Benedict C. Milburn, age 17, arrived in Alexandria in 1822, where he apprenticed himself to a potter. Milburn leased the Wilkes Street Pottery in 1833, producing Stoneware for H.C. Smith, and eventually bought the property in 1841. Although an accomplished Stoneware potter, Milburn also developed a trade in plain Redware Flower pots. He employed several Black" potters and decorators, including the first women to work at the Pottery. Milburn's Stoneware has been found as far away as West Virginia and Southern Pennsylvania, but met with stiff competition from potters in other urban areas such as Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. Following B.C. Milburn's death in 1867, the Pottery remained in the hands of his sons. Nine years later the Wilkes Street Pottery closed. A bark shed was placed on the site for the tannery of C. C. Smoot and Co., located across the street.
Milburn introduced slip-trail decoration to Alexandria's Stoneware,
adapting the flowing, symmetrical motifs of Swann and Smith to the new medium.
Although some wares bearing his stamp were hastily and unskillfully decorated,
the majority of his vessels demonstrate that he was an accomplished potter and decorator.
Milburn also continued to produce vessels decorated with brushed cobalt.
