Some of the mid-20th-century start-up businesses operated out of the defunct textile and paper mills. One of these was F. Howard Quirk, Inc., which was formed by its namesake.
Franklin Howard Quirk was born and raised in Holyoke and attended local schools. His father was a member of the Holyoke Police Department. Mr. Quirk went to Boston to further his education in optometry, which was interrupted by his service time during World War I. He returned from the war and took a job with Wurlitzer, and was placed in charge of the string instrument department. He then worked as a paper and lumber salesman, and for six years during the 1930s was employed by the Ellison Service Corporation in Springfield.
In January 1940, he started his own business, the Linward Paper Company, at 316 High Street in Holyoke. This was located in the Peoples Savings Bank building. The company specialized in engraved paper stock and printing. The company also produced rubber stamps and other marking products.
In 1945, Mr. Quirk relocated his business to 380 Dwight Street in the former Wauregan Paper Co. plant. The Holyoke Water Power had purchased the building from American Writing Paper Corporation, Wauregan's parent company. The company rebranded itself as F. Howard Quirk Company.
Mr. Quirk's business expanded to 2,000 square feet, and his business line was extended to include blueprinting and photocopying services. He was also a regional sales agent for a Philadelphia engineering and architectural firm. He offered for sale drafting and engineering tables and materials.
The space was ready for business at the new location in January 1946. The process for blueprinting is explained in Joe Donoghue's April 30, 1947, Holyoke Transcript news feature. It's a scientific process that was quite lost on me. In 1952, he added another blueprinting machine, the third in his plant.
On April 29, 1948, the business was incorporated as F. Howard Quirk, Inc.
Mr. Quirk retired from the business at age 64 in 1965. He had not been in good health and subsequently died in 1968. His spouse, Virginia (Puliti) Quirk, was a music instructor at Mt. Holyoke College and a piano teacher at the time.
The corporation was sold to Morris Kruezer, who operated it for a period of time, and then Kenneth Kruezer, his son, continued thereafter. In the late 1980s, the company added fax service and printing of wedding invitations.
The company celebrated its 50th birthday in 1996 and moved through the first decade of the new century. The corporation was shown as active at the end of 2011 and closed shortly thereafter. The Secretary of State's office indicates a voluntary dissolution occurred on December 21, 2012.
Citations:
Newspapers.com (paid subscription): Citations include Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript & Transcript-Telegram, and Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, with publication dates and pages shown.
Ancestry.com (paid subscription), Price & Lee City Directories, Holyoke, Massachusetts.
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