It is satisfying learning about the companies that long existed in Holyoke during the mid-20th century. One of these companies is Philip Hano Company, Inc., also known as Hano Business Forms.
The story of this family-owned company dates back to 1888, when father and son, Philip and Edward Hano, formed a partnership in Boston, Massachusetts. The business was named Philip Hano & Co., and it was a paper finishing company. Its stay in Boston was brief, as the company moved its headquarters and production to 806-810 Greenwich Street, New York City, where it remained until 1921. At the time, the company specialized in producing manifold books, which were printed, ruled, and bound.
The 1922 Price & Lee Holyoke City Directory shows the company had relocated to 166 Race Street at the northeast corner of Appleton Street. Philip and Edward Hano were shown living at 598 Dwight Street that year. The company continued to maintain its sales offices in New York, as well as Boston and Newark, New Jersey. The 1924 directory shows the business at 180 Race Street.
Finding the Race Street space insufficient, the company moved to the Hadley Mills Building at 56 Canal Street around 1930. This was near the Holyoke Bridge leading to South Hadley Falls. By this time, the number of employees had doubled to 100 from the Race Street operation.
The product line expanded to producing continuous forms and snap-aparts. The company relied on flat-bed presses for manufacturing, which was the technology at the time.
In 1934, the company's founder and president, Philip Hano, died. Edward Hano became president; his brother, Herbert Hano, remained vice president, and the youngest brother, Robert Hano, became treasurer several years later.
In 1936, floodwaters overflowed the banks of the Connecticut River, flooding a portion of the plant and destroying the company's warehouse inventory.
All was not negative in 1936. The Holyoke Gas & Electric acquired the former Dickinson Paper Company building at 85 Sargeant Street from the American Writing Paper Co. in that year. One year later, the Philip Hano Co. Inc. moved into a 35,000 square-foot section of the building. The layout was conducive to the flow of its work. Employment had grown to 150 employees.
By 1939, the business had grown by 30% from the preceding year. A new lithograph machine was installed, capable of producing one million blank forms per day. This technologically advanced machine could print on both sides of paper, perforate the document, and deliver it in sheets. The result was that the company would not be restricted to the northeast market, but would expand its products nationwide. With five newer machines operating and two additional forthcoming, there was significant growth potential.
During World War II, paper and carbon paper were both scarce. The company embarked on producing its One Time Carbon Paper. This facet of the business was spun off to a newly created, related corporation, Technicarbon Company, Inc.
In 1954, all the space in the factory was utilized by its 350 employees. The company added warehouse space on Jackson Street and its first branch manufacturing operation in Mt. Olive, Illinois. Mt. Olive was 50 miles northeast of St. Louis on the roadway to Chicago. Its nationwide sales force indicated that with the cost of transportation and freight, the company could not outprice its midwestern competitors. The Mt. Olive branch opened on May 19, 1955.
Including the new Midwest facility, the company now employed over 400; 348 were in Holyoke, 30 in nationwide consumer sales, and the company had over 2,000 Hano dealers.
Upon the death of Edward Hano in 1954, Herbert Hano became president, his son Philip Hano was vice president, and Edward's son, George Hano, treasurer. Flatbed presses were replaced with more efficient rotary presses, and equipment continued to be modernized. The family enterprise continued to thrive.
The company announced that in 1959, it would invest $250,000 in high-speed equipment.
The first Hano retiree to receive a fully company-funded pension check occurred in 1961.
In 1962, the company built its second branch, a 20,000 square-foot facility in northwestern Atlanta, Georgia. In 1965, it rented 30,000 square feet of warehouse space from Whiting Co. Inc.'s Building No. 4 at 110 Lyman Street. The company also doubled the size of its Mt. Olive operation.
In 1969, the company expanded to a 146,000-square-foot facility at 99 Guion Street, located six miles from its Holyoke plant. The facility was the former Springfield Armory warehouse. The company offices remained in Holyoke. However, this was a foreshadowing, as in 1970, the Holyoke plant was closed in favor of the Springfield location.
In 1993, the Philip Hano Co., Inc. was sold to investors from New York and Virginia. 105 years of family ownership had come to an end.
Citations:
Newspapers.com (paid subscription): Citations: Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript & Transcript-Telegram; Springfield (Massachusetts) Morning-Union; publication dates and pages are shown.
Price & Lee City Directories, Holyoke, Massachusetts, Holyoke Public Library.
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