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good evening everyone and welcome to our program this evening uh before we start this is the first program that we've had since the passing of our dear friend and colleague john mcelaney and i'd like to ask all of you to stand please for a moment of silence thank you it goes without saying he'll certainly be missed by everybody a couple of announcements before we get going on our program uh we've have we're doing a series of exhibits down at the badet mansion as you probably know and we have one going going on now called back to school it's kind of nice to go down and see it we're going to try to be open a few more days besides the tuesdays and we're going to start off this saturday from 10 to 12 have kind of an open house so if you're not doing anything come on down and have a glass of lemonade and enjoy the uh the exhibit we're also looking for to try to be open a little bit more often we'd like some volunteers if you have some extra time you'd like to come down for a couple hours and just mine the store we'd certainly appreciate it you can let pat or myself know at the end of the program and as you know we have our ongoing restaurant raffle going on so if you haven't got a ticket yet be sure to pick one up on your way out help support all our activities again we also thank you for your continued support on paying your dues it's how we get around to getting all these programs going it's how we can support all our activities and a few people asked us when the next newsletter is coming out it's a little bit late this year but it'll be coming out in early november so look forward in your mail and now without further ado i'd like to introduce soel and holland who will conduct tonight's first part of tonight's program so ellen [Applause] thank you joe can everyone hear me even way up at the back okay thank you good evening and welcome to the woven historical society's presentation of woburn businesses from family business to the industrial age i would like to recognize ellen hamilton for all of her help in organizing this program thank you very much ellen helen was our computer whiz i would also like to thank the woburn public library for allowing us to use so many of their photos in this program many of them are from the library's johnson and farino collections thank you also to the many people who brought photos to the woman historical society to be honest we have received so many photos from individuals that we probably have enough for a second program on family businesses so look for that in the future i would also like to thank the students and staff of the woburn public media center i will start the program tonight with a quote from an 1898 article that appeared in the woben news entitled contributors to woben's industries quote a city like the proverbial cat has more than one life there are the educational life the religious life the social life the political life the municipal life and the industrial life each contributing its quarter of strength to the general system the industrial life of a community is its lifeblood without it all other life becomes extinct it is the only one in the entire list upon which all others depend end quote this is an aerial view of woburn center taken in the late 1940s early 1950s and industry in woburn is as old as woburn itself [Music] the earliest woven businesses were created out of necessity the settlers in this area needed wood to build their houses thus saw mills were built this is an early photo of the richardson sawmill which was located on mishawam road on the banks of the abajona river it was built in 1843 and the site is currently the approximate location of the 99 restaurant horses were another necessity for the early settlers so blacksmith shops were created here is a photo of the bates blacksmith shop that was in woburn guns were needed for hunting and protection so gunsmiths were among the early businesses in woburn this is a photo of marshall tidd he was born in northwestern in 1820 his home and factory were on ward street when just a boy he made a gun out of a railroad spike he never received any instruction in the art of gun making and made all of his own tools and machinery during the civil war his telescope rifle was used by sharpshooters it was known for its aim and its accuracy the fine workmanship of his cane gun transformed a walking stick into a gun in seconds he made rifles for many people of prominence including general winfield scott he was also known as a maker of pebble rolls and was widely known to the leather manufacturers of the world pebble rolls were used by the leather industry to make patterns on leather and his were known as the best that could be produced while few records exist of the earliest industries we do know that among the first were the tanners for many years the prominent industry of woburn was the leather industry our local sports teams are known as the tanners because of the number of tanneries that were once in woburn benjamin and frances wyman were amongst the first settlers in woburn they were primarily farmers providing for their families but they did establish a leather tanning business as early as 1675. it was located on wyman street near main street this is a photo of benjamin wyman's house in woburn it no longer exists this is an early photo of the francis wyman house which was built in woburn in an area that is today known as burlington this house is still standing on francis wyman road in burlington david cummings came to woburn in 1756 and built an early tannery in town on the west side of woburn the leather business would become almost hereditary in the cummings family david cummings handed it down first to his son ebenezer then to his sons deacon john and moses deacon john's son was the honorable john cummings and moses's sons were james otis and eustis cummings warren and david cummings who still reside in woburn are descendants of this same family our guest tonight william s cummings is also related this photo here it's a sketch of moses comings moses cummings and his son james otis cummings lived in this house on the corner of mountain road and winter street moses cummings was born in 1800 and started a business which manufactured and sold leather his son james followed him into the family business and remained there until he retired in 1896. moses passed away in 1840 james passed away in 1906 at the age of 78. his obituary stated that he was quote a member of the north congregational church and a man highly esteemed by all who enjoyed his acquaintance end quote and this house still stands at the conor mountain road this is moses cummings tannery next to the mill pond in north woburn this tannery was an industrial school of sorts where the earliest parts of the lives of woben's most prosperous manufacturers were spent moses was the father of james otis john h and eustis cummings who was one of the leading leather men of his day daughters of moses married the successful tanners ian blake louis shaw and griffin place others who learned the trade from moses were john true and jonathan bauer's win today this mill pond is the site of the burlington reservoir the honorable john cummings was a prominent leather manufacturer he was a charter member and a 17-year treasurer of mit and was largely responsible for rescuing the school from financial embarrassment he served as a state representative and as a state senator he was a man of culture and a strong promoter of education for the young he studied natural history and donated his large collection of birds minerals and fossils to the woman public library he was married twice but no children survived him in this 1885 photo the john cummings mansion was situated at 211 bedford road john cummings died in 1896 at the age of 76. he died at his home on the farm established by his grandfather david cummings in 1755 at the time of his death john cummings's farm consisted of over fifteen hundred acres elijah thompson was born in wuben in 1793 and died in 1868 he was a direct descendant of james thompson one of the first settlers of woburn by 1827 he was able to purchase a small tract of land and built a tannery on the corner of pleasant and water streets this house on pleasant street is thought to have been built in the 1840s by abaja thompson who owned the nearby tannery that's on today's woburn parkway today this house is the location of century 21 real estate the carriage house in the picture no longer survives in 1835 the growth of the industry caused a baja thompson to adopt steam power to keep up with demand in 1836 his son-in-law stephen dowd joined ebia in partnership for 30 years they worked together and the business increased rapidly abisha thompson retired shortly before his death notice all of the hides drying in the foreground the thompson tannery would become the dow tannery and would comprise all of the land now known as the woben parkway between pleasant and sturgis streets pleasant street is to the rear in this photo the tannery burned in 1893 in a spectacular blaze the company then relocated to cross street it is said that the smokestack was so large that part of it was buried rather than removed and is located beneath the parkway built in the early 1850s by abaisha thompson the wealthy tannery owner this home was later lived in by his son and daughter-in-law by his daughter i'm sorry his daughter and son-in-law stephen dao who took over the tannery operations after abash's death in 1868. this is known as the dow estate a majestic front lawn ran all the way down to main street a number of green houses were located on the property as stephen dow was very interested in horticulture and invested thousands of dollars in hot houses conservatories and the cultivation of flowers the mansion burned in 1938 and today the old armory occupies the main street end and houses on myrtle street and caulfield road and court street occupy the rest of the land [Music] another early reuben tanner was john tidd grandfather of william who was shown here and charles tidd who built a tannery as early as 1760 in north woburn like the cummings family later tid family members would also conduct the tanning businesses in 1835 moses cummings the grandson of david cummings would buy john tid's tannery in the shop of moses cummings nearly all the leathermen of the city of the 1800s would learn the leather trade william tidd was a prosperous leather manufacturer who gave to the home for aged women the building that is now known as the tid home it was built by his grandfather and william purchased it from jonathan thompson charles tidd was the brother of william and like his brother he received little education and worked with his father eventually he started a small factory in which he finished tanned leather for outside people and was very successful he was a member of the board of trustees of the woburn 5 cent savings bank for several years this is the tid home that is located on elm street elm street was the main road through north ruben before the current main street was constructed this is a view of the house in 1890 it was originally built in 1809 by lieutenant jonathan tidd it has been used as both a home and a hotel in 1888 the house was donated by william tidd to the newly formed home for aged women and it has been occupied and owned by the same group ever since ebenezer blake was a good example of a self-made man he came to woven in 1839 and went to work for moses cummings he was later connected to the firm of jb winning company as a partner later with charles tidd he formed the firm of tid and blake and established the first tannery on the wooben branch railroad he was a director of the first national bank of woburn and was prominent in local affairs the tiding blake tannery was built in 1856 ted and blake remodeled the sash and blind mill at hon pon station the building was destroyed by fire in 1876 and present day foul street was laid out from main street to the railroad track through the land of tiddin blake charles chout came to woburn in 1827 and formed one of the largest leather manufacturing firms in new england known as cummings and shoot and choke he took an active part in local interest of woban he served in the state senate was a director of the woben bank and the first national bank of woban and he gave medals to any children in the public schools of woburn who were neither toddy nor absent during the school year [Music] here is an 1850s era sketch of the home of charles cho at 21 warren avenue it was drawn by marshall tidd charles cho died in 1883 and his wife lydia continued to live in the home until 1904 the home was left to be used for hospital purposes the choke memorial hospital was organized in 1908 and the home was remodeled as a hospital opening in 1909. wings were added in 1917 there were major expansions in the 1940s 1952 and 1969 the choate hospital closed in 1989 today the building has been renovated by cummings properties and most of it is used by new horizons a senior living facility some medical uses still continue at the rear of the building jonathan bauer's win received his early education in woburn and was a teacher in wilmington and northwoven after learning the trade of tana and currier he joined the firm of john cummings and company in 1841 he organized his own firm of jb winning company and did an extensive business they were considered the best equipped and most prosperous leather firm in this country at one time this is his son charles bauer's win who also followed him into the business this is the win estate the home of jonathan bauer's win and his son charles bauer's win they were the benefactors of the woburn public library the winnest state was located on pleasant street where the current reuben public library stands today the woburn public library exists because of the generosity of the winds when construction began on the woburn public library the winner strait was not as not destroyed rather it was moved a few yards north on pleasant street and relocated next to the unitarian church where it remained for many years with the woburn 5 cent savings bank building built beside it james skinner was a prominent woman businessman who opened the james skinner and company tannery located on green street the factory tanned about three thousand hides per week he was the woman board of trade's first president and was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the woburn cooperative bank in 1887 whose goal was to open up business opportunities in the city and to attract the deposits of the city's irish population which was being under served by other institutions the bank remained in business well into the 20th century the james skinner mansion is still located at 79 montfield avenue across the street from the high school in 1885 it was one of the largest homes in the city by 1947 the house was converted into a music studio and today the skinner mansion is a multi-unit apartment building [Music] warren p fox was born in woburn in 1829 and went to work for his father warren fox at an early age in turn his sons everett p and john w fox would follow him into the family business the fox family owned a currying shop on kilby street and a tannery at the woburn highlands this is the fox tannery at woburn highlands the fox family did much through it several generations to improve the industrial conditions of the community louis shaw learned the tanning trade with deacon cummings of the west side he was married to a daughter of moses cummings louis shaw owned a successful leather establishment known as shaw and taylor and accumulated a handsome fortune his sons edward lewis and charles would carry on the family business and the factory of e.l shaw and company was once the most extensive in woburn the death of his father when he was a boy compelled john s true to seek employment in order to help support his family he learned the trait of tanner and went to work for william tidd he would later become a partner in the firm of skinner and troop one of the strongest leather concerns in new england in 1885 120 martinville avenue was owned by john s true and the home was called oak knoll it is located at the intersection of montville ave and bow street note the gardens on the side and the carria e house to the rear while the gardens no longer exist the house and the carriage house still exists today here is a photo of a group of tannery workers the early tanning process took from 60 to 100 days to tana hyde after the leather was tanned it was usually given out in small lots to different finishers they finished the leather and then took it to the surrounding towns and sold it to the shoemakers the process was slow and the output was small years later machinery would greatly increase the capacity with the daily output of the modern firms exceeding the annual output of the old-time firms one of the largest upper leather and finishing firms in the country was begs and cobb its shop in woburn employed about 150 people the winchester factory was exclusively used for finishing upper leather and was one of the largest in the world the winchester shop employed about 250 people the winchester factory was destroyed by fire in the late 1950s and the parkview condominiums now occupy the site william beggs and elisha cobb were partners in the famous bags and clubs tannery william beggs lived in woburn and elisha cobb resided in malden william begs was one of the original incorporators of the choate hospital following his death in 1916 his family made a substantial donation to the hospital which allowed one of the front wings to be added to the original choate house according to his 1915 obituary william begs was one of the best known leather manufacturers in the country another group of tannery workers leather dominated the woven industry for many years and woven was known for a special class of upper leather which always belonged to this quote is from an article in 1898 i find it to be quite ironic given what we know today quote from the beginning of tanning in this city it has been a well-known fact to the trade that the opportunities here presented for tanning purposes were unexcelled and the better results could be obtained here on account of the water properties than in any other known locality end quote the woven water used in the tanning process resulted in a high quality leather while leather production is the first to come to mind when discussing woben's industries numerous other businesses existed in woven through the years many of which were related to the leather industry these include businesses which produced shoe stock glue chemicals band saws and belt knives which had a universal reputation for superior quality one of the early belt knife factories was conducted by charles porter for whom this photo of the charles porter hose company was named charles porter's shop was located across the street from the current walgreens location in the south end porter street was named after him the business would be renamed after his son-in-law edward s lyons when he took over the operation edward lyons owned several patents on special belt knives for the leather industry [Music] leather was needed by the shoe industry this is the simon shoe factory it was located on main street opposite saint charles church george a simons was a manufacturer and a dealer in heels inner soles and all kinds of shoe fittings this is the woven degreasing company degreasing was needed to remove the fats and oils from the hides that were to be tanned and this is a photo of a woven degreasing truck as you can see on the back it's full of hides [Music] the woven chemical works was started by robert eaton in 1853 to process and manufacture chemicals for the leather industry in 1863 it was purchased by a group of investors who renamed it the merrimack chemical company located in north rubin it produced dye stuffs and heavy chemicals used in the leather industry it operated under various names monsanto merrimack stofa until 1971. another business that aided the leather industry was the mass gear and tool company this is a photo of their building and this is an interior view of the mask gear and tool company [Music] in 1857 james buell opened a machine shop in the simon shoe building on main street in 1874 he built a machine shop on buell place and the large block on main street and buell place is known as the buell block the buell block was used for residential and business purposes and minnesota's variety store occupied this location on the right hand side for many years james buell's son james frederick burel built automobiles known as buell steamers they were manufactured in woburn during the years 1897-1903 they were built at the rate of one per year and sold for five to six hundred dollars each in this photo from 1903 mr buell is at the wheel and beside him is his son jay frederick buell in the dark clothes in the back seat are the twins avis who was later mrs walter h wilcox and doris mrs frank hitchcock with their mother between them the girl in the light clothes is edith who would become mrs osborne bezensen [Music] mr buell's son-in-law was walter wilcox he was president of the tanner's national bank from 1917 to 1971. walter was the youngest bank president in the country at the age of 29 30. the bank opened in october of 1917 at 325 main street in the allen block wilcox was also a co-founder of the woburn country club in 1922. mr wilcox started out in the insurance business opening the walter h wilcox insurance agency on his 19th birthday in 1906. his father walter l wilcox had to hold the business license for a few years until walter turned 21. [Music] this is an interior view of the tanner's national bank as well as a tana's national bank five dollar note at the time individual banks were allowed to print their own money [Music] this is a photograph of the tanner's national bank staff christmas party and walter wilcox is right in the center many of the prominent citizens especially the wealthy tanners served on the boards or helped to found a number of banks in woburn one of the earliest banks woburn bank was opened in september of 1853 with abaja thompson as its first president it moved to several locations in woburn center over the years it would later become woben national bank which was operated for many years by the johnson family until it was sold to citizens bank the woman five cent savings bank was the second bank to open in 1854 and moved to various locations around woburn center until it erected this building in 1887 on pleasant street at the corner of federal street this building also housed the post office the ymca which is drug store and sb guarded insurance the upper two floors were removed during the depression because they were too expensive to maintain today it is the site of sovereign bank [Music] uben cooperative bank was located in the dow block on main street at the conor of church avenue during the depression they were a little more ambitious and removed the top three floors of this building once again because it had become too expensive to maintain today is a it is the site of several businesses including the woman house of pizza and roma's bakery [Music] wuben bank and trust company known today as northern bank and trust company was started in 1960 by brothers thomas and james maughan the bank occupied the first floor of this building the law and accounting offices of mon and one was located on the second floor today this building is occupied by malvey's florist and this is a photograph of several members of the mon family left to right that's thomas moore his mother catherine maughan and his brother james moan who just passed away this past week [Music] with all of the industry in woburn drawing workers to the town the downtown area became the place where everyone shopped there were no malls at the time so all the shopping and dining had to be close by this is main street looking north about 1900. this is woven center with a view of the common the photo appears to have been taken from the roof of the train station which was located next to city hall where the present-day courthouse is [Music] a block of stores at the southern end of the center on the far right was the location for many years of minnesota's variety store to the left is the malvey's florist building today [Music] this is another view of wuben center this was called woodbury's corner and today is known as the busy bend it was later the location of murphy's drugstore and maureen parker over the years ruben has had several newspapers in this photo you can see the offices of the woburn journal the inset shows an employee of the newspaper hard at work in his office the woburn journal printing office was located on main street this is a photo of several of their workers the woben daily times started in 1901 with its offices in the dow block its offices would later move to montville avenue and in recent years to aero drive [Music] this is a photo of the hagerty family we have on the left jim hagerty the current editor of the woven daily times chronicle james d hagerty senior the founder of the woburn times and his son james hagerty jr [Music] this is the composing room of the wobin daily times with mary hagerty the sister of the founder james hagerty senior on the left and this is an interior view of the woven daily times with the printing press this photo was taken about 1912. flowers bakery on main street was operated for many years by philip flowers in this photo our phillips senior frankie louie and philip flowers in the back room of the bakery feeney's ice cream shop was located in woburn center and here's an interior photo of feeney's ice cream shop here is a photo of walnut motors happy nelson and john shea were partners in walnut motors when john shea passed away happy nelson continued the company during the depression he asked his employees to make a decision either take a cut in pay or we would have to lay off people the employees chose to take a cut in pay so they could continue to work and at least be paid something when the war started he had to close since they needed all of the materials for cars and trucks to go toward the making of planes tanks etc this photo shows happy nelson and his wife hilda anderson nelson smith's store was located at the corner of main street and salem street and the lynch cantillon funeral home on main street was founded in 1888 by edward e lynch when edward died in 1938 his wife ned nell cantillion lynch became one of the first women to be licensed as a funeral director along with her brother edward cantil and senior they operated the business with the assistance of edward sons they were edward jr known as ned richard known as dick and william known as gus ned purchased the business in 1950 and today it is co-owned by his son edward iii and his daughter jean pictured in this photo from the 1920s are james hennessey edward e lynch leo mcdermott edward j cantillon and frank ryan henry's service station as it appeared in 1938 it was located on the corner of maine and church streets the owner was henry zanello who passed away in 1942 in 1960 it became luki's sunoco station [Music] baca lumber in the south end is the oldest family-owned business in woburn [Music] the sun electric company was located on main street at the corner of myrtle street today is the site of the armory building uber machine company makers of hyde and leatherworking machinery it was located in the south end on main street there is a townhouse condominium development on that location today this is an interior photo of the bavuso cobbler shop in north woburn [Music] and the middlesex canal opened in 1803 and was the engineering model of its day it was very important to the success of many woven businesses proprietors could now get their goods to market more easily this is a photo of the middlesex canal with railroad tracks running right beside it the railroad would eventually render the canal as obsolete railroad transportation was faster so there was soon no use for the canals [Music] this is a photo of the lock system on the middlesex canal the canal operated for close to 50 years it opened up the markets and the port of boston to the raw materials and goods from northern massachusetts and southern new hampshire in its day the middlesex canal was a bustling transportation route not only did it bring goods to market it also provided transportation for those seeking escape from the summer heat of the city of boston horn pond soon became a vacation destination the hon pond house shown in this photo was a grand house in its day it underwent many renovations it was on canal street arlington road but is today located on lake view terrace off into road and hudson street originally built in 1810 as an inn hotel for guests traveling on the middlesex canal it overlooked the canal with a majestic view of han pond hon pond from 1810 to the 1830s was a big recreation area and a popular spot for travelers both those taking day trips and overnight travelers with the decline of the canal and the railroad's arrival in 1835 business plummeted at the haunt pond house in 1888 sy chase the engineer of the locomotive arlington ran into hearts express car in this photo this is the train center this train station that was located on pleasant street this was actually the third train station built on this site which is today occupied by the woburn courthouse [Music] and this is an 1853 woburn train [Music] the ce taylor express was a woven to boston railroad for goods and passengers it was owned by charles d taylor who passed away in 1924. it was located where the northern bank and trust company and the central bank are today ice houses on were located on han pond ice was cut on han pond as early as the 1820s it became a commercial enterprise in the 1850s when daniel draper and son constructed 10 ice houses on the southern end of han pond the winter harvest was 50 000 tons of ice with the construction of a railroad line in the area the ice business thrived and soon other ice businesses opened including the boston ice company and the horn pond ice company the ice business came to the northern end of the pond as well with the construction of ice houses there in 1874. the ice businesses did very well until the 1930s when dust and impurities in the ice caused by the tanneries required the businesses to look to new hampshire for cleaner ice the last of the ice houses was torn down in 1941 from the farino collection is a photo of workers at the ice house on sturgis street [Music] another industry in reuben was the greenhouse industry at one time woburn was said to have many acres under glass there were and in some cases still are greenhouses owned by cummings richardson's johnson roses mahoney's mccues russell farms and shannon farms this is a view of greenhouses in north rubin with damage that was caused by hurricane carroll in 1954. saint anthony's church can be seen in the rear on the right hand side of the photo by far one of the most important contributors to the growth of woban's business and industry in recent years is the construction of route 128 through woburn while plants had been underway since the 1930s for a highway around boston the boston area and parts of it from lynn to the north shore had been constructed the stretch from newton to linfield was not completed until 1951. the grand opening was held on august 24th 1951 with a host of local and state officials on hand woman had become a very convenient spot for new businesses [Music] a pro-business agenda had been set by maya murray who realized that the decline of the tanning industry in woburn had to be counteracted by attracting other types of business to woburn he and mayor shaughnessy are credited with attracting sylvania saladati brody trucks slumberland and boston edison amongst others to woburn hogan tyres shown here was built near one route founded in 1915 hogan tire came to woburn in later years and is still located on washington street right beside route 128. another business was the atlantic gelatin plant located on hill street right alongside route 93 just before the intersection with route 128 independent tallow company was located on washington street not far from route 128 the building was bought and renovated by cummings properties a few years ago this is what it looks like today in 1951 maya murray announced that sylvania electric a nationally known manufacturer of electronic components would be coming to woburn with plans to uild a 100 000 square foot facility here is an excavation of the site on a portion of the old bowser farm the sylvania electric plant which employed 600 people was located on sylvan road in north rubin directly beside route 128 here is a view of the sylvania site as it looks today the building is now part of trade center 128 park owned and operated by cummings properties the former sylvania building is to the right of the middlesex superior courthouse in this photo this is an entrance to trade center 128 owned today by cummings properties and tonight we will conclude with a conversation between kathy lucero and bill cummings the owner of cummings properties in researching this program i found it interesting that one of the first businesses in woburn was started by david cummings in the 1700s and the last business that we'll cover tonight is also owned by a cummings family member while not a direct descendant of david i am told that there is a distant relationship bill cummings grew up in medford mass graduated from tufts university and became the largest business owner in woburn i would now like to introduce a fellow jumbo and our guest for this evening bill cummings great good evening everyone i'm kathy lucero and this is william s cummings bill cummings and welcome to the woman historical society october meeting it's a pleasure to have you here tonight before i start though i wanted to thank paul meaney and paul meaney is the president i believe the movement business association and he gave me some information that i thought was quite interesting in researching what to ask bill and to talk about obviously his wonderful development since he first came to uber in 1966 and woburn has um over 3 300 businesses that are here in woburn and those 3 300 businesses generate approximately 113 million dollars in tax revenue for the city and there are over 400 000 cars that come through woven every day at that cross of that we talked about the cloverleaf 128 in 93 and so much has happened since that developed in the early 1960s and a woman has developed into a different industry as you can see from the tanneries that we've talked about and if anyone has seen the film that john mcelini and brian and i did right through the farming industry which we did just recently in june which has a lot to do with the play because a lot of these farms are on east woburn and we'll talk about that today tonight actually with bill the um other piece of it that i wanted to talk about is how woman has changed built and it has changed hasn't it you are from medford raised in medford and um your dad was a painter he was a house painter in medford and he did a lot of work up this way medford or is your dad born in medford or did you um come somewhere else originally i was actually born in somerville hospital in new york and lived and grew up in medford whoever went to right next to high school bedford high school and then as suella mentioned stayed there to go to tufts and another um wonderful graduate of uh you graduated in 1954 from medford high school bedford high in 54 yes and then in 1960 i think michael bloomberg michael bloomberg was a couple years behind me behind you yeah he was two um very successful businessmen that came out of medford we were very fortunate um you know when i did the farming film one of the interesting pieces you know a lot of people think of development and construction and they have a negative you know memory of it or they have a positive depending on what your i guess your position is when i did the farming film i really learned directly from the farmers like david lundqvist who i know a wonderful guy in three generations worked for the cummings property now you know and the andersons and the johnsons and the councils all the swedish population that was up and down washington street in independent tallow and button in and they told me a very interesting point david brought a very interesting point to me and that is the funds went away because the land became more valuable than the farm that's one reason but the other one was the next generation after world war ii really didn't want to work on the farm anymore you know sylvania came in the atlantic gelatin was here they didn't have to do that kind of dirty hard work the big emphasis there kathy is on the word woodwork all of the people you mentioned worked hard working very hard it was very very hard sustaining their businesses and it has changed so dramatically and i just wanted to back up the way you started yourself i know that when you get out of tux you went to work not for old method foods at first but for vicks my very first job out of tufts was selling vicks maple rub and i had i had some terrific experience traveling all over the country my from june when i graduated of may until the first time i got home to my parents home or stayed anything like any place i called home was christmas time and it was a hotel every single night really from from may till through december practically but it was a terrific experience and you went from selling a vix to doing fish sticks to another smelly product i worked i worked for gordon southern gloucester that's right most almost all of us know gordon's and and gloucester at the time had a reputation in many ways like woburn it knew it when you were near it smelled good the smell the gloucester smell was very different from the wooden smell i think and at that time wolverine still had to share and part of what we did was to acquire some of the properties in woburn which just weren't economically feasible any longer to ride too but you didn't you you came to woburn um in 1966 on henshaw street i think that was the first building that you leased when you brought old medford foods because you bought that from a gentleman that had had the business for what 50 years and right and how did you go from the food industry industry into construction and development the property that we bought on henshaw street which is down behind atlantic gelvin between there and washington street was the former woburn cabinet and lumber company some of you will remember the ingraham family or somebody even remember woven cabinet but i i purchased that site to move a business from medford which was down on fulton street in medford and i had the opportunity one of the first people i bumped into after i walked in the auditorium tonight was one of the earliest customers of old medford foods before we moved to woburn and it's frank net no worries they're great sitting right in front of my wife joyce but frank netted donut kitchen oh the donut kitchen the donut kitchen was was a very early customer of old medford foods and buying our fruit punch and lemonade and before it was made in woburn though eventually perhaps because of his influence i don't know we became familiar with woburn more than i otherwise would have been and purchased the property on henshaw street right that was for either 49 or 48 000 was the purchase price of the property it's an acre of land there and a at that time a forty thousand square foot building and things have changed haven't they now in 1969 you had is that when you developed uh cummings a property did not come about till when cummings park came about about that time 1969 which is over which most people would need and how many uh acres did you have over there was that like a half a mile of property that was there at that time no it was a good bit more a bit more modest than that but the first thing we purchased after hincha street was the anderson property which was 10 acres i'm sorry 20 acres ken and esther anderson and their son richie and richie came to work and was at cummings properties for a long time after that later we were blessed to have dave lundqvist join our staff and subsequently his son at one point now his grandson and makes me certainly feel pretty old that that's that's uh that much time has passed right i know that he was so worried that when we were talking he said that from being going from being your own boss to working for someone else he didn't think he could make that adjustment but he i guess he did it because he lasted like 25 years he certainly did make the adjustment and he had a great worker with him oh yes he had three careers first he had his career in the growing uh in his greenhouses for a long time then he worked a long time with us and for the last 20 years i guess it's been that long been in the apple business up in maine very successfully so things we all go through our own little life changes don't we absolutely when you um started um out bill how did how did you really get interested in development though i mean you really didn't change careers there it was did you find that um your growth was there i mean you really you're a self-made businessman and you went from you know acquiring wealth and becoming um a big wheel in the business world and now obviously here it's very different from what i've researched and talked to you about a lot of philanthropic work is where your life is now with you and your wife joyce how did you make that drastic change i mean how did you go from doing you know selling the food with a fruit touch to this the transition was very much very opportunistic when we bought the first piece of property on inches street it was larger than we needed to operate that business and we found ourselves leasing a couple of small portions of the property too to others then had the land to build some more that seemed to be a good a good investment so we purchased and purchased we built an additional fifteen thousand square feet leased that to two significant firms bought the land next door from late john mcdonald bought a couple of acres there put one building on it then another one then put a third one in between the first two and did you sell old netflix foods to buy the lund question anderson property originally did you actually sell that business student oh that came a little later [Music] now um when you look at the properties that you have now then how many buildings do you have in over now i don't know how many buildings there are there's several several million square feet those buildings employ all together on woven properties employing 12 12 500 employees there's a lot of jobs there certainly right cummings properties itself the organization the total organization and by with that i'm including beacon grill for instance some including the horizons which is is part of your foundation of the cummings organization but there's a few more than 600 people there and i think the biggest thing that we do in woburn and more importantly i think even than pay taxes and there's 5 million something thousand dollars in taxes but the biggest thing we do is is to provide jobs there's a lot of people the company has never had a layoff in in 45 years now there's never been a time when anyone was laid off the lack of work the company is one that is has been very stable in the community certainly and it benefited so much from being woven we had a a general superintendent some of you will know the benezia family in town uh bob benezie was our was a master electrician who became our general superintendent in the field and he was with us for almost 30 years he retired to to start another business he wanted to start a business with his sons and didn't need a corporate life anymore but he was a graduate of woburn high school he was succeeded by another gregor hearn who many of you probably know greg and his wife chris another basic graduate of woburn high school and just such a you know a fortunate circumstance for us absolutely and jamie mckeon was 34 years old i believe when he went to work for you he was probably 29 at the time and worked with us till he passed away at 41. right right but you always went after yeah because i think i read that um was it fixed you were a young man at fix and uh you wanted a promotion and they thought you were too young that was my down that was my downside but you always have since then have really kind of looked and age is not a factor when you go with work within your own company you seem to put young people in dennis clark as a young man very shocked young man jamie was so you always seem to give the opportunity how many employees do you have yourself for coming property cummings properties has 300 or 360 south and great great by the way runs runs the field and that includes 240 or 50 people who report directly to his division right now um in 19 if we back up just a little bit in 1986 you and joyce your wife joyce started the comics foundation is that correct we started cummings foundation in in 1986 yesterday and it has four subsidiaries to it the new horizons have choked which i think is 1990 and then maybe in 94 you did new horizons at marlborough which is in beverly and then you did the veterinary school at tufts own ladder how did you get involved in the veterinarian and giving i think 50 million dollars that you gave we did commit that amount to to the what's now the coming school of veterinary medicine but that was a question of need people sometimes have assumed that joyce and i are great animal lovers and we've always enjoyed pets and but not a family has ever had more than one of them do we have more than one at a time joyce i don't think so can't no chatting a mouse that's pretty good but yeah it really is a question of a need there's so much that the school does in addition to provide training for veterinarians who take care of family pets there are veterinarians who work in all phases of the tremendous amount of research that's going on today any any company that does any kind of research with animals has got to have a veterinarian to take care of those animals there's nothing he had nothing casual about it absolutely pets are important the other piece of your foundation happened really when you had a life you at joyce both had a life-changing experience in 2009 when you went to jerusalem why don't you explain with that fourth piece of your foundation this lady's really done her homework hasn't she i've never participated in this type of appearance before as a matter of fact i will tell you that this is i think the second time i've ever appeared before any group in woburn that wasn't in our building really i think it's the second time and there are probably ten times as many people here tonight as there were in that first appearance which was a good many years ago so i'm delighted to be here we're very happy to have you here tell them tell the folks about that because that's very important we met or i'm sorry we didn't we were in israel two years ago and finished our the bulk of our trip there at a place called yad vashem which has been in jerusalem in the last 10 years has probably been there i thought about going there that's the holocaust museum in in jerusalem while we were there we met and became an opportunity to talk fairly extensively with a holocaust survivor whose name was elias ailon and who had been is a polish jew who had been kept in five different concentration camps during the war and we were so impressed with ellie as we call him with ellie eiland that we asked him if he would come to boston and speak to in groups here and he did but in the process he also stayed with our home for a couple of nights and we got to know him very well and we're so moved by his talk and you have you have programs here that people are really moved by something touches you and they they leave here i know just thumping their breasts about what a nice job you do well this this guy did such a wonderful job here that we just were so concerned that having having come all those thousands of miles and took him 40 hours probably to get here he then had to return home two days later and spend an equal amount of time and all he had was perhaps three hours of public appearance and we decided we wanted to try to do something to create other places that would be of interest to people with stories to tell about about the holocaust about genocide in lots of places and about injustice education but the program that you uh founded at tufts is uh so that is a program where students can learn and um about so that we never forget about the holocaust obviously in world war ii but the genocides still go on t day probably more importantly the genocides that as you say still go on today and one thing we've been able to do is to facilitate 20 students going to rwanda the last last two years the stories that they come back with having gone and spending time at a particular village there it's called the agazo shalom youth village which is a residential school for children who are orphans of genocide and these tough students have gone excuse me and then returned and universally thinking of that as a life-altering experience just to be there with the students and seeing how much they accomplish so you support the program in funding so that these students can get this education and go on and pass it on and teach about because right now you see so many things on the news sometimes where maybe in the middle east they deny over the holocaust ever happened and so it's very important um you know they interviewed many world war ii veterans there were so many has to continue foundation has done a masterful job of that in southern california university of southern california it's a gentleman named steven smith who's actually was employed originally by steven spielberg to collect memories of holocaust survivors video video memories and that is the whole group of people who do that kind of work and and just they dedicate their lives to this from an early age he and his brother's brother went to medical school and then gave up his medical practice to build the genocide museum and memorial in kigali rwanda and just the whole life is just for that purpose but you know do you think that someone people who are as successful as you are financially that can make a difference do have a social responsibility to give back i mean do you did you feel that certainly there pressure on you to do that or is it not a question of pressure any more than you or the other volunteers here who might not find it so easy to think cash donations how much money hours so many people in this city put into volunteer activities in all sorts of different ways and this is and we all do something and i i think it's a question of reaching a point in our lives when we have the time that we're not trying to achieve more in a monetary way and we realize there are more important things to do and still be interested in the other things but there's some more important things that can happen too and following in that light it's very true following in that light in the vein of thought the giving pledge is not it's not i will never be part of the giving flash but the giving pledge is for wealthy individuals that foundation that bill gates and warren buffett and his wife melinda gates started and you are the first person from massachusetts you and joyce to belong and join the billionaire club that gives away 60 at least 50 or 60 of your wealth i know you've given away more than that can you explain to people what the giving pledge is and what it means to this country i think the giving pledge is something that's very admirably conceived to make it feel good and make to to be not alone but to to join an organization of other people and i got to say we are the littlest fish in the biggest pond there's 70 people in that group and we are absolutely we are the littlest minion in that group but it's been a very interesting you enjoy them is that what you're doing together you can't compete with judge lucas and star wars and all that he's in that group yeah you know it's it's it's been a lot of fun to to to meet people like lauren and the gates on the first name basis and and to talk to him on the telephone and participate in different activities from time to time and certainly it was how does that work that you you have to give you have to reach a certain level of income and then personal income and then you give away 100 work i think that the the way it's phrased is people who either have reached that level or would have if they hadn't given it away and we certainly aren't involved in the league anymore except that we've given it away so from there from their category we're okay you're okay okay you pass yeah you know when you started out in business um somebody had to give you an opportunity did you have a mentor or what does it take for a young person now someone who owns a business in this economy to be successful well first of all let me before i answer the first question let me say that i think that right now there's every bit as much opportunity if not more than there's ever been for people to start businesses and to make a difference and provide a product or a service that other people want it's just all together different businesses today can answer your question i have a mentor i had two mentors and they both came out of gloucester they were the president and the chairman of gordon's of gloucester paul jacobs was the president and the chairman who went on to become president of general mills while kinney just happened to take a personal interest in me and gave me opportunities to go out and do things in a sales point of view and open up new territories first time i ever managed to get a straight trailer load of gordness gordon's fish heading up to north dakota and it was quite a thrill and eventually we had him going up every week up up to the both dakotas and and idaho and montana and the places that never heard of gordon's before but it was because somebody said you know go ahead and do it you commented on some of the people who have started off quite young at cummings properties and here and we've just been very very fortunate to be able to to find people who would give it that extra effort that's the the biggest thing first of all somebody shouldn't be in a business for him or herself unless they really want to work at it i mean that old that old lundqvist workout that we talked about here before all the greenhouse workers you know he just to go out and say oh i'm going to have my own business i'm going to be the owner and i'll tell everybody what to do you all know that that's not that's that's not going to make it but are you a tough gas master uh i don't think so you don't think we've probably got uh oh how many how many generations of anybody here work at companies properties as a high school kid we've got we've had about 40 for the last 20 years i guess every year and we see them coming back and doing different things and it's it's quite interesting because they work with people like arthur calucci that many of you would know has been with us for ages and certainly worked with dave and just i know sue alvin's husband has been george has worked with me for many years well george's george came with the even before jamie uh and more and and and we've actually we have a chair for people who nice captains here even nicer even nicer than these we don't fear anything yeah we don't spare anything we have a 25-year chair and no it's a 30-year chair isn't it so well we have 30-year chair and george informed me when he got to ellen's husband george holland when he earned his 30-year chair he informed me that he really would like to have a rocking chair and we agreed that on his 40th anniversary he would earn a rocking chair and we will make that the the 30-year share is named after our late treasurer doug stevens but when george earns the 40-year chair we'll name that the holland chair so that would be that the other thing that that a little conflict of interest thing wasn't mentioned here all these glowing comments the young lady over to my right over here is a herself a 30-year tenant becoming his properties one of the one of the very first day care centers that was privately financed privately run wasn't subsidized by anybody and just is is is prospering today joyce pointed out to sue ellen back in the corner a little while ago that our daughter patricia who's a psychologist in san francisco now has a an intern in the hospital where she works who announced to patty the other day that oh i know i know woburn i used to go to little folk stake here it's tooele and holland and ask patty if she knew the beacon grill adding to the beacon grill but and then immediately we talked to sue ellen and she knew christopher smith's name and his brother's name so the young lady's got a quite a memory as well as a long long duration as is the cummings property bill the trade trade center 128. is that your last project in uber i was probably our last major project that i'm going to undertake and we're looking at a couple of smaller ones right now that other team members are doing we've done a couple smaller buildings that i had nothing to do with and that felt great we're going to bore these people to death are we no no you're listening aren't you listening yeah we're listening you're listening um where do you see the future becoming property and you would enjoy [Music] yeah our deal is it will take at least 10 weeks a year away from the business and we've pretty much managed to do that we've been to a lot of interesting places and as i mentioned this year will be rwanda in january we've been in lots and lots of interesting places but the the businesses is run by lots of other people when i have i was impressed you answer your own telephone uh we'll always do that nobody's ever going to ask who's calling i was kind of impressed with that for anybody in the company we just don't do that we just just have a different way of doing it we want live people to answer the phone and answer your own phone if you're there and you can do it when it rains i just want to say one thing i noticed that top shoe had another program for students to learn how to run a business to teach them the finances to teach them how to you know do a business plan that's a very important piece that you have over the national program at tufts how did that come about um is that something that you contributed yourself and how did you set up that program we created a chair in entrepreneurship which was the basic thing we did my biggest interest at the time was having tufts offer programs in business law because it's so much any business person can learn never mind college just get a college textbook a business law and read it and learn it because there's so much information to know what know what the rules are and understand understand what you're expected to do from a legal point of view that's that's so important in any business and and i guess the other thing that if anybody's heard me talk about books you'll know that i'm devoted to shrunken whites and their book elements of style just a terrific book about just what to think of when putting letters together in formal documents that you've got to we've all got to learn to hopefully speak clearly and and certainly to write clearly we write things down and write and learn to write and everything so oh yeah yeah yeah no i do i do operate my computer though i do my own emails phil i i'm very happy that you were here today it was wonderful i don't know if you have any questions but i'm sure bill would be happy to answer a couple of questions but um i do want to thank you because ruben has changed a lot from 19 early 1960s to now and i think you and have done a tremendous growth in moving and we've all benefited from it one way or the other so thank you very much does anyone have a question for bill i mean i'm sure he'll answer one anybody have anything it's too late he said it passed his bedtime do the football game start monday night football i don't know um no one has a question are you all shy go ahead yes make my room always be around will vicks vaporub always be around it it came during the great influenza epidemic and it seems to be doing pretty well you can find it in every drugstore still that's right does anybody else have any questions no been a lot of fun being with you folks thank you very much for being here we appreciate it thank you thank you