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!

Vintage Melamine Dinnerware Value

Author's sandwich looks so much tastier on a vintage melmac plate.

Vintage Melamine Dishes and Dinnerware

Wait! Before you toss out those old plastic dishes, did you know they may be extremely collectible? Truth be told there's a whole world of melamine and melmac dish collectors out there. Perhaps it's the fact those funny old plastic dishes bring back a happier time in life --- the fab 1950's, or lunch at granny's house.  For me, I remember having those olive green and gold dishes in Mom's kitchen and though the color grossed me out, it brought back a time when she would make me after school snacks of apples and cheese. 

Millions of melamine and melmac dishes were made and sold from the 1940's to the 1970's (even from the 1980's until now) but the ones made in the USA and Canada are sought after these days. Now just to clear things up properly, most all these old plastic dishes were made from melamine, but American Cyanamid called theirs "melmac" due to their own copyright/trademark.  Sadly most people call all old plastic dishes melmac,  but really they aren't so worthy of the name unless the compound was made by American Cyanamid.  Were the compounds identically the same? We would have to save that for the scientists to answer but I can tell you that most melamine powder companies were constantly trying to improve their formulations.  "Unbreakable Guaranteed 2 Years" went to "5 years" went to "Unbreakable Lifetime Replacement".  Later in the 60's melamine powders were so expensive that I believe companies started cutting corners in their additives, because a lot of dishes from the 60's to the 80's were thinner, not as well made and would shatter or chipped when dropped.

Truth be told, melmac dishes were said to be unbreakable but would burn easily if sat too close to the stove, and would scratch when cutting with heavy knives. Even though over time the material was said to become more durable, heavy knives will scratch and wear down the surfaces.  So, if you have gouged up burnt up melmac, better to use for garden decorations! Plates look fun and lovely as bird feeders (mount a cup and saucer on a stick) or use the plates to line your garden.

Now, if you have a set where some pieces are in good condition, perhaps with only light stains or light scratches they may be worth salvaging for several reasons.  Read the Care and Cleaning section here!

First off, they are perfectly safe to use in your kitchen as long as you aren't microwaving them.  Why go spend a fortune in Target or Walmart buying the new made-in-china versions when you have authentic vintage melamine?

Secondly, your dishes may be sought after for those who are trying to complete a set.  For instance, those wanting to assemble a set just like grandma had, may gladly give you a few bucks at a flea market, on craigslist or ebay or Etsy as your pieces or partial set may help them complete theirs.

The downfall to selling online (outside of your local area) is that the dishes are somewhat heavy to ship, and your best bet will be a flat rate shipping box or UPS.

Some manufacturers command more money than others, this would be the ones that were made by famous designers. For instance, not every company had a designer on staff so the company would just use decals or inlays and mass produce funny designs.

However, some companies paid high end industrial designers, now famous for their work such as Russel Wright (for Northern), Joan Luntz (for Brookpark), Jon Hedu (for Watertown), or Raymond Loewy (designing for Lucent) for example.  These designs, are now more valuable to those who may collect mid century modern, or melmac.

Now you may not know whether looking at your old melmac dishes just what they are, so you should start by doing a search on the web and finding out just what you have. It may be fun to realize that set you acquired some time back may still hold it's value.


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Care and Cleaning of Melmac Dinnerware


Collecting Melmac Dinnerware

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