Massabesic by folk artist John Harko, three Harko glass pitchers are currently on display in the New Hampshire Room at the Manchester …, 405 Pine […]