Manufacturer: Scammell China
User: Spink Wawasee Hotel – Indiana
Date of platter: circa 1926 – 1930s

Recent Photograph of the Spink Wawasee Condos

{"arrow":"false","pagination":"true","speed":"1000","autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"2000","loop":"true","slide_to_show_3d":"2","slide_show_ipad_3d":"2","slide_show_tablet_3d":"1","slide_show_mobile_3d":"1","slide_to_scroll_3d":"1","auto_stop":"false","centermode_3d":"true","space_between_3d":"0","depth":20,"modifier":20,"img_rotate":0,"img_stretch":0}

{"animation_fancy":"zoom-in-out","transition_fancy":"fade","fancy_box_loop":"true"}

Notes: From Wikipedia: "Lake Wawasee, formerly Turkey Lake, is a natural lake southeast of Syracuse in Kosciusko County, Indiana, and is the largest natural lake wholly contained within Indiana. The lake is named for Miami chief Wawasee.

"Lake Wawasee has a history of being a summer vacation area for residents from Indianapolis and Chicago. The Spink's Hotel (now condominiums) overlooking Lake Wawasee was a luxury hotel that hosted famous vacationers including Al Capone."

From the Spink Condos website: "The Spink Wawasee Hotel was originally built by the Spink family of Indianapolis in 1925, on the site of the Wawasee Inn Cedar Beach Club. The hotel thrived as a center of entertainment on Lake Wawasee, which offered free swimming, badminton, tennis, horseshoes, fields for games with soft ball equipment, croquet and ping pong. Also offered was a first class 18-hole golf course which adjoined the grounds.

"The hotel orchestra played through lunch and dinner hours and for dancing. Charge for a single room was $9 per day, and a double room was $11 per day which covered room and meals. Every Room had a bath and phone.

"The hotel had three floors. The lake floor level was taken up with the main lounge, dining room porch, sun porch, bar, cocktail lounge, dance pavilion, barber and beauty shop, soda fountain, cigar stand, and the club rooms. The second and third floors were given to sleeping rooms, 125 rooms in all including suites.

"Following the deaths of various Spink family members, circa 1940, the hotel was shuttered and later sold to the Crosier Order of the Roman Catholic Church. After extensive remodeling, it re-opened its doors on August 15, 1948, as Our Lady of the Lake Seminary housing 118 students. In 1965, the seminary was sold, and the facility was converted to a coeducational school known as Wawasee Preparatory.

"The facility operated until the summer of 1975, when it again closed its doors. In the early 1980's the facility was purchased by the Miller Family and reconstruction began to create the Wawasee Spink Condos, opening its doors for residents in the summer of 1984."

In 1948, when the Crosier Fathers and Brothers began operating the site as Our Lady of the Lake Seminary, they found a 16mm reel movie from the 1930s that was made to promote the hotel. It is an amazing look back in time and well worth watching at the link here.

White body vitrified Lamberton china platter with the rim covered in scenes of lakefront grounds with green lawns and trees, and a hole on a golf course. There are light blue/gray clouds in the skies.

Sources:
Wikipedia
Wawasee Spink Condos website
The Indiana Album
Youtube.com – 1930s promotional movie

Contributors:
Platter photos: Edward Babcock
Author: Ed Phillips