Laguna Beach’s Pottery Shack was one of California’s best-known pottery destinations for much of the twentieth century. The business began in 1936, when brothers Van and Roy Childs started selling pottery from two old log cabins at Coast Highway and Anita Street. The following year, the business moved to South Coast Highway and Brooks Street, the location most closely associated with its long history.

The early business reportedly started with a trailer load of J.A. Bauer pottery seconds from Glendale. These discounted pieces helped establish the Pottery Shack as a place where customers could browse, buy, and discover California pottery in an informal setting. Over time, it grew from a modest resale operation into a well-known Laguna Beach landmark.

The Pottery Shack was not a single pottery manufacturer in the same way as Bauer, Vernon Kilns, Metlox, or Brayton Laguna. It functioned more as a retail and studio destination. It sold a range of pottery, including factory seconds, decorative wares, garden pottery, souvenir pieces, and locally made ceramics. Some pieces were associated with on-site demonstrations or local makers, while others were simply sold through the shop.

The Childs family, who founded the business, sold it in 1972 after 36 years. Pier 1 Imports bought it with the idea of using the Pottery Shack concept for national expansion, but those plans did not work out. The property eventually returned to private hands, and the retail store at the historic Brooks Street/Coast Highway site closed in 2004.

By that point, the original Pottery Shack was no longer just a store; it was a sprawling, aging collection of Depression-era buildings on a prominent Laguna Beach commercial corner. Contemporary coverage described the old complex as ramshackle, with board-and-batten walls that in some places were not even on proper footings, but sitting on beach sand and effectively held in place by interior shelving. During redevelopment, crews had to shore up the structures and preserve what they could.

Susie Welton, who had operated the store since 1986, later said she sold the block-long site because it had become “too much” after she became a grandmother and wanted more time with family. The former 25,000-square-foot Pottery Shack site was then redeveloped into The Old Pottery Place, a mixed-use complex with shops, offices, restaurants, a courtyard, and parking.