This 35-year period saw the companies move forward under the leadership of John M. Newton and, later, his sons. The longtime Treasurer, J. Otis Whitehouse, continued in his capacity. The business continued to grow with electrical contracting and wholesale supplies.
The company was awarded the contract to install sodium vapor lights on the new Holyoke-Springfield roadway near Whiting Hill in 1936. Engineers who viewed the finished project noted that it was one of the best lighted roadways in Massachusetts.
The company had four baking machines used to dry wet motors. The units were booked weeks ahead.
In 1939, when Mt. Holyoke College added a heating plant for a newly built residence Hall, Roland T. Oakes joined other Holyoke contractors to perform the power wiring.
Also during this year, the company purchased the former Telegram building on Division Street, located behind its Appleton Street business. The four-story property was used to store wholesale supplies. This structure would come into significant play in the 1950s.
In August 1939, a generator weighing 2,700 pounds was rushed from a flax mill in Red Lake Falls, Minnesota, to Roland T. Oakes Co. for rewinding. Because of the generator's dynamics, the Minnesota Mill could not operate until the repair was completed and the generator was reinstalled. The Roland T. Oakes Co. worked 24 hours a day to complete the job in two weeks. 500 pounds of copper, 162 coils, and 2,000 solders, and the generator was remade to specifications. A special freight car transported the rebuilt generator back to Minnesota.
The early to mid-1940s saw the company installing improved lighting in the high school, installing traffic signals, laying underground fire alarm cable in the downtown area, supplying conductor cable for WPA projects, and wiring the new radio building atop Mt. Tom.
J. Otis Whitehouse, the former Vice-President and current Treasurer of both corporations, died in 1948. He was associated with the Oakes' companies since 1895. He bequeathed the funds from his company's stocks to a fund providing Christmas and vacation money to company employees.
John M. Newton Jr. and James B Newton, the sons of James M. Newton, would be more involved with the business in the early 1950s.
In 1953, a new Berkshire County supply warehouse was built in Pittsfield at the corner of Fourth and Lake Streets.
In 1956, the Newton Realty Trust, an offshoot of its two corporations, purchased the property at 80 Commercial Street from the George W. Prentiss Co. The Registry of Deeds showed the Prentiss firm as having owned the property since 1916, when it acquired the property from G. Haarman & Co. The Haarman company had acquired the land from the Holyoke Water Power Co. in 1909.
One of the reasons for the move was the anticipated loss of its storage building on Division Street. The city planned to construct a municipal parking lot, which included demolishing several buildings on Division Street.
The Oakes Co. would centralize all of its Holyoke operations at 80 Jackson Street. It had been leasing warehouse space in several locations. The new site had 40,000 square feet of space, more than double its former location. One building had two stories and faced Jackson Street. The warehouse is behind and along the rail siding to facilitate deliveries and shipments.
Daniel O'Connell Sons remodeled the building and warehouse, which needed extensive work. A second-floor kitchen was added, and there was a meeting room called the Oakes Auditorium on that floor that could accommodate 75 attendees. Over the years, groups such as the Holyoke Redevelopment Authority, Holyoke Credit Bureau, Holyoke Taxpayers Association, Oakes Acorn Smokers' Club, and social organizations used the room. The company also hosted presentations for local utility representatives, engineering groups, and Dale Carnegie courses.
The rehabilitated structure had several technological and innovative advances novel for its time:
An internal intercom system to keep phone lines open to accept orders,
A teletype sender and receiver (aka fax), which was the first in its industry and one of the few in the country,
An electronic perpetual inventory system,
A vacuum tube system to properly route orders to the correct department,
An invoice system (devised by Holyoke's John Curtiss Business Forms Co.) to expedite processing of orders within 12 hours rather than up to a week,
Soundproof office stalls to replace enclosed offices,
A conveyor belt system leading from the three warehouse floors to a central dispatch point, and
Two new departments had been established: Consumer Goods to interact with local retailers, and Sales to Original Equipment Manufacturers to associate with manufacturing concerns.
In the mid to late 1950s, John M. Newton Sr. designed and installed a new electrical distribution system for Mt. Holyoke College to replace the system that was previously installed to replace gas lights in 1924. It is no coincidence that John M. Newton Sr. designed that system also, as he and Mt. Holyoke's chief electrician had worked together in powering the campus for 45 years.
In 1961, John M. Newton Jr. succeeded his father as President of the company. He joined the company in 1950, was promoted to Sales Manager in 1955, and Vice-President in 1958. In 1964, at age 40, he became the youngest President of the National Association of Electrical Designers at its annual convention held in Washington, D.C.
In 1961, the 271 Appleton Street building was sold to the Salvation Army, which had previously been located across the street at 268 Appleton Street.
In November 1965, the company announced the closure of its Pittsfield warehouse, centralizing its inventory in Holyoke.
The list of remarkable accomplishments for this company's first 85 years appears endless. More will be forthcoming in the next and final chapter.
Citations:
Newspapers.com (paid subscription): Citations: Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript & Transcript-Telegram; Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican; publication dates and pages are shown.
Holyoke - Chicopee A Perspective, Ella Merkel Dicarlo, Publisher Transcript-Telegram, Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1982
Ancestry.com (paid subscription), Price & Lee City Directories, Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Assessors' Office, City of Holyoke, Massachusetts
MACRIS, Massachusetts Cultural Research Information System
Registry of Deeds, Hampden County, Springfield, Massachusetts
Google Maps, Two Color Photos, Present Day View of 80 Commercial Street, Holyoke, Massachusetts (2025)
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