Industry - The Cambridge Historical Commission Blog

Daggett Chocolate Company

Posted on June 5, 2019May 14, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

daggett chocolate ad

In honor of June as Candy Month, we look at one of Cambridge’s largest chocolate makers from the early to mid twentieth century. Candy making was a major industry in Cambridge, with over 66 confectionery manufacturers listed in the city directory at its peak in 1946.

Fred L. Daggett first started his company as a small candy store in Chelsea in 1891. By 1921 he was overseeing manufacturing in seven different buildings throughout the city. In 1925, in order to concentrate production and distribution and to secure more manufacturing area, Daggett built his Cambridge plant at 40 and 50 Ames Street and 400 Main Street. Completed by 1928, the buildings were designed by architect/engineer Mark Linenthal who would later specialize in racetrack and stadium architecture.

daggett ad

Daggett Chocolates acquired other companies, resulting in the production of more than 40 brands of chocolates. By 1930, Daggett employed over 400 people and produced 24,000 boxes of chocolate-coated candies a day. The company sold brands including Daggett, Page & Shaw, Durand, Lowney’s, and Apollo. Daggett not only produced candy, but also the boxes the candy came in. The factory had three separate unions: one for the confectionery workers, one for the box makers, and one for the printers.

The company also had a special fruit department. Daggett owned and operated a strawberry plant in Virginia where strawberries were preserved in sugar to make fillings for their chocolates. Because of this venture, Daggett also had an impact on ice cream and soda fountain business in the area. They supplied thousands of gallons of syrups and crushed fruits to druggists and ice cream manufacturers.

daggett building today — View from corner of Main and Ames Streets

Fred L. Daggett died in 1958. The company continued for only a few more years. In 1961, the company sold the recipes to New England Confectionery Company (NECCO), and sold the buildings to MIT.

Sources:

Cambridge Chronicle, March 27, 1926; October 23, 1958

Cambridge Historical Society, https://cambridgehistory.org/candy/daggett.html

MIT Architecture Inventory Form, November 2016

Susan Butcher

Posted on March 6, 2019March 6, 2019 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

This post is one in a series of stories we will be sharing about Cambridge women, in honor of Women’s History Month.

Susan Howlet Butcher was born in Cambridge on December 26, 1954. As a child growing up in Avon Hill, Susan grew to relish the outdoors and often preferred the company of dogs over playing with children of her age. Susan first became interested in sled dogs around age 16. Speaking about this time in her life during an interview with the Academy of Achievement, Susan remembers:

“I really feel I had a strong sense of myself from the earliest memories that I have. I knew very much who I was, approximately what I wanted to do. I didn’t know I wanted to be a dog musher. And I feel there are many things in life I could have done and had as much satisfaction as I am having. But I knew the type of things that I wanted to do, and I also knew that I wasn’t going to let anybody come in the way of that. When I got my second dog, and I was living in my mother’s house in Cambridge, and she said, ‘You will not get a second dog. I won’t let you have two dogs in the house.’ Instead of saying, ‘Okay, I won’t get a second dog,’ I got my second dog and moved out. So it was always a matter of… (being myself) and happily, and with a good relationship with my mother. This was not a negative thing towards my mother. This was not something that she even took as… I was very lucky to have parents that supported my ability to be responsible.”

07butcher.650 — Susan Butcher with her sled and dogs. Credit: Paul A. Souders/Corbis, 1991

At just 20 years old, Susan relocated to Alaska where she moved into a log cabin in the remote wilderness. She began teaching herself to become a professional musher, dog breeder and trainer. Susan’s family had a long tradition of self-determination and autonomy. Her great-grandfather, Charles Butcher (1846-1916) emigrated to New York from England in 1867. He and his wife, Mary, moved to Boston a few years after the birth of their son, William Laramy (1875–1952).

Butcher_Charles — Undated image of Charles Butcher. Yankee Magazine, 1955.

Charles was a carpenter by trade, but according to an account by his granddaughter, Helen Elizabeth “Betty” Butcher (1914–1994), was appalled at the typical Bostonian’s method of cleaning the wood floors he installed–scrubbing with soap and water. With this in mind, Charles set out to manufacture a wax for cleaning floors, much like the product and technique employed in Europe.

681px-Butchers_wax — Photograph of Butcher’s Wax. Sample provided by the MFA Objects Conservation Lab. Photo credit: Keith Lawrence, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

This led to the development of Butcher Polish Company. Charles began manufacturing the product in the barn behind his property at 197 Lakeview Avenue near Fresh Pond. Butcher’s Wax was first sold in Boston in 1880.

After Charles passed in 1916, his sons William Laramy and Charles Howlett (1884-1951) inherited the company and ran it much in the same way as their father. Later, their sons, including Charles’ son, Charles II (1916-2004) took over the business. Charles II, known as Charlie, married Agnes and together they had a daughter, Susan Howlet Butcher (1954-2006).

Butcher_CharlesH_WilliamL — Undated images of Charles H. Butcher and William L. Butcher. Yankee Magazine, 1955.

Charles II (Charlie) portrait at Harvard (1939)

Susan Howlet (no date, Alaska Sports Hall of Fame)

Above: Charles II (Charlie) portrait at Harvard (1939) and Susan Howlet (no date, Alaska Sports Hall of Fame)

Susan Butcher became known as a highly-skilled dog musher and in 1986 became the second woman to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, an annual sled dog race of around 1,100 miles. In 1990, she became the second four-time winner and the first to win four out of five sequential years. Butcher died in 2006 at age 51 after being diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia in 2005. Two years later, the Alaska state legislature established Susan Butcher Day, observed every year on the first Saturday in March.

Butcher2 — Susan Butcher with her lead dog, Granite (no date, Alaska Sports Hall of Fame)

Modern Monday: Putnam Furniture Company

Posted on January 14, 2019May 14, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

For today’s #ModernMonday post, we are highlighting 1045 Mass Ave, the former Putnam Furniture Company store in Cambridge. The building was constructed in 1946 from plans by well-known Cambridge architect, William L. Galvin. The design could be classified as early International-style architecture with influence from Art Deco and Moderne designs-built pre-WWII. The white plaster, glass blocks on the second story and neon signage immediately drew in shoppers who were looking to furnish their homes during the post-WWII housing boom. Interior programming of the store separated furniture departments into rooms from bathrooms and kitchens to “Storkland”, which offered a complete assortment of baby and children’s accessories and furniture.

mass ave 1045 — Putnam Furniture Company circa 1946. Photo courtesy of Carl Barron.

mass ave 1051_night photograph — Putnam Furniture Company storefront lit up at night circa 1946. Photo courtesy of Carl Barron.

Putnam Furniture Company began in 1939 when founder, Carl F. Barron created the first furniture leasing company in the United States. The business began in two adjacent 1,200 square foot spaces in Putnam Square, one being a showroom and the other providing storage. Barron personally bought, uncrated, leased and delivered furniture which was very appealing to consumers. Due to the growth of the company, Putnam added a third story to the building in 1957 and eventually moved out of its headquarters in Putnam Square in 1974. The company transitioned to solely leasing of furniture in 1974 and expanded all over the region as far as Hartford, CT. Putnam Furniture Company was later sold to CORT Global Furniture Rental Network which operates all over the globe.

mass ave 1051_putnam square photograph — Putnam Square in late 1940s, Putnam Furniture on right.

After Putnam Furniture moved out of the space in 1974, the building was renovated, and well-known furniture store, Crate and Barrel moved in. Most recently, the store has been occupied by Design Within Reach, another furniture store specializing in modern home décor.

mass ave 1045_design within reach — Existing store presently used by Design Within Reach. Third floor added previously.

For more information on this building or architect William L. Galvin, email us at histcomm@cambridgema.gov.

New Small Collection: The Coleman-Cutting Family Photographs

Posted on January 3, 2019May 14, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

The Historical Commission recently accepted a donation of eight photographs depicting members of three Cambridge families in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. The photographs were donated by a descendant of these families. Scroll down to read snapshots of these people and their connections to 19th century Cambridge industries.

Coleman Family: Police and Coal

This family collection’s story begins with a tintype of John Coleman, likely from the 1850s.

John Coleman002 — John Coleman, ca. 1850s.

Coleman was born in Birmingham, England, in 1827. Around 1847, he and his wife Elizabeth Harper Whitehouse immigrated to the U.S. and settled in Cambridge, where John became a well-known policeman. In 1878, John and his son Walter started a coal and wood business at the corner of Broadway and Sixth Street in Cambridge; in 1881 son James also became part of the firm. After John’s death in 1883, Walter and James took over the firm, naming it Coleman Brothers. Their company did business at 428 Massachusetts Avenue until a merger with the Massachusetts Wharf Coal Company in 1923.

chronicle18930722-01.2.9-a5-700w — A (barely visible) newspaper image of the Coleman Brothers coal factory, Cambridge, Mass. Cambridge Chronicle, July 22, 1893. https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/

Cutting Family: Firemen and Markets

John Coleman’s daughter, Fannie Coleman, married Charles H. Cutting. Charles was born in Boston but, like Fannie, grew up in Cambridge.

Fanny Cutting005 — Fanny Coleman Cutting, n.d.

Charles H Cutting003 — Charles H. Cutting, n.d.

The Cuttings had four children: Elizabeth Swanton, Henry Arthur, Herbert Harper, and Ida May. Sadly, Fannie died from complications of childbirth in 1889.

Cutting Children004 — The Cutting children, 1889

Charles Cutting’s occupation was originally listed as an iron molder, but he was later listed as a fish dealer and eventually owned his own provisions store at 885 Main Street (now on Mass Ave near Harvard Square). Charles may have taken over ownership of this store from E.A. Burroughs, proprietor of The Old Rockport Market, selling fish, oysters, and canned goods.

Cutting Market004 — The Cutting family outside of their store at 885 Main Street, n.d.

Charles would also serve as a volunteer fireman with the Cambridge Fire Department for 37 years, retiring in 1915.

Cutting Market 2005 — The Cutting family inside their store, n.d.

The three eldest Cutting children seem to have helped with the family store, especially son Henry, who later took over running the store after Charles died in 1920. Henry also worked for the Cambridge Fire Department at River Street from 1920-1942.

Kemp and Nowell Family: Soap

Charles Cutting’s daughter Elizabeth Cutting married Bowman Nowell, the son of Lucy Ann Kemp and Charles Nowell. Lucy Ann was the daughter of Lysander Kemp, owner of a Cambridge soap manufacturing company and brother-in-law to Curtis Davis of the Curtis Davis Company (a large soap manufacturer that was later bought by Lever Brothers).

Nowell002

Lysander’s original company, which manufactured laundry soap, was Kemp & Sargent, later Lysander Kemp & Sons.

lysander kemp postcard

To see these photographs or to learn more about any of the industries mentioned here, make a research appointment with us at histcomm@cambridgema.gov. If you are interested in donating photographs or materials on your Cambridge ancestors, please feel free to contact Emily, egonzalez@cambridgema.gov.

The Cambridge Historical Commission has a rich collection of both family photographs and historical materials on Cambridge business and industry, and we are always excited to add more to the collection.

Now Open: The Simplex Pennant Collection

Posted on March 12, 2018May 14, 2020 by cambridgehistoricalcommission

This post was authored by our Simmons 438 Archives intern, Elise Riley

Until the mid-20^th century, the Simplex Wire & Cable Company on Sidney Street was one of the largest manufacturers in Cambridge. Founded in Boston in 1840, Simplex moved to Cambridge in 1916 and manufactured electrical appliances and wire in a multi-building complex near Lafayette Square. MIT bought the property after the company moved to New Hampshire in 1970; University Park now occupies the site.

This collection holds 18 issues from 1945 of the Simplex Pennant, the company’s employee newsletter that gives us an authentic glimpse into daily life in Cambridge during the 1940s.

blog photo #1 — Scores from company bowling league and trivia section.

Dedicated to manufacturing wires and cables for electrical use, Simplex Wire & Cable rose in the industry as an innovator, developing a submarine cable with a significantly longer lifespan. This invention came in handy as war broke out once again in 1939. Simplex became a main supplier of telecommunications cable to the US Army and Navy.

blog photo #2 — A thank you note to Simplex Wire & Cable Company from US War Department.

blog photo #3 — Simplex awarded its Fourth Gold Star from the US Maritime Commission.

Simplex Pennant masthead showing US War Department awards.

1945 was a pivotal year in World War II from Hitler’s defeat to VE Day. Woven into the Pennant’s committee reports are hints as to what was going on in the wider world.

blog photo #5 — Entries honoring Franklin D. Roosevelt.

As the war raged on, The Pennant was there to capture the goings-on of domestic life and the war effort. The newsletter included birthday and wedding anniversary announcements as well as updates on enlisted employees or relatives.

blog photo #7 — An employee’s letter from his son who had been released from a German P.O.W. camp.

It also featured cartoon reminders of attendance and safety precautions to keep morale and productivity up.

Come take a step back in time and explore the Simplex Pennant Collection! View the collection finding aid here. You can also take a look at selected pages from issues of the Simplex Pennant, digitized and available on our Flickr page.