Larry and Marg O’Neil own what has been called “the biggest cast iron collection on the planet.” I call them the rock stars of the cast iron collecting world.
In addition to the article that Josh Miller—then Editor of Southern Cast Iron and now Senior Food Editor at Southern Living—and I wrote about their collection after our first visit, Larry and Marg and their spectacular collection have been featured in “Collector’s Island” and on the Lodge Cast Iron website.
In fact, Larry and Marg’s collection is so fabulous that Southern Cast Iron again featured our story about Larry and Marg and their collection in their May/June 2024 issue!
The Very Abbreviated Story of Larry and Marg
Marg and Larry met in grade school and were high school sweethearts. They were married on March 2, 1957, when Marg was 19 and Larry was 21. They have two adult sons – Jerry (Stephanie) and Mark (Melissa), 5 grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren.
Marg and Larry are a devoted couple who are always at each other’s side. They share each other’s interests and keep very busy. Marg is opinionated and outspoken—”spitfire” comes to mind (Marg takes pride in having been placed in Facebook “jail” on more than one occasion). Larry is more reserved and studied, though he is a man of action. As Larry puts it, Marg prefers that he make the major decisions in their relationship. Once the decision is made, however, Marg ensures that the implementation of the decision does not fail.
The O’Neil Grocery Stores
Marg and Larry have always been hard workers. Early in their marriage, Larry worked as the head truck mechanic for St. Regis (now Champion) Paper Company. However, when Marg became restless after having children, she says, “Larry bought me a store.” Marg then ran the store while Larry worked at St. Regis.
Larry quit St. Regis in 1965 and devoted his time to their grocery store. That one store turned into a chain of 5 grocery stores and 38 years of hard work in the grocery business. Larry told me, “We didn’t know anything [about the grocery business], but we knew how to work.”
For example, Larry learned how to cut meat when they realized that one of their stores was losing money on meat cutting. He built that skill, and eventually, that store became the most significant wild game processor in Western Washington State. Marg recalls their young boys standing on milk crates alongside Larry and helping to cut meat while Marg wrapped and boned.
The O’Neils don’t do anything halfway. If they’re in, they’re all in.
Post-Retirement
Although retired from the grocery business, the O’Neils remain very active. Apart from their full-time “hobby” of collecting cast iron—which also involves answering questions, hosting collectors and visitors, taking calls, and acting as docents at their museum—they also own properties that they lease to companies. They are also engaged in various philanthropic and community activities and are Life Members of Ducks Unlimited and the Eatonville & Gig Harbor Gun Club.
Furthermore, as Larry commented, they “raise some cows and clean cast iron.”
Two Stories about Larry and Marg
There are two stories that, to me, capture the spirit of Marg and Larry as a couple.
Marg pulls hair, Larry breaks a nose, and Marg helps Larry with his testimony.
The first story involves some misguided soul who threw some coins at Marg when she wouldn’t sell him a beer at one of their grocery stores without proper identification. Larry stepped in, and the young man hit Larry.
Larry punched the man in the face, breaking his nose. Meanwhile, Marg jumped on the back of the young man’s friend and pulled his hair. Police were called, and the men were charged.
When Larry was called to testify at trial, Marg sat in the galley, animatedly nodding “yes” or “no” when she agreed or disagreed with Larry’s testimony. The judge had to twice chastise her for her head nods. Marg is irrepressible.
Larry tries to sell me some iron, but Marg says, “No.”
The second story is about when I first met Marg and Larry. I tried to buy a piece of iron from them at a swap meet. Larry was lovely—charming and smiling as he showed me the piece and told me its history. We were settling on a price when Marg walked behind Larry, heard what he was about to sell it to me for, said “No,” and kept on walking. Larry needed to be charging me more.
The Start of the O’Neil’s Collecting Journey
The O’Neil cast iron collecting journey began in the 1950s when Larry asked his mother if he could have the skillet hanging on the kitchen wall. His mother said “no,” as Larry’s sister had already made the request. Undeterred, Larry set out to get his own. He bought a Griswold and a Wagner skillet for $8 at a thrift store.
That small purchase ignited a spark in Larry, becoming a flame and then a blazing inferno. Did I mention that the O’Neils don’t do anything halfway?
The O’Neil Iron Cast Iron Collection and Museum
The O’Neils estimate they have about 15,000 pieces of vintage and antique cast iron. I’d wager that the number is much higher.
The O’Neil collection of vintage and antique cast iron and cast aluminum is displayed in, on, and around their lovely home in Tacoma, Washington, and in their private cast iron museum and outbuildings on their farmland just outside of Tacoma.
Iron in the O’Neil Home
When Larry first started collecting iron, Marg said he couldn’t bring the collection into the house. She later said he could bring some pieces into the house, provided he kept them in the basement.
Over time, however, the iron filled the basement and crept upstairs, throughout the house’s rooms, into the garage, onto some outdoor walls, and even into the garden. Old iron pieces are incorporated into the home decor. They even have a towel stand in a bathroom made from a Griswold double burner.
The Iron Collection Takes Over the O’Neil Farmland
As their iron collection continued to grow, the O’Neils began to store it on their farmland.
The O’Neil farm property hosts a house and several outbuildings. One of the outbuildings is a gigantic 4500 square foot multi-level pole barn called the museum. The museum is chock-full of cast iron pieces from many manufacturers.1
The O’Neils learn all they can about every piece in their collection through research and study, hard work, and conversations with other collectors. They agree they have learned the most from other cast iron collectors in the two national collecting groups, the Griswold & Cast Iron Cookware Association (G&CICA) and the Wagner and Griswold Society. They have also studied the reference books written by David C. Smith and Chuck Wafford (commonly called the “Blue” and “Red” books) and the Griswold Muffin Pan book written by Jon B. Haussler.
The O’Neils have extensive documentation for many companies, including catalogs, advertising, orders, price sheets, etc. These old papers are a great source of factual information. I have spent days looking through their boxes of ephemera but haven’t begun to absorb all they have.
Every Piece in the Collection is different from all the others
Larry aims to learn about and collect every unique vintage and antique cast iron cookware piece from well-known foundries and unknown manufacturers. While he particularly favors Griswold, he is also interested in marked and unmarked pieces from unknown makers. He values the iron’s craftsmanship over the brand. Larry enjoys seeking out unique and unusual pieces. He studies each piece’s minor differences and variations.
For instance, the O’Neils own numerous vintage Griswold Santa molds. Although these molds may look identical at first glance, each differs upon closer examination. Some of the molds feature a varying length of line on the toy bag that Santa is holding. The line is essentially a casting flaw – a remnant of the mold that contained the iron that made that particular Santa.
Larry explained that Griswold used a wooden pattern for the Santa mold. As the wooden pattern dried and aged, it developed cracks. The cracks grew longer over time as the wood continued to age. These cracks account for the lengthening line on Santa’s bag.
Some of the Special Pieces at the O’Neil Home
The O’Neils have many unique vintage and antique cast iron pieces in their kitchen and dining area. Additionally, their basement contains thousands of rare and unusual iron and aluminum pieces meticulously organized into different sections. Three rooms in the basement are filled with stacks of iron and aluminum. There are pieces on the floor, shelves, walls, and even hanging from the rafters.
On one of my visits, I made seven videos of the iron and aluminum collection at the O’Neil home. You can view them on my YouTube video channel. They show an overview of the pieces in the house. Here’s just a taste.
**Most of the photos in the video below were taken by, and are provided courtesy of, Sarah Lamb of S.Lamb Photography.
An Overview of the Cast Iron Museum
It’s harder to show just a slice of the museum, as choosing a few handfuls of exceptional pieces from a huge collection of exceptional pieces is impossible. There are just too many, and they are all extraordinary.
At least three buildings on the O’Neil farmland house cast iron. One building has pieces of iron that the O’Neils are sorting and some iron and stoves (and more) on display. Another building houses pieces that the O’Neils are selling. The third building is the Mother Lode—the cast iron museum.
Everything in the museum has been carefully arranged and sorted. Different areas of the museum showcase pieces by one manufacturer or a specific type of piece. Many manufacturers are represented, including Griswold, Wagner, Martin, King Stove, Atlanta Stove Works, Favorite, Favorite Piqua Ware, Lodge, Mi-Pet, Ozark, Marietta, Sperry, Filley, Charter Oak, Mt. Penn., Barstow (a favorite of Marg and Larry’s), Findlay, McClary, old gate-marked pieces, and more. There are “oddball” pieces from unknown makers and many from established foundries.
I made four videos of the O’Neil cast iron museum. It is impossible to take it all in at once; it’s that overwhelming. You can see the videos on my YouTube video channel. I’ve also put them in some separate posts on the site.
Here’s just a glimpse, from tape one.
Larry and Marg are a remarkable couple. I feel blessed to have met and spent time with them, heard and shared their stories, and viewed and learned about their beautiful vintage and antique cast iron collection. They and their collection are truly one of a kind.
