In October, 2008, McRoskey Mattress Company celebrated its 110th anniversary of handcrafting mattresses and box springs in San Francisco, having done business in three centuries. It remains a local, family-owned business, now in the third generation of ownership by the McRoskey family.
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| The McRoskey "Recipe Book," a record of mattress formulae, 1920s - 1970s |
In 1899, two brothers, Edward and Leonard McRoskey, arrived in San Francisco from St. Louis with mattress-making equipment they intended to sell to mattress manufacturers. The brothers instead became manufacturers themselves. McRoskey became the mattress of choice for the finest homes in San Francisco. McRoskey was the only mattress manufacturer in the City to survive the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906, and for months thereafter, crowds of people gathered around the factory at 16th and Harrison Streets to buy any mattress as soon as they were made! McRoskey played a part in the returning of comfort to San Francisco.
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| A page from "Recipe Book," showing the fomula for building a McRoskey model, from 1937 |
In 1925, Edward built a new building at the corner of Market and Gough Streets in San Francisco as a factory and showroom. The McRoskey mattresses are still handcrafted in this building today, and it also contains the Company’s offices. A second retail location in Palo Alto was opened in 2001.
Edward McRoskey’s sons, Leonard and Robert, joined their father in the business in the 1930s after graduating from Stanford University. They, like their father, were inventors and innovators and over the course of years made continuous engineered improvements to the McRoskey mattress, resulting in a comfort unlike any other. McRoskey became world famous. In 1948, 19-year old Angelo (Mickey) Vaccaro was hired to install and oversee the onsite manufacturing of McRoskey’s unique flexible innerspring system. Because Mickey continued with McRoskey as a devoted and involved employee until retiring in 2003, the Market Street building was named in his honor.
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| Some of McRoskey's paper sales orders |
McRoskey has always considered its customers as a kind of extended family; as an example, the Company retains every order ever placed with it since 1921. We have many customers who have been purchasing from us for three and four generations and it is common for customers to inquire what their previous purchases were so we can match them to contemporary comforts.
Today, Robert’s daughter, Robin McRoskey Azevedo, is President of McRoskey Mattress Company and oversees the Company’s commitment to making the highest quality mattresses and box springs in America.
The McRoskey mattress and box spring is unquestionably the most comfortable bed made today. Because McRoskey continues to use only the finest materials and continues to pay attention to construction details, the Company is proud to say after more than a century in business that every mattress is built with the same care and handcrafted quality as the very first one.
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| The oldest McRoskey sales binder dating from 1921 |
