In the same year Messrs. Stephens & Leach started a factory for architectural terra cotta in West Philadelphia, and later the firm name was changed to Stephens, Armstrong & Conkling.

During the five years of the works' existence it has furnished material for hundreds of important structures in Philadelphia and other cities, of which particular mention may be made of panels Fig. 49.—Medallion of Columbus. and gable work in the library of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Drexel Institute, now being erected in West Philadelphia. A series of animal-head medallions, in high relief, are particularly excellent, and some bas-relief portraits of eminent men, modeled by such sculptors as H. J. Ellicott, John Boyle, and E. N. Conkling, are among their best productions. A medallion of Columbus by Mr. Conkling, and a Cupid and floral panel by Thomas Robertson, are here represented. Admirable work is also being produced by other establishments in Boston, Chicago, and most of our larger cities.