Boonton Melmac Factory Tour Stop One : This Was The Melamine Factory

This is the ariel tour of the Boonton factory as seen in some old memorabilia , an actual black and white brochure from many moons ago, originally I had inherited from Derek Schultz, a fellow collector.   And so I left a festival in New Jersey I was working with my husband selling BBQ to shoot over to Boonton...

Boonton, the makers of Boontonware melmac, in case you don't know what I'm talking about here are some images: 

This vintage set can be had for $96 at ColorMeNew

So Now I present to you: THE BOONTON FACTORY!

Although hard to see, this door  on left with steps is marked 326 above it, and therefore, the exact address of Scribner's Boonton factory!

Boonton Molding Company
326 Myrtle Avenue
Boonton, NJ


First, I must apologize for the graphics on this page. At the time, I was working in Hunterdon, NJ and decided to take a ride to Boonton. This was possibly 2009-2010 or earlier.  I had a crappy flip phone and originally posted this on an old Verizon site, that is long gone. I barely managed to migrate the old photos in time.  I tried to do some updated in 2018 for you from Google. 



Same building as above, but the small door under the red light, was the entrance to Boontonware Factory.  The building is extremely LONG...

This was basically part of the pictures I took, although easier here to see from Google.

At the time of my visit the buildings in question belonged to Dauphin (326 Myrtle) and Carbone (400 Myrtle).  The way in which the buildings were so close made me wonder if they could have both been used by Boonton at one time, however, I later found reference that Carbone resided at 400 Myrtle back in 1957 so that is unlikely, perhaps further investigation though the Boonton Historical Society or old records would confirm or deny if originally in the 40's Boonton had that building. 

 The first thing I want to explain is that when I originally thought of a big factory, I thought I'd find something like that old plant of the Solvay Factory in upstate New York.  You would assume you'd see big industrial buildings, many stories and chimneys, towers, and industrial looking outsides. Not so, this far all the old sites for melmac factories I've been to have been long warehouses. I was lucky enough to have a paper guide, thanks to the late and great Derek Schultz, who left me a guide to the Boontonware plant, Derek spent many years in Jersey and was privy to many factory tours and behind the scenes time with the people in charge doing research on Boonton. Curiously peaked me to visit, and I did some ride by's of the existing building that compromise now 300 to 400 Myrtle .......

Just to get an idea, (much like the paper brochure) just how large this conglomerate is, you have to see it from the ariel view......
Here is an ariel view of the Boontonware address "326 Myrtle Avenue."
The original factory address says it was at 326 Myrtle Avenue.  I will explain in another post more about the inception of the factory, as George K. Scribner started up the factory in a tiny corner of another factory perhaps "allotment of space" or sharing space.  

From what I've learned, the plastics were an accidental addition and Boontonware dishes date back to 1946 based on my research! By 1955, Boontonware would be turning out 70,000 pieces of dinnerware an hour.  That's a lot of dishes.  Wow!

This would have been the site of the original Boontonware Melmac Factory 

building

At the time of my visit, the Dauphin building, however as of 2018 I see them listed in Montville, so I don't know, I hope to get there again with clearer photos. 

Back shots of the buildings encompassing 326-400 Myrtle.As we know the 400 block was Carbone, and as of 1957 was not part of Boonton Molding , but perhaps I will include them in case someday I find out they were indeed leased by Boonton back in the day............

Back shots.......
  

Unsure if this was part of Boonton factory in the 50's , but could very well have been a loading area.  



Boonton Factory or Not? 

Behind Carbone, you can see where the old glass windows of an old factory type building still stand and I am unsure which is Carbone's and which belonged to .Boonton Molding.  

More pics of Carbone (the neighbor) at the time of my visit:

Carbone is still housing this area as of November 2018.

   Mind you, this is technically marked 400 Myrtle Avenue.  

Further Information: 

Circa 1970's :  Boontonware was now a division of PYAH INDUSTRIES. 

BOONTON MOLDING CO., INC.,BOONTONWARE DIV. OF PYAH INDUSTRIES 301 Myrtle Ave.

Boonton Historical Society had a "tent sale" celebrating Boonton's presence in the neighborhood for 57 years. See the article here:  daily record


You can continue onto 

Continue to : Boonton Melmac Factory Tour Part 2 Here

You should listen to this podcast I made about Belle Kogan, who designed Boontonware!

Cooper Hewitt Belle Kogan Boontonware Melmac Blueprints @cooperhewitt

The real Belle Kogan creamer post design, Find it at WifeofWhimsy on Etsy.

Hey, this is interesting! If you like Boontonware melmac or Boonton melamine,you can now see some of the original mock up blueprints of some of Belle Kogan's work for Boonton Molding Company .

Cooper Hewitt Museum has great online designs for Boontonware by Belle Kogan. 
To protect their images, you must go there to see full sizes!

You can see different blueprints that she drew which would later turn into some of Boonton patterns.  Showcased are the Belle line and some later thinner patterns perhaps Patrician.... The above is a small sampling of the full size Belle Kogan production blueprint. The one above says it is from 1953, however I want to explain this is not pre-design. This is a revision to the original design. 

Often times manufactuers would have to change a slant, a specification or something that maybe was causing an issue molding.  So it's safe to say this creamer was indeed in production priot to 1953.  I do think I've seen subtle changes to the nose or pouring spout, the mold line is more or less prominent on some examples.

Glad to see Cooper Hewitt is taking notice!

You may enjoy this podcast

Find them at Cooper Hewitt online here. 

Read my Boonton Factory Tours: 

Part One

Part Two  

Please listen to this podcast about Belle Kogan and Boontonware!

Laureline by Belle Kogan for Boonton Boontonware

Plastic tumblers from Etsy are unmarked and  probably resemble Laureline, these available at the DaileyShopper

Laureline By Boonton
I had a reader write in to me about a drinking glass he had growing up with the inscription, "Laureline.". I had never seen that before per se on a plastic cup, but I did a little research and found this was a Belle Kogan design introduced by Boonton in 1956.   This came from the book, "China and Glass in America."   The earliest reference to the word Laureline being used in the plastic industry was 1952 in a Hardware Age magazine, but I'm uncertain if this is the same type plastic used in the tumblers.

BooksShop on Etsy has this 61 pc TexasWare set for sale, note the blue plastic "AKA GLASTIC" drinking vessels up top on either side of the top shelf, this is probably what Laureline looked like!

These "plastic drinking vessels" were very similar to the plastic glasses that were crystallized by TexasWare.    Not sure if you remember them from your younger days eating at the Ponderosa or buffet style restaurants, but they were plastic frosted type glasses that I thought were cheesy. I used to call them GLASTIC, a mix of plastic supposed to look like glass.  They often had stress cracks in them and / or chips on the rim. Ewwww.

If you know anything about Laureline, let me know.