Sixty-five years ago the late R.E. Perry Sr. started selling small sections of glass along with paint, because painters would be called on to replace window panes. “As time went by of course they wanted bigger and bigger pieces of glass,” said Perry’s son, Ricky.
Ricky Perry, 52, remembers the old way that the company received its glass. A one-ton truck would drive to the Norfolk shipping terminal and carry back the glass from Belgium to the Elizabeth City store, formerly located on east Ehringhaus Street. At that time, glass manufacturing was barely done in the United States, he said. And Perry Glass may have been the first substantial glass business in Elizabeth City.
“I’ve never been able to find out that there was ever a glass company before us in Elizabeth City,” he said.