If there was only a casino in Mass, I would drive to it right now and bet the house that Mr Nemeth will write about ORH this week-end and say how the 3rd 6 month extenion, added to the 2nd 6 month extension, added to the original six month extenion, on top of the three year agreement that followed the initial 5 year agreement is great for ORH.
On a serious note 28.1 million passengers out of Logan!!!! That is incredible!! What message does it send to potential businesses that may want to relocate to Worcester when one hour away we can not get 1 commercial passenger in 2007?
Same Time Next Year
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It’s been nearly a year since I wrote about the problems that come from
having 11 bosses who are not on the same page about anything, as well as
suggestion...
4 months ago
4 comments:
ORH only got mentioned once in Nemeth's column, in a quote by Connie Lukes...
Harry Tembenis
Worcester, MA
Another business leaving Worcester...
Jan 21, 2008
‘Toilet museum’ closing doors
Entire collection goes to trade group at end of February
By Thomas Caywood TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
WORCESTER— This spring the city will lose a one-of-a-kind cultural treasure and a truly rare commode-ity.
It will lose a collection of historical artifacts dating back to the early 19th century that has drawn visitors from as far away as France and China. It’s an exhibit, thought to be the only one of its kind in the country, tracing the early origins and development of an indispensable convenience of modern life.
We speak, of course, of the American Sanitary Plumbing Museum — better known to most city residents as “the toilet museum.”
People passing through the city, curious locals and busloads of giggling schoolchildren have trouped through the quirky museum on Piedmont Street for 20 years. The exhibit’s founder, Russell Manoog, and his wife, Bettejane, have given personal tours of the porcelain relics thousands of times over the years.
Mr. Manoog still projects a sense of awe as he points out faint traces of gold leaf adorning an ornate toilet bowl from 1891. With a straight face, he shows off an 1892 newspaper advertisement for flush toilet pioneers Thomas Crapper & Co. of England.
But, at age 74, Mr. Manoog said it’s time to turn the collection started by his father in the 1950s over to someone else. The Manoogs have donated it all to an industry trade association, the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors of Greater Boston.
“My wife and I think we’ve been at it long enough. We decided to give the collection back to the plumbing contractors that gave it all to us,” Mr. Manoog said last week.
In March, crews will crate up the historic commodes, urinals, claw-foot bathtubs, cast iron water heaters, plumbers’ tools and everything else for shipment to Watertown. The largest plumbing contractor in New England, J.C. Cannistraro LLC, is footing the bill to renovate a 150-year-old former ice house on the banks of the Charles River to house the museum.
“It’s a tremendous collection, and for those of us in the plumbing industry, it was essential that it be preserved. The Manoog family has created something very special,” said Hugh Kelleher, executive director of the association.
For those who would snicker at the historic value of a so-called “toilet museum,” Mr. Kelleher has this tidbit:
“The Smithsonian offered to take this collection, but the Manoogs really wanted to make sure that it would stay in New England. We’re delighted to have it,” said Mr. Kelleher, himself a plumber. “Even though it won’t be in Worcester anymore, it won’t be far.”
Mr. Manoog sold his family’s plumbing supply business in Worcester a few years ago, but he and his wife have been opening the museum on Tuesdays and Thursdays from September to June since they built it in 1988. When they’re traveling, a former employee staffs the museum. It averages 300 to 400 visitors a year — not bad for an exhibit open just eight hours a week 10 months of the year.
His father, Charles Manoog, who founded the family plumbing supply business, was well-known in the industry as a man interested in plumbing artifacts. If a local plumber took out a customer’s ancient toilet to install a new one, chances are he gave the vintage one to Charles Manoog. Eventually the father’s personal collection morphed into the son’s public museum.
A conversation with Mr. Manoog about the origin of the museum quickly turns into a guided tour of the collection. He stops at a toilet with a spring-loaded seat that opens a valve that fills the tank. “This is an interesting piece,” he says before launching into the story about where it came from and how it works.
While he’s undoubtedly fascinated by old plumbing, Mr. Manoog concedes the true appeal of the museum for him and his wife is that it brings interesting people from around the world to their door. While visitors take in the exhibit, the Manoogs take them in.
“My interest is more the people and their reaction to it. Depending on their age, they’ll say, ‘Oh, my grandmother had this in her house,’ or ‘We had this in my house.’ People are fascinating,” he said.
The museum will continue to be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays through the end of February. The collection will be moved in March and should be on display in Watertown sometime in April or May, Mr. Kelleher said.
John C. Cannistraro Jr., president of J.C. Cannistraro LLC, said the museum will be expanded in the new location to exhibit cutting-edge plumbing technology. The goal is to show the arc of sanitary plumbing through history from the first bulky, water-hogging flush toilets to today’s sleek models that conserve water.
“We want to tell a story by grouping the collection into the period from which each item was manufactured, so that we can show the progression of the plumbing through the centuries, from the earliest pieces to the modern pieces of today,” Mr. Cannistraro said. “We hope to continue the educational benefit that the museum has given to the community over the years.”
Plans call for the exhibit tours long led by the Manoogs to be taken over by retired plumbers from the Boston area, he said.
The association’s ambitious plans for his father’s collection are bittersweet for Mr. Manoog. He hates to see it go, but he’s happy it’ll be preserved and expanded in a new home near Boston.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” he said, “but it’s time to let it go.”
It was mentioned on this blog that fuel was a factor in Allegiant leaving Worcester.
It would be interesting to know what other Allegiant ports of call are charging.
City Hall's, lack of vision and it's a way of doing (crippling) business is toxic to anything with good potential. City Hall has no business in business.
What is it with this city and it's extensions anyways(ORH and even the cable franchise)? Can't they settle a contract, shit or get off the pot. Oh yeah, they did manage to loose the Toilet museum. Go to Boston if you want to enjoy a Crapper. That says it all.
Nisa
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