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| Charlie and Bob Tapply outside Tapply Lumber |
Over the years, there have been a few pictures posted to the family Facebook group of the Tapply Lumber Building on Culley Street. By the way, these wonderful pictures are thanks to Buzz and Tina Tapply. I'm thinking they were taken in the forties, just based on clothing, but the tail end of the car in the top photo may place this more into the fifties. Everyone assumes I think, that this is where the story begins. However, Charles Tapply Senior, or Charlie (as I knew him) began in lumber a bit earlier.
Going through the Fitchburg Sentinel, I found an ad for the original Tapply Lumber location.
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| Tapply Lumber at 245 Lunenburg St. |
The location on Lunenburg Street, or Route 2a has a modern building on it. It's located near the crossing of 2a and the John Fitch Highway. With a little more searching I found the notice of the purchase of Culley Street and the fate of the old building.
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| October 1940-The purchase of Culley Street |
This places the establishment of the Tapply Lumber as most of the family knew it in October of 1940. He and his son Robert Nathan or "Bob" took over the established business at that location. Buzz, Chuck, and Launa all have memories of the inside of that building. Both Buzz and Chuck describe the basement, where the custom cabinetry was built and lumber was stored. The upper floor had offices and 17 semiautomatic lathes. They all describe the elaborate belt and pulley system suspended from the ceiling that ran across the whole shop and powered the machines. Chuck described barrels in the basement the size of a 55-gallon drum. You would put in the wooden turned pieces with scraps of sandpaper and it would tumble them smooth similar to a rock tumbler. Launa has a particular memory of the loading dock which you can see more clearing in the contemporary pictures below.
She said,
"The area down on the right was a loading dock, inside on the left of it was a huge ancient scale about waist high. Behind that was bedrock graduating up to the ceiling(main shop floor and about 15-20ft beyond the spectacular elevator run with an ancient amazing big chain and wheels." The back of the building had been built right into the granite ledge!
So what did Tapply lumber produce? Anything turned; handles, spindles, decorative work for houses, cabinets... I found some ads that give you some idea of what came from their shop.
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| A few of the regular ads that ran in the Sentinel |
The ad for the knotty pine confirmed what I had heard; Charlie Tapply built my grandmother's last home on Rogers Avenue. Brainard's bedroom was completely paneled in that knotty pine. When it became a guest room, sleeping surrounded by all that paneling was a real trip.
Buzz said that they also took part in a fifties craze. The tubing for the original Hula Hoop was made in Leominster. Tapply Lumber made the wooden plugs that joined the two ends and made the hoop. Chuck confirmed this and adds that the kids from the fraternities at Fitchburg State came to Tapply Lumber for the "paddles" used in initiations.
And where did all the lumber come from? Well, Bill Tapply had a lumber operation in Brookline, New Hampshire. All in the family.
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| Bill and company hauling lumber |
It wasn't all smooth sailing, however. There was a large fire in March 1951.
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| 19 March 1951 |
It was a large enough fire to make the front page of the Sentinel. Here is a bit of their coverage.
“Although officials theorize that a spark from the basement boiler ignited shavings in a nearby waste bin, the cause was still being probed today…”
“The bulk of the loss was in the cellar where lumber was stacked. The office on the street floor of the one-story brick and wooden plant was untouched as was the shipping room, storage room and the major part of the plant…”
“Flames lurked at the west end of the Mohawk Express Garage also owned by Mr. Tapply”
“Mr Tapply said that his full crew of 25 workers would work as scheduled today, despite the fact that heat destroyed some of the lathe belts. The lumberman also stated that the plant was engaged in ‘some government work’ including turnings for airplane emergency life rafts.”
Launa said the ceiling downstairs was never the same after the fire. Leave it to Charlie and Bob, they were open and running the next day.
Members of the younger generation also have fond memories of visits to the building.
Kevin Tapply said, "I have a few memories of visiting Grampa and Uncle Bob... I was enchanted with this overhead belt system that drove all the machinery. I can still remember the smell of the fresh-cut wood"
And Mark added "I'll always remember all the sawdust. It's not that much different from my shop where I build cabinets today."
Charlie left the business eventually and Bob bought him out. Bob continued, according to Launa, until his death in 1977.
Here are a couple of more contemporary pictures of the building. In the first, you can see the loading dock. The second is from the opposite side of the building.
Woodworking has definitely been in the blood of this particular branch of the Tapplyy family. My thanks to Buzz, Tina, Chuck, Launa and Mark for their help gathering information for this post.
