Company History

Company Founding and The Early Years

Hub Plate Glass Company started in business in the late 1920's. In 1931, the original owners dissolved the business and the partners separated and started two different businesses. Julius Porter started Empire Plate and Window Glass Co., Inc., and Malcolm Carver and Sam Goldsmith started National Plate and Window Glass Co., Inc. (Photo on right shows, left to right, Charlie Goldsmith, Malcolm Carver, and Sam Goldsmith.) Both were union shops. In 1944, George Carver, son of Malcolm Carver, graduated from high school and went on to attend Wentworth Institute. Upon graduation from Wentworth, George worked at National as a union glazier in the field and on the trucks until 1954. In 1952, George and his wife Frances Carver purchased Sam Goldsmith's half of the company.

The Fifties and Sixties

In 1954 Malcolm Carver died. Ownership of the business went to George (See photo on right.), an only child. George was faced with relocating the business due to urban renewal in the West End. He purchased a small gas station (1500 square feet) in Somerville and added a warehouse and a garage to store inventory, increasing the property to 3,000 square feet. George ran the business until December 1, 1964, when he died of a heart attack. He was 37. His wife Frances (See photo below, left.) was 35. At this time, the work force consisted of two glaziers, Charlie Goldsmith (Sam Goldsmith's son) and Dennis McNamara, and a bookkeeper, Kay Salani.

Except for having knowledge of some of the customers Frances' late husband dealt with, Frances was not a part of the business. With the help of Kay, Charlie and Dennis, Frances took over the business. It took quite a few months for Frances to absorb everything. In a small business the proprietor wears many hats. Frances had to learn how to take calls and get the proper information, how to do the billing, and how to collect bad debts.

Frances met with suppliers, learned about their products, became familiar with their pricing, and was able to quote prices to customers. She familiarized herself with insurance, and union contracts, regulations, and all other aspects of running a business.

National Plate Glass was mainly in the glass replacement business. Replacing broken lites of glass in storefronts for businesses that carried glass insurance. The bulk of their customers were the people in the claims department of the insurance companies, such as Royal Globe, Commercial union, The Hartford, etc. As a service to insurance companies they did inspection reports for them for their newly insured customers. The inspections were done by the glaziers if they had time or by Frances on the weekends. The company also serviced the glass replacement needs of several food chain stores, department stores, and utility companies in Boston and the surrounding areas. The company also did replacement glass for other glass companies whose primary business was construction. National was the glass company's glass company. Along with the above, the company was very active in storefront renovations, sold table tops, tub enclosures, storm windows, mirrors, etc.

When George was in the business he measured the glass, sent the men on the job and was able to lend a hand if they needed one. Since this was not Frances' line of expertise, she needed another glazier and was fortunate enough to hire the President of the Glaziers Union, Jimmy Broderick, as her third glazier. He was a very personable and knowledgeable man. When he wasn't setting glass, he was on the road seeing customers. Charlie did the measuring. Frances took over the nighttime emergency calls. There were times during the year that business dropped off, especially in the summer. Frances decided to learn how to bid jobs, because construction usually took place during these slow months. With Jimmy's help she learned to read blueprints. Frances started with small jobs that required a $100.00 bid deposit, which meant that they were about a $2,000.00 job.

The Seventies

Riots in the late '60's and early '70's kept National busy as well as the bid jobs that Frances had won. The company earned a reputation for its quality of work, integrity and honesty.

By the early 1970's Frances had four full-time glaziers and Richard, her oldest son, working on the trucks during school vacations while he attended Boston College. By this time Frances had been running the business for ten years, doubled her workforce by doing bid jobs, kept her old customers and added many new ones. Frances added new services and products as they presented themselves; such as auto glass installations, selling plexiglas, lexan, insulated units, tempered glass, tub enclosures and laminated glass, to name a few.

In 1976, Empire Glass went out of business and Mr. Porter sent their customers to National. Along with Empire's cusotmers, National also acquired some of their glaziers. One of them was Henry Goldsmith (son to Charlie Goldsmith and grandson to Sam Goldsmith). Also at this time, Beth Carver (Frances' oldest daughter) graduated from Boston College and joined the workforce, helping out in the office which had become busier than ever. (Frances in 1975, at right.)

With the increase in business Richard eventually came into the office to run the service department, and he also learned how to bid. It wasn't long before Richard took on more of the responsibilities of the company. In 1986, Sharon (Frances' youngest daughter) graduated UMass and entered the business.

Frances' daughters Beth (left) and Sharon (right).

The Eighties

They hired another bookkeeper and put Beth on the road. By this time they were coming into the 1980's. Construction was booming and Frances and Richard couldn't keep up with the bidding, so they brought two men in from the field to help with the bidding and hired a full-time estimator for the filed sub bid jobs. This relieved Frances of the responsibility of all the bidding and freed her up to get bonding, review all the contracts that came in, negotiate jobs and oversee all the paperwork that was required to efficiently run a larger glass company. At this time the company became a Woman Business Enterprise (WBE) by the newly established State Office Of Minority and Woman Business Assistance (SOMWBA).

The company picnic in 1980

The business they were doing remained the same as Frances had established in the mid 1960's (just more of it). The service business kept them busy and with all the new buildings being built their service department grew as well as the auto glass replacement business. The large and small contracting departments were flourishing. Henry Goldsmith was made service manager, and once again more glaziers were brought into the office to help bid and run jobs.

The Nineties

By the end of the 1980's the company employed approximately 40 people. The early 1990's proved to be a struggle for the company after a number of construction firms went out of business owing National money. During this period the company restructured. As a result, some of the older men retired, others went to work for other glass companies, and some formed their own businesses. It was now 1991 and Frances was already 61 years old, near retirement age, but not quite ready to retire. With the help of the remaining glaziers, and at the request of their loyal customers, Frances, Richard, Beth and Sharon ventured into business again. And, the company renamed itself, using the original name of Hub Glass Services, Inc. Frances made Richard president of the new Hub Glass. (Richard is pictured at left.)

With Richard now at the helm, the company had overcome the adversity of the early 1990's by maintaining a strong service department and cutting down on contract glazing jobs. Emergency replacements for service accounts were handled immediately as they always had been. The service end of the business was continuously busy even as the contract business dried up.

The Company Today

Today Hub Glass employs approximately 20 people. We have been building the contract glazing department up again over the past seven years. We have glazed many of the retail stores in the Natick Mall, Square One Mall, Cambridgeside Galleria, Copley Place, Burlington Mall and Providence Place.

We have glazed tenant fit ups in many of the local office buildings. These include jobs for KPMG, Fleet Bank Executive Office, I2 Technologies, Fidelity Investments, Bell Atlantic and GTE. (Current photo of Frances in her office.)

We have glazed storefronts and entrances for Bloomingdale's, BankBoston, Boston Public Library, and Northland Development.

Hub Glass is still a union, WBE, SOMWBA Certified, DCAM (Division of Capital Asset Management) Certified family business. (See Affiliations page for other affiliations.) Some of our estimators and glaziers have been with the company for between 10 - 25 years. Hub Glass has continued to earn a reputation as a quality glass company with honesty and integrity in the glass industry and a leader in specialty glass contracting jobs.

Email your request to us at service@hubglassservices.com

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