Solon and Schemmel Tile Company (S&S) was a tile pottery business in San Jose, California from 1920 – 1936. The company's tiles adorn Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco and the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California. Other projects included tiles for the Orpheum and Junior Orpheum theaters in Los Angeles, the Mark Hopkins Hotel, Central Classroom Building at San Jose State University, Y.M.C.A. buildings in San Diego and Honolulu, the Dollar Steamship Line building at Portland, Oregon, the Oakland and Berkeley war memorials. and the Frank P. Williams House in Sacramento The business was eventually subsumed into Stonelight Tile.
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History
Albert Solon (1887-1949) immigrated from England to the U.S. in 1912. He studied at San Jose Normal School (later San Jose State University). He was employed as the pottery director at a tuberculosis sanitorium in Fairfax, before moving to San Jose and teaching ceramics at the San Jose Normal School.
In 1920, he joined with Schemmel to found S&S tiles Solon designed the tiles and Schemmel headed the business. Both men lived in Willow Glen during the 1930s and 40s. Their work for Willow Glen sites included Willow Glen Theater (demolished)) and the façades of homes on Telfer Avenue, Kotenberg Avenue and Willow Glen Way.
Schemmel retired in 1936 and Solon joined up with Paul Larkin. They changed the company name to Solon & Larkin and worked together until Solon retired in 1947. Schemmel died in 1950. Four friends from UC-Berkeley took over the company in 1953 and changed the name from the Larkin Tile Company to Stonelight Tile. They owned the company until 1979. It was bought by David Anson.
Solon's family
Albert Solon came from a family with a long history in ceramics. His eldest brother Leon Solon (1872-1957) worked as artistic director and designer at the American Encaustic Tiling Company in New York from 1912 to 1925, where Paul Solon (1883-?) also worked. Camille A. Solon (1877-1960) worked with architect Julia Morgan doing painting work and tile work in the private libraries, glass mosaic waffs and indoor pools of the William Randolph Hearst's mansions and estates at San Simeon. Gilbert Solon (1879-1929) designed at Minton's and worked at the Royal Worcester Porcelain Co. Ltd. in Worcester, England.