Manufacturers:  Maddock Pottery and Scammell China
User: Puritan Hotel – Boston, Massachusetts
Distributor: Mitchell Woodbury
Date of production: circa 1909 – 1930

William Scammell's New England Contact Book from circa 1925

1915 Advertisement for the Puritan Hotel

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Notes: The seven-story Puritan Hotel, at 388-390 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts, was built by boot and shoe manufacturer William Ball Rice. Mr. Rice died in May 1909, before the hotel opened. It opened November 1909 with about 200 bedrooms. The 31' by 52' main dining room seated 150 guests and was located behind the lobby. There were three private dining rooms, a breakfast room, and a maids and children's dining room. The Puritan was owned by the Rice family until 1947. On July 1, 1947, The Puritan was acquired by Abraham M. Sonnabend and became a Sonnabend Hotel Company property. In October 1951, it was combined with the adjoining Hotel Somerset, and both properties operated as the Somerset. The Somerset closed March 31, 1972. The building was then converted into apartments and offices.

Mr. D. William Scammell's New England contact book, from around 1925, has a pattern listing for the Puritan in the Mitchell Woodbury section. It is "#2250 Rose Bud Border" with "No Lines." Although no surviving example of this pattern as made for The Puritan is known, Scammell made the pattern for the Belvedere Hotel in Baltimore. For that hotel it was used as a service for afternoon tea dances, so it may have served the same purpose in The Puritan. Items in this pattern for The Puritan may be back stamped "Mitchell Woodbury Co."

Backbayhouses.org – hotel history
Boston Globe – January 31, 1909 – article about hotel under construction

For additional info:
Puritan Hotel by Maddock Pottery and Scammell China
Puritan Hotel 2 by Syracuse China
Puritan Hotel 3 by Syracuse China
Puritan Hotel 4 by Syracuse China

Contributor:
Author and photos: Larry Paul