From Satkowski to Adams: A Clothing Store Legacy
In early 1948, Albert S. Adams purchased a lot on College Highway in Southwick, Massachusetts, and started constructing a building to house what would become his namesake clothing store. (Southwick was rapidly growing during this period, which saw the opening of Congamond Cleaners and Battistoni's new hardware store in the center of town that same year.)
Adams Clothing held its grand opening on July 1, 1948. Believed to be Southwick's first clothing store, it carried a variety of men's fashion and ladies' apparel, shoes, and the complete line of Hanes underwear.
Albert's store was an instant hit with residents. Thieves liked it, too.
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| Adams Clothing sold Eskiloos (circa 1964) |
The first break-in at Adams Clothing occurred on December 17, 1948, with thieves entering the store through a cellar window and making off with a large quantity of merchandise.
Thieves struck the store again on September 28, 1950. But this time, they would not be so lucky.
When Albert went to open his store for business, he discovered the break-in and immediately notified the Massachusetts State Police, who put out an alert. An investigation into the break-in determined that the thieves broke a window, but bars prevented them from entering, so they smashed a side window and made off with expensive shirts, pants, jackets, and sportswear worth around $400 to $500.
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| Adams Clothing, Southwick, Mass. (circa 1968) |
Later that morning, police in Albany, New York, arrested a man trying to sell the stolen clothes at a second-hand store. They also arrested his friend, who was waiting in a car nearby. The men were 29-year-old Albert R. Lannon and 34-year-old Henry J. Lemanski of Westfield, Massachusetts. Police in the Whip City knew the men well, especially Lemanski.
Two Massachusetts State Police officers drove to Albany to pick up the men and return them to the Baystate, where they each faced two counts: 1) "breaking and entering in the nighttime," 2) larceny of goods valued at more than $100.
At their arraignment in Westfield District Court on September 29, Lannon and Lemanski pleaded guilty. The judge set bail at $2,000 each and had the men bound over for the Grand Jury, as required by Massachusetts law for felony charges.
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| Albert Satkowski (circa 1928) |
Albert Adams purchased other properties over the years, the most notable being prime real estate in Southwick, where Springfield Road (today's Feeding Hills Road) meets College Highway. The site was originally home to Frank Preli & Son, an appliance store. The Prelis eventually converted part of their store into a soda and sandwich shop called The Corner, which they operated until deciding to lease it to a couple of gentlemen. (Around this time, Albert Adams incorporated his real estate holdings as Allan Associates, a tribute to one of his sons.)
Albert Adams purchased The Corner property shortly after a fire gutted the sandwich shop in the early morning of May 7, 1955. (The Corner burned for about three hours. Investigators believed a faulty freezer motor caused the fire.)
On two separate occasions in 1956, Albert Adams applied to the Town of Southwick for permits for his newly acquired property. The first permit would allow him to tear down the remnants of The Corner. A few months later, he applied for a second permit that would permit him to add gasoline storage to the site. (Today, Scibelli's Mobil gas station occupies the property.)
In late August 1961, the Third National Bank and Trust Company of Springfield announced that it was opening a Southwick branch. It would be the bank's seventh location and reportedly the first commercial bank in Southwick history. The bank would be in the same building as Adams Clothing, with the north side of the building undergoing construction to provide about 900 feet of space for the new branch.
About 100 people attended an open house event at the new branch on November 4, which officially opened for business on November 6. (Roger G. Gendreau of Chicopee Falls was the branch manager.)
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| Artist rendition of the new Third National Bank at the Adams Clothing building |
Third National Bank's time at Adams Clothing was short-lived as the bank relocated to the newly constructed Village Green Shopping Center in 1966. (Third National Bank and Trust Company of Springfield merged with Hampden National Bank and Trust Company of Westfield in November 1961 to form the Third National Bank of Hampden County.)
After the bank relocated, their space became a handful of other businesses.
In 1965, Adams petitioned the Town of Southwick for a building permit to erect a 12-unit apartment building with less than the required living space per individual unit on the adjoining lot behind the gas station near Sefton Drive. The Southwick Board of Appeals denied his request at a meeting on April 27. (In 1954, builder Reynold A. Sefton developed Pioneer Manor, a community in Southwick consisting of five-room, three-bedroom ranch-style homes on large lots along Sefton Drive with prices starting around $10,800.)
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| Albert Adams Apartment Building (1965) |
Albert had moved forward with the construction, and the new apartment building, Allan Apartments, was completed by October 1965 as an open house-style event was held there on the 17th. Allan Associates offered the apartments for rent at $115 per month, utilities included. (It appears that Allan Associates did not gain the town's approval until several years after its completion.)
Albert Adams closed his store and retired in 1972. The Democratic Town Committee occupied the former Adams Clothing space in 1975. (Family Closet, another clothing store, moved into part of the space around this time.)
On July 12, 1976, Earl J. and Rose Z. Murphy opened Mrs. Murphy's, a doughnut and coffee shop, in the location of the former Adams Clothing store. (The space was split with Family Closet occupying one half until the entire building became Mrs. Murphy's).
Like Adams Clothing, Mrs. Murphy's was an instant hit with residents.
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Born in Agawam, Massachusetts, as Albert Satkowski, he changed his name to Albert Adams in 1940. In 1950, he moved to Westfield. That same year, he married Anna Eva Roulin, a stenographer with the Robinson Reminders Company. The couple welcomed twin boys in 1952. Sadly, one of their boys, Allan Edward Adams, died in infancy. (Adam and Joseph Satkowski, brothers of Albert Adams, were twins.)
Albert Adams died in Baystate Medical Center on December 7, 1991. The Adams' surviving son, Albert Allan, died at Baystate Medical Center on August 4, 1997, from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. The Widow Adams died in Noble Hospital on February 12, 2007. She was 92. Mr. and Mrs. Adams and their two boys' final resting place is in Anna Adams's parents' family plot in St. John's Lutheran Cemetery in Westfield.
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Albert S. Adams: October 12, 1912 - December 7, 1991
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Edited Out/Author's Additional Research Notes
Working Titles: Adams Clothing Store, From Satkowski to Adams: A Clothing Store Legacy
Before he opened his clothing store, Albert Adams worked in the sales department of Boston Mutual Insurance Company and was a tobacco buyer for Wholzmann Tobacco Company in Hartford, Connecticut.
Howard Dewhurst sold Albert Adams the lot for his store. The Dewhursts had purchased Joseph Galpin's College Highway farm in Southwick in 1944. Howard sold about 15.7 acres of his land to Christ Lutheran Church of Southwick in 1963 to build a new church. (Members of the church broke ground for their new $45,000 worship center on May 2, 1965.)
On October 31, 1975, Richard Curran purchased the former Adams Clothing store property. And a few years after Mrs. Murphy's opened, the Murphy family purchased it.
Adams Clothing initially specialized in men's fashion. The store supported many community events and even donated money to help fund the down-payment of a home for a local veteran.
Albert Adams does not appear to have been a good driver, as he was involved in multiple auto accidents.
Albert Adams was a founding member of the Congamond Lakes Promotional Group (1951) along with businessmen Gino Boccasile (of Brass Rail fame), John Battistoni (Battistoni Lumber Co. and hardware store), Nelson Babb Jr. (Babb's Beach), Donald Wolfe (Wolfe's Garage), and Boston Braves baseball scout Al Molner.
In 1946, one of Albert Lannon's sisters died at Noble Hospital on her birthday. She was only 33.
Henry Lemanski has a complicated family tree. His stepfather had a lot of run-ins with the law - usually for drunkenness. Lemanski's mother appears to have been married at least three times. (An automobile may or may not have struck Henry Lemanski in 1923.)
Because Lemanski was habitually truant from school, a Westfield District Court Judge sentenced him to the Hampden County Training School in Feeding Hills in 1925.
Henry Lemanski had a long list of arrests, mainly for petty thefts.
Henry's arrest record dates back to 1937, when police arrested him for purse-snatching. One woman told police that someone snatched her pocketbook on December 16, 1936. An 18-year-old Westfield High School student reported that someone ran off with her pocketbook while walking down Court Street on January 9, 1937. During their investigation, authorities learned that Lemanski, who enlisted in the military in 1934, was absent without leave from Fort Ethan Allen in Vermont. (Police believed there were five attempts or cases of purse-snatching between those dates.)
Albert Lannon did not learn his lesson after the Adams Clothing break-in. He and two of his Westfield pals, ages 16 and 18, were arrested in Oneida, New York, and charged with grand theft auto after abandoning the truck they stole in the Whip City along the side of the road when it ran out of gas. The arresting officer said the trio had two dollars between them.
Albert Lannon's arrests date back to 1939-40 when he stole four bottles of soda from a Westfield cafeteria on Elm Street.
Roger G. Gendreau died in 1988 following a long illness. He was only 54.
In 1985, Yankee Magazine named Mrs. Murphy's as one of the best coffee and doughnut shops in New England.
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