Manufacturers: Warwick China, Carr China, Sterling China
User: Kangaroom Coffee Shop/Kangaroom Grill in the Melbourne Hotel, St. Louis
Date range of pieces: 1948-late 1950s
Notes: The Melbourne Hotel was designed by eminent Missouri architect Preston J. Bradshaw and built in 1921 at Grand and Lindell boulevards in St. Louis. In January 1948, Pick Hotels Corporation announced its purchase for $2 million from the former owners, Melbourne Hotel Company.
At the time of the purchase, more than 20 of Pick's chain of hotels had Purple Cow coffee shops/sandwich shops that featured a fanciful purple cow logo. The Mark Twain, also in St. Louis, was among those with a Purple Cow Coffee Shop.
It doesn't seem too surprising then that shortly after the Pick purchase, the Melbourne Hotel announced a contest at the end of February 1948, limited to St. Louis University (SLU) students, to rename its Corner Grill coffee shop. In a story in the St. Louis University News, hotel manager Art Bazata said, "A new name is sought which would suggest a certain motif in which the room could be decorated. He added that the hotel intends to undertake some extensive redecorating soon, and therefore would like to adopt a more colorful name for the coffee shop." Two students were announced as co-winners, having both suggested Kangaroom. (SLU is located at 1 N. Grand Blvd., with the Melbourne Hotel located just across Lindell Boulevard. Located so close to each other, the hotel's venues played a large role in student life.)
By the time the 1949-50 Hotel Red Book was published, the name change was complete, and the then Pick-owned Melbourne advertised its "24-hour Kangaroom Coffee Shop."
In light of Pick's success with its Purple Cow logo, it seems like this set of childlike, stylized kangaroos in slightly different poses gamboling around its china rims was not unusual. Plates, platters, egg cups, creamer, and mustard pots have been found with this design.
None of the menus or signs that we've seen have the exact same kangaroos, but there's no question that this china is from the Melbourne. Many of the pieces sold have come from the St. Louis metropolitan area, and there's a fascinating exchange that took place in a St. Louis Facebook group (shown above) in which a former member recalled so fondly that his grandmother had pieces of this pattern that she used every time he visited. He estimated that he'd eaten off of it "hundreds of times." She was an employee of Postal Telegraph Co. (and later Western Union), that was located in the Melbourne and which gave her easy access to the Kangaroom.
Completing the relationship of the Melbourne to the university, Pick sold it to SLU in the summer of 1960 to be used for a dormitory. Remodeling began right away, and everything was shut down including the Kangaroom, which over the 12 years of ownership by Pick was variously referred to as either the Kangaroom Grill or Kangaroom Coffee Shop. You can see in one of the exterior photos above that the outdoor sign features a kangaroo and the name Kangaroom Grill.
This sale in 1960 adds a bit of credibility, too, to the memories of the grandson whose grandmother worked in the hotel and had the china at home. He would have been around 10 when the sale took place, and there's a good chance either Pick or the new owners gave away the dishes to any hotel employees that wanted them.
Now (2024) known as Jesuit Hall and serving as a faculty residence, plans were announced in the early 2020s "to create two new communities from Jesuit Hall: one designed for retired Jesuits and those who need medical support, and the second for Jesuits missioned as professors, pastors and staff Members at SLU" according to the NXTSTL website. Circling back to its roots at least for now, the two-building complex is planned to be renamed The Melbourne.
Warwick China would have had the first order for this pattern, with a creamer found dated 1948. When Warwick went out of business in 1951, Carr China acquired its molds.
It is not known for certain if Carr ever filled orders for the Kangaroom, but there is a plate within the collection of Carr China at the West Virginia State Museum, shown above, with a handwritten notation by Joy Bachman, wife of Carr's last president: "China (Kangaroos) Carr or Warwick pattern? Experimental? Made 1951." And there is also a Carr plate with a handwritten "2008" at rim of the underside that would coincide with both Warwick's and Carr's pattern numbers.
Carr went out of business in 1952, and at that point the Kangaroom orders went to Sterling China, which was manufacturing Scammell China's Trenton China line from about 1954 to 1960.
Sources:
Larry Paul's "From Earth to Art: The History of the Lamberton Works"
St. Louis University News
St. Louis Globe Democrat
NXTSTL website
Wikipedia
St. Louis University archives
Contributors:
Roland Burritt, research, ID
Larry Paul, research
Susan Phillips, research, photos