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

Boonton New Jersey: Not Just Known for Iron Anymore

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what about a picture with words?

Optional styling on the early coffee-tea cups are hard to find. So are the non-swoopy cereal bowls, this lot available at RetroChalet.

I really think the best thing that came out of Boonton, New Jersey, was the melmac.  I remember driving there thinking I was going to some giant large industrial city, on a search to find the old Boontonware factory plant, and sights unseen. Before you knew it, I had drove right through the tiny town and clear on out to the other side.  If you blink, you may just, miss it.  Imagine all those dishes.......coming out of that tiny town.  Check out my other posts on Boontonware here.


Check out this cool link (note my little plastic man)

Welcome to Boonton New Jersey: Melmac Tour Stop 2 In Search of Boontonware Dishes by Ira Mency

Welcome to Boonton, New Jersey!

Home of the Boontonware dishes, these available at OurVintageHouse

I'm slowly copying my old site archives over from my old melmac site,so if you have not read part one of my Boonton melamine factory tour. If you have not taken part one of the tour, you should CLICK HERE TO TAKE BOONTON FACTORY TOUR PART ONE OF THIS TOUR NOW, and don't worry you can come back here soon.  Anyhow, I found these old photos I took several years back when I went to Boonton, New Jersey. I was on a quest to find answers about the Boontonware Melmac Factory and history in the town--after I found this card left to me in the Derek Schultz estate.

A clue left to me from Derek Schultz, a  formerNew Jersian. 

I went on a cold, rainy, August day as I was in the middle of Hunterdon, NJ and took the ride. As fate would have it the rain got into my camera and I was forced to snap grainy photos from my cellphone, so bear with me as I have tried to "spice up" the photos for your viewing pleasure.  My goal was to track down the last known place that the "Sales Offices" were for Boonton, ie: The English and English Distributor.

I was expecting a giant and huge industrial town, but instead found this quaint picturesque town on the top of a mountain, surrounded by valleys, whose official town website states that it is about 2.45 square miles.  I was shocked when I arrived.  You can tell this town has a lot of character, and history buried here. It once had a rubber factory, iron works / foundry, and booming businesses. At the time of my visit, it was home to an Allstate office and Salvage Company.  Bits and snippets of history indicate this building served many purposes over the years....like a hardware store way back when.... 

Perhaps, a hardware store?  Courtesy of Derek Schultz Archives. 

(I also found THIS PHOTO housed by the Boonton Historical Society which shows the front of the building.) What you don't know or see is that the magic of this building is actually that it's FIVE STORIES TALL! I was in awe the way the old time buildings had been built "into" the earth.  What you only see here in the above photo is the building on 520 Main Street. Here's the side and back:

I was specifically interested in finding out where the last known sales office of Boonton was as represented by English and English.  Most of the buildings along main street on this side, are teetering on the hillside showing their age, their history, and only hints of their past.  I really thought it was ingenious the way in which these buildings were facing Main Street, but backed up into Plane Street.  I drove down the steep hill of Plane Street and went around the back of the building looking for clues. 

I thought perhaps the old addage, "Backdoor friends are best" may apply to the "R" in "520R" on the card meaning "Rear", or perhaps there was just so many individual offices "R" was just one of the many.  I do want to say the back has a potential loading dock and plenty of capabilities for storage of said dishes. Look at all those steps!  I wouldn't want to carry any heavy Boonton dishes down there!

The town's history goes back to the 1800's.  I wonder just how many different businesses were in this building? At the time of my visit, several years ago, it was home to Allstate Insurance and a Salvage Company. However, I was more intrigued by the tiny brick building that was falling apart out back. I wanted someone to heist me up to peek inside, but no one was around to help me check for clues.

 

I was not sure what this was, but it intrigued me. Was it ever used for melmac dish storage?

A bunch of different Boonton dishes, well made and very popular at RetroChalet.

Just for clarification, there was evidence in print that a later Boonton Moulding Co. took over offices at 30 Plane Street. This would be the building on the far right corner of Plane and Main Street as circled in red on the map below.  When I saw it, it looked nothing more than a brick office building, and was vacant/for rent. (As you can see in the photo, it was just one block down from the original English and English distributors, and you can see the back of the buildings where I was taking the photos.)  I heard this was an office that handled injection molding of plastics, but most likely outsourced the actual projects.

A new address in the Boonton saga, what is 30 Plane Street?

Perhaps I'll never have the answers to all my questions, but I believe that sooner or later the pieces will fall into place. The town's history in molded plastic goes all the way back to an early Loanda Hard Rubber Company from 1891 (founded by Edwin A. Scribner) and started the town's commitment to plastic molding.

In a nutshell, continuous rubber production, a full fledged rubber company, a growing knowledge in bakelite and plastics molding ended up keeping the town's plastic industry spreading like wildfire. This teeny tiny town was turning out world famous Boontonware years later-thanks to Edwin's son George Scribner's  Boonton Molding Company.

Boonton Things You May Like :





My Boonton, NJ  (Factory) Tour Part One 

Read this site for all other Boontonware Posts!


Read more on this evolution of the rubber and plastics industry can be read in a great article by Tammy Scully found HERE. 

View the Official Town History as per Official Town Website HERE. 


View the town though years of interesting postcards at Boonton Postcards!

View some photos from  the Boonton Historical Society !

View all of the Boonton Photos from the Community!

Boontonware Melmac Dinnerware and Melmac LIVES says Matthew Huisman....read this

Boontonware + Good Design = Melmac Love. 

Good Design obvious at the DollyP shop on Etsy, full of cool Boontonware.

So after I took my Boonton, NJ Tour a few years back after my friend Derek Schultz passed away. His records stopped when Boontonware was being distributed by "English and English" in Boonton, NJ... I really wondered what ever happened to all the wonderful dish molds, where did they go? To the scrap yard?  To the recycling plant?  So sad.....or so I thought.   

Then along came Matthew Huisman for the Star-Ledger with this great article that says Boontonware is alive and well.....and molded in OHIO....what the heck?

Find it in his archives!

In the meantime, you can read more about Boontonware by visiting my factory tour:  http://retrochalet.blogspot.com/2014/01/boonton-melmac-factory-tour-stop-one.html
and seeing these great examples of boontonware!

Boontonware Butter Dishes, Etsy shop RetroChalet

Jadeite Bootonware.  Pic: Etsy shop RetroChalet

Boonton tumblers made in "glass tic"  plastic to look like glass. Etsy shop: Retrochalet

read more about these tumblers here on this boontonware melmac post on my blog 

quality assurance checked 9.30.16