The Verdin Family Legacy
The eight-story PAC warehouse, which today houses over 200 working artists, was erected in 1909.
Originally a shoe-manufacturing warehouse, it was purchased in the mid 1900s by Shillito's Department Store and used as their main warehousing facility.
In 1991, The Verdin Company — the world's largest bell and clock manufacturer — acquired the building. It sat close to their world headquarters in the Pendleton neighborhood, and the Verdin family turned it into a home for local artists. Today it is the largest collection of artists under one roof in the world.
The Pendleton Art Center complex now features the main warehouse plus the adjacent Annex, Studios@510, and 1321 Studios. A second location opened later in Middletown, Ohio.
James Verdin was President and CEO of The Verdin Company during this transformation. The Pendleton Art Center, as a working artist community open to the public on Final Fridays, exists because of the Verdin family's deliberate decision to put their warehouse into the hands of artists.