Every house had a little bit of DuCett somewhere
The right store, in the right town, at the right time. Many small businesses strive to hit all three targets, but few succeed. Here’s a bulls-eye story.
DuCett’s Hardware arrived just in time for Burlington’s housing boom of the 1950s and 60s, the result of the new Route 128 and burgeoning high tech scene. The store had scant competition besides Sears in Woburn. O’Connor Hardware in Billerica was a fledgling. The Burlington Mall didn’t exist, and the big-box home improvement chains were nowhere near Burlington.
Burlington’s new homeowners needed tools, yard equipment, paint — everything, basically — so they poured into DuCett’s and talked to manager Oscar Peterson, assistant Bobby Ramsdell or John DuCett himself.
This was a family enterprise. John and Judith DuCett had a house built at 2 Rita Avenue, right behind the store. The house faces the back of the old store location on Cambridge Street, where a Speedway gas station is now.
Ducett’s was short on square footage but tall on talent. Judith was certified by Glidden paint company. Without the help of today’s computerized color-matching, she had to eyeball existing paint and custom-mix new paint to match it. A lost art. Even something as robotic as cutting keys required patience and finesse back then. And if you needed your skates sharpened, you went to teen-aged Frank or Steve DuCett.
Business at DuCett’s was good. An understatement. The “blue laws” that banned retail sales on Sundays failed to dent business. The DuCetts hung curtains across the merchandise to imply everything was off-limits, but the curtains only served to conceal the unholy retail activity within.
Oscar Peterson, the store manager, was also a part-time Burlington police officer. This created some interesting moments. “Oscar stopped by on a Sunday, in his Burlington Police Department uniform, to a store full of customers behind the curtains,” recalls Frank DuCett, one of three DuCett sons. “Some customers were wondering if we were busted. We were supposed to be closed.” Actually, blue laws did permit Sunday sales, but only for emergency items. Housewares and hardware didn’t qualify as emergency items. Or did they? It could be said that everything at DuCett’s was emergency merchandise during this period, so there you go.
At one point, the family had a mini-empire at the Cambridge Street/Rita Ave. junction:
- Gas station
- Service station
- Hardware store
- Towing/recovery
- Diner
Diner? Yes, in 1953, DuCett and partner William A. Barnes brought a railroad car to the opposite side of the Rita Avenue intersection, where a Prime gas station is now, and hired Parker “Sully” Sullivan as the cook. “I do remember a gray military-looking truck arriving with the railway diner in tow,” recalls Frank, “when I was outside playing in the yard.”
One early Burlington Diner customer was flooring installer Richard Kelly, long before he founded Burlington’s RJ Kelly commercial development company. “I was in the kitchen talking with Sully while he was stirring a big pot of beans. He took his cigar, bit the end off and spit it into the beans. I questioned him, but he said once it heated up it would sterilize and be fine.” Frank DuCett doesn’t dispute the story. “Mom mentioned something about cigar ashes on the grill occasionally.”
But don’t let the DuCett name be sullied.
John DuCett, a Seattle boy, raided Omaha beach on D-Day in WWII, went inland and arrived in Belgium in time for the Battle of the Bulge, went into Germany as a rifleman in Patton’s Third Army, took a shrapnel wound to the leg and received the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. His commanding officer, Major Dumont Wright, was killed during the Battle of the Bulge. “I have been honored to have his name, Dumont, as my middle name,” says Frank. His brother Steve’s middle name is Douglas, after General Douglas MacCarthur.
With WWII behind him, “Dad was ready to try his hand at the gas station business. He was living in Waltham with a wife and three boys. He answered an ad about someone selling a small gas station in a town called Burlington.” DuCett opened the station under his name on the 4th of July, 1950.
“That’s how DuCett’s got started, its humble beginning. I would wager that there was never any doubt in my Dad’s mind that the little gas station in Burlington would be more than capable of making some sort of living for our family. Over time, the people of Burlington embraced my dad’s honesty, his humor and, the long hours that he continually worked, at the station and then the hardware store, as well as running a tow truck service that was often called out at 3 AM. These were, and still are, the kind of traits that many of those stoic New Englanders came to honor and respect when they thought of DuCett’s Hardware.”
Where the money went, so went the criminals. Someone stole the cash register from DuCett’s in 1951 and dumped it into the Shawsheen River in Billerica. A couple of fishermen found it. Two years later, gunmen held up the Diner at night, with customers in the place, and made off with $50, according to Lowell Sun archives. One of the robbers was fairly polite. As he held his hand over his own face, he told night manager William McKinnon, “Don’t try to take too good a look at me. This is a stickup.”
If Burlington wasn’t always idyllic, Concord was.
The DuCett boys spent many summers fishing on the Concord River. “Dad had a white 16-foot Owen’s boat with a black 40-hp Mercury outboard motor. We would sometimes slow as deer made their way to the opposite shore. Whenever we returned to Sullivan’s Marina, in Billerica, we would stow our secret lures and never mention our secret fishing hole. I suppose after 54 years I can now mention what our secret lure was. It was a one-inch long red and white spoon known as the Red Devil, and it worked great on pickerel. We talked about that for years after. I remember how much patience my Dad had while fishing, and the wax paper Mom wrapped our sandwiches in, and the clanking of the thermos handle, and the sound of Dad’s Zippo lighter clicking and the smell of Kent cigarettes.”
DuCett eventually sold to Gibbs BP, which built a more modern gas station there at the corner of Cambridge St. and Rita Ave. Frank spent three years in the Army and four in the Air Force before working in the electronics field for IBM, Motorola and others. He now lives in Jasper, Indiana, where he’s on social security and works at a Wal-Mart. He’s the only one on the night shift who can mix paint. He talks about Burlington quite a bit. It’s where he became mechanically-inclined. “Oscar taught me basic mechanics and was largely responsible for my selecting helicopter maintenance in the Army.”
And Burlington is where he met characters. REAL characters.
“There was this guy named Mr. Southwick. He came riding an English Raleigh bicycle around Burlington, handing out ginger snaps. He’d pull up on his bicycle, on a warm summer’s night in front of the hardware store, and before admiring listeners, all seated in wooden lawn chairs, he would recite Shakespeare to people with broad smiles. He also wore — get this — a three-pointed Paul Revere-type hat. He could at times be heard shouting that the British were coming. We lived in such a rich period back then. So many characters to enjoy and learn from. Can you see why I love Burlington?”
Postscript
Frank DuCett and brother Steve, who is both a retired staff sergeant in the Air Force and retired lt. colonel in the Army, now make annual trips to Africa to volunteer at the Ilula orphanage in Tanzania. This orphanage began 20 years ago as a solo effort by a Norwegian woman and has grown by word of mouth. They’re visiting again March 8 to March 25.
Steve has a doctorate in theology. He teaches to African ministers. Frank fixes bicycles, mends windows gone askew from seismic activity and does handyman work as needed.
“We go from Detroit to Amsterdam, then Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro. You need a fair number of shots per the CDC listing for Tanzania. You also take a broad-spectrum antibiotic, Doxycycline, to prevent Malaria. You need a passport that’s good for at least six months after arrival and a Visa that can be issued at the airport after arrival.
“We stay at the orphanage in small rooms set aside for visitors, one or two people per room. Food is provided by the orphanage cafeteria, very basic foods — rice, vegetables and rarely, meat. We take time for a safari. This year we’re going to Rahaha, just west of the town of Iringa. That town has good shopping and eating, and crafts.
“There’s always work to do at an orphanage, for people of all abilities. There are old people with walkers and young girls and boys from the US, Canada, Norway, Ireland, Germany. About 200 visitors each year. Some stay for a week and some for months.
“The toilet facilities are very basic. You must squat to poop, in private stalls. The women hate it, but the guys don’t care. Animals abound. Unfortunately, the most prevalent are snakes and mosquitoes. All very manageable. As we venture near Ilula, we find lions, elephants, zebras, wildebeests and others.
“I lose about seven pounds each year. Every time I go, I come back in better shape. My most amazing take-away from Tanzania is the night sky. If you want to see some night stars, this is the place. No ambient light, over 5,000 feet elevation, just south of the equator.”
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Thank you, Robert Fahey. Your research is appreciated. We could use a good hardware store in Burlington.
This brought back some fond memories of growing up on Rita Ave in the 1960s. Walking to Ducetts on the corner to buy a Coke from the soda machine for 15 cents . The kind of machine where you pulled the glass bottle out of the slot after inserting the dime and nickle.
We would wait for the school bus to Meadowbrook School at that corner and if it was raining or very cold try to wait inside the store. I say try because Oscar would kick us out as we were typical rowdy kids.
I Remember looking out my living room window at night to the glow of the neon sign for Glidden Paint along with the sign for Busa Liquors next door. This was before the free standing neon sign prohibition started after a Boston Globe columnist called Burlington the “Vegas Strip” when describing the area near Almys.
In the early 70s the neighborhood changed. Ducetts was torn down and replaced with a new concrete generic looking gas station set back to the end of the property crowding the former Ducett house at 2 Rita Ave then owned by the LeBlanc family. Mrs LeBlanc called the view of the wall of the new gas station so close to her house, the Berlin Wall. Today that house still looks out of place facing the back of the gas station instead of Rita Ave.
I am still living in Rita Ave and have raised my kids in the same house I grew up in. I tell them all the stories about Burlington in the 1960s and 70s and the fun we had without cell phones and social media. 🙂
Thanks for another great local story. You have a gift for getting real stories about Burlington when the town was in its small quiet town stage of life.
Great story! My Dad was always stopping there for something. It was the little store that had everything you could possibly need. Wonderful memories.
Great story. Real history. When Ducett’s closed I bought his 62′ Ford pick up. Brings back a lot of memories of a better time. Keep up the great writing.
I too fondly remember Ducetts HW. I grew up on Ward St. and used to cut through where the VFW is now and go down to Ducetts as a kid to get a Northland Hockey stick and tape to play some pond hockey. I also remember that coke machine out front and getting a 10 oz glass bottle of coke for a dime. As a kid it was always great to go there and watch all the action taking place and get chased out of there by whoever was working. Speaking of the VFW does anyone remember who lived in that house before it was the VFW? I used to play with the kids that lived there being they lived right behind me, but I don’t remember the familys name.
Paul Terrio lived there with his family of 8
kids…he also owned the Chevron gas station out front…
Before the Terrio Family owned the house, the Petersons lived there. I think they owned the house when it was right on Cambridge St. and moved back to make room for the Esso gas station. That building is no longer a gas station but is still a car repair shop.
When the Terrio’s lived there they had two big German Shepherd dogs that scared us neighborhood kids. For a while they had two cows on the property. Milk for such a big family was expensive so the cows came in handy I suppose. This was the early 1970s so cows were somewhat out of place in an area that was definitely not farm country.
For a while Tom’s Auto Body was between the gas station and the house (I think it is still there). Tom had two bright yellow all terrain vehicles called Attex. A few times he gave us kids rides on them. They were amphibious vehicles ,he would drive it in to a pond behind the Spray Engineering building on Cambridge Street. That pond is still there next to Corporate Drive although most of it was filled in for the development there in the 1980s.
I remember Ducetts well. Lots of memories rekindled with this article and pictures!
Some families spend decades if not centuries in one area of the country, sadly our name was only in Burlington for 25 years. Thank you for letting us be part of your town. Burlington has always been part of who we are, and certainly how we talk. — Frank DuCett
Terrio’s… Yes, thanks for posting that, I remember playing with the kids back in the 60’s and 70’s.
Hi, What a great piece. Amazing photos as well. I’m trying to nail down DuCetts location in my aging mind, and am struggling a bit. Can you tell me what street?, intersection?
Hi Patrick, the store was st 110 Cambridge Street, corner of Rita Avenue. Where the Speedway gas station now sits, but further forward, closer to Cambridge St as there was a gravel lane/road behind the store, shown in the photo with the white pickup truck.
Thanks Frank! got it.
The first picture of this story, was taken on a Sunday, I was seated in the chair in front if the gas station, Ronny White was looking out from the front door by the coke machine. I don’t remember who took the picture.
I too remember the store when my uncle Ronny White took me by.
Frank, I used to work there with Oscar, Bob and Donnie Brooks at your dad’s and mom’s store. I remember summer nights having soda by the coke machine after closing…met Steve many times but don’t remember meeting you. Please send me an email as I’d love to review some things with you
I lived on Muller road in the Southern end of Burlington on the Lexington ( the part of Burlington that seceded from Burlington and is now part of Lexington ) & Woburn line Our school bus in the morning going to Meadowbrook school , stopped to pick up kids out fron of Ducetts hardware store in 1959.
Love reading about the “old Burlington”. DuCett’s is where I first met Santa!
A PROUD longtime resident from a large family, with lots of great memories.
Great writing, stories & photos. Look forward to many more.
Thank you!
great local history…………………….does anyone recall the bluebird resturant at the corner of cambridge ave and winn st………….it had a big field and parking lot where the local farm fair and carnivals were held…………..cjohnson,bhs,1954