History of Hodgson
Ernest Franklin Hodgson,
son of Thomas and
Caroline Hodgson, was born in Medford, Massachusetts, May
20, 1871, and died in Boston on October 3, 1948.
Hodgson grew up on a small farm on Farm Street in Dover, Massachusetts, a small agricultural community about 20 miles southwest of Boston. The economy was mainly agricultural with numerous farms growing hay and producing milk for the local market. His interest in developing portable or prefabricated buildings began with his interest in poultry raising. Failing to find adequate and efficient appliances, he began creating his own. In 1891, E.F. sold to A.F. Hunter of South Natick, MA, editor of Farm Poultry, some of his first brooders which he had been most successful with. Hunter found E.F.'s product superior to anything he was using and urged him to put them on the market.
So, in 1892, E.F. started to do just that. This
effort produced the Peep-o'-Day portable coops and brooders
and ancillary equipment which evolved into portable poultry
and brooder houses under the trade marked name of Wigwarms.
By this time E.F. had developed a simple system which could
build small houses in complete sections which could be
erected in a few hours using an equally simple bolt system
instead of nails. To the production of tool-houses,
poultry-houses, dog houses, and other small buildings, he
created the single room Hodgson Camp Cottage, and then the
Hodgson Summer Cottages.
......Hodgson
Unit System
But it was the introduction of the Hodgson Auto Stables
in 1900 upon which the E.F. Hodgson Company took hold.
As the automobile developed in dependability and the
environment became more user friendly to this new means of
transportation, people found it more convenient to spend
vacation time in homes specifically designed for the summer
and vacation market. E.F. quickly used his simple
building system to develop year-round Hodgson buildings by
manipulating the basic system of fixed 6'x12' wall, roof,
and floor units which were bolted together.
E.F. built a small factory on his father's farm, but with
growth he moved down the road into the old center of Dover
where Main Street, Farm Street, Pegan Lane, and Springdale Avenue all meet in an area called Bliss' Corners. He
prospered until a fire leveled his new factory in 1911.
After the fire he built a factory close to the railroad
which had changed the center of Dover in 1862. This
new factory was built along side the railroad and had its
own siding to support Hodgson's shipment of product
easily and cheaply.
By this time Hodgson buildings were appearing all over
the world. The 1937 Hodgson Prefabricated Houses
Catalog calls the story of the Hodgson Prefabricated House
the idea of a young and unknown New Englander who achieved
world-fame and who became the father of an industry.
"He, alone, can be credited for the beauty, convenience ,
and durability of today's Hodgson House. For this
pioneer of prefabrication has not been content to stand
still. He has been responsible for many of our modern
methods of building construction. He has kept an open
mind and accepted new ideas and new materials if they proved
themselves worth while. And though Hodgson Houses are
far better today than they were years ago, many of the first
built are still standing."
So correct! In the fall of 2005, I assisted a young contractor who had been given a five bedroom Hodgson House U design, in prime condition, for a dollar. That house, had served as a faculty residence at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Marine Biological Laboratories, was taken apart and trucked away to a new life on the Maine coast. That building was over 75 years old and still had value and use in a society which all too often destroys rather than saves.
That same catalog goes on to say: "No matter where you go
in this country, or in any country, you will find Hodgson
Houses...and satisfied owners. For example, on some of
America's finest estates--Astor's, Ames', Belmont's,
Cabot's, DuPont's, Endicott's, Fenno's, Field's, Gould's,
Iselin's, Lowell's, McAlpin's, Morgan's, Rockefeller's,
Vanderbilt's and many others--Hodgson Houses are in constant
use, and are well loved.
In Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America, you will see
Hodgson Houses that have lost none of their sturdiness and
comfort, even though they have endured earthquakes,
tornadoes, and the extremes of heat and cold."
Hodgson Houses have served the military, governments at
all levels, businesses, hospitals, camps, gymnasiums,
schools, churches, and the average citizen all over the
United States and the world. Many of these buildings
still are doing their job. Just recently, I visited a
YMCA outdoor camp in Connecticut that purchased
approximately 20 - 25 Hodgson structures in 1927-1929, and
is still using some ten actively. Good ideas are still
good ideas even though the product may have stood there 79
years. E.F. Hodgson was a New Englander, through and
through.
Note: Sears was not in the prefab market before Hodgson. Sears did not offer a prefabricated building. Sears offered a pre-cut and fitted building which was purchased as separate numbered pieces and then assembled.
I find it interesting that modular, read prefabricated, is on the rise all over the world for the same reasons that E.F. did it--ease, value, cost and need. And that is certainly the case for the notion of prefab modular building.
E.F didn't make the first prefab buildings in the U.S. Most scholars will tell you that the first prefab buildings were bought into the American Colonies in the late 17th century via Cape Ann on the North Shore of Massachusetts. E.F. chose to describe himself as "America's First Prefabricator." I would argue that he had a right to that title as his portable houses were the first American-made prefabs.