Set back off Route 313 in Doylestown, the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works is both a famous landmark and a leaky old building in need of repair.
Ceramic artist Katia McGuirk got what she wanted Wednesday when the Bucks County commissioners authorized a license for her nonprofit to run the building's operations for the next 30 years.
As a former employee there, McGuirk knows well what she is undertaking.
Like a homebuyer who can see past an old house's cracks and creaks to envision the beautiful home it once was and could be again, McGuirk wants to restore the old tile works both physically and reputation wise, as she brings the tile-making process undertaken there into the 21st century while retaining its close association with the Arts & Crafts Movement its tiles helped promote 100 years ago.