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Gloucester 1 Harbor Loop P.O. Box 180 978-283-3060 Hours: Essex Hours: |
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The History of the Buiding Center of Gloucester A damp fog hangs over the harbor, gulls caw out of the mist at waterfront laborers below as the Building Center of Gloucester opens its doors for another day’s business. Gloucester, Mass. A community that has grown out of the sea rather than down to the water’s edge is more a sub-culture than a city… more a way of life than a trading area. So, too, is The Building Center more than a business. It was born out of a raging gasoline barge fire at the turn of the century when a heroic tugboat captain, “Cap” Heberle, towed the vessel inside the breakwater and extinguished the flames under constant threat of explosion to claim the $10,000 salvage money. I was this stake that allowed him to purchase a bankrupt coal company on the waterfront. The hardware and lumber shopping center of today grew out of this coal business under his able captaincy and later, that of his son Charles Heberle Jr. The building center does more than serve the hardware and building materials needs of the city. From its epic birth out of fire and sea to its waterfront location at One Harbor Loop, it is an integral part of the unique living entity that is Gloucester itself. In 100 years of operation, The Building Center has done what hardware stores and home centers throughout the country seem to do so often. It has become a part of the community rather than merely a business within it. Marketing people refer to it as “grass roots distribution” and it is one of the qualities that makes the retail hardware industry endure. While roots, tradition, reputation and the other qualities that go with businesses of this type provide a strong foundation upon which to grow, no business grows and prospers without innovation. Some innovations at The Building Center include a check-in/check-out lumberyard. Customers drive into the yard through a checkpoint and load their merchandise. As they drive back through the gate, they pay for the goods, thus eliminating congestion on the retail sales floor. Should they need assistance in planning, estimating, etc. a lumber service counter is located at the back of the store. The facility is built around the concept of a building products shopping center and is more than a hardware store…. More than a home center and more than a lumberyard with a retail sales area. The drive-in lumber operation is a full-service yard. The store itself is a full-blown home center with all basic departments plus a complete garden center, a consumer lumber/building materials department, a marine department and a large gift section. |