Manufacturer: Maddock Pottery
User: Fort Pitt Hotel – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Date of platter: circa 1909-1924

Maddock Pottery Pattern 5015

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Notes: The Fort Pitt Hotel, on the corner of Penn Avenue and 10th Street in Pittsburgh, opened in 1909. When it opened it contained 400 guest bedrooms. Additions in 1912 and 1915 brought the room count up to 800 rooms, 500 of them with private baths.  There were several dining venues, including the Vine Room and the Rose Room, as well as a ballroom.

In 1928, the Fort Pitt became one of the hotels in the Eppley Hotels Company chain.  Eppley had its own china pattern, so the original china services may have been replaced around this time. In 1942, the Fort Pitt was operated by Lebis Hotel Management Company. It is listed in the 1958 Hotel Red Book as a Lebis Hotel. It is not listed in 1959. It was still operating in May 1966, when Penn-Central Railroad announced that it had acquired the land and planned to demolish the hotel. The Fort Pitt was razed in 1967 as part of the Penn Park redevelopment project.

The Maddock pattern sample book shows the decal border created for the Fort Pitt: #5015 "Fort Pitt General Service." This was the pattern used in several of the hotel's dining rooms. A 1916 photo and 1931 Goose Goslin Club banquet photo taken in the Dutch Room on the second floor show what may be this border on china.

Source:
University of Pittsburgh Library – Historic Pittsburgh website – history and photo of hotel being demolished

For additional info:
Fort Pitt Hotel 2
Fort Pitt Hotel 3
Fort Pitt Hotel 4

Contributor:
Author and photos: Larry Paul