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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 12
August 2008
Razed by fire, Boston waterfront’s James Hook & Co. plans to rebuild
BOSTON, MA – An early morning conflagration on May 30 destroyed the James Hook & Co. lobster building, along with thousands of pounds of lobsters, but it didn’t stop Al, Eddie, and Jimmy Hook and their sister, Nancy Doto, from forging ahead with the day-to-day operation of the 83-year-old family business.
With a helping hand from another lobster company, the Hooks, who range in age from their mid-40s to early 50s, were shipping out lobsters the day after the fire.
“Thank you P. J. Lobster very, very much. Even though they were competitors of ours, they came through and offered us temporary use of their facility at 339 Northern Avenue,” Eddie Hook explained. “This business was the nearest to our old location and the most convenient for us. This was like a turn-key operation.”
It was grandfather James Hook who started James Hook & Co. at 15-17 Northern Ave. in Boston in 1925. The 20,000-square-foot, steel-framed, wood-skinned building that burned was set on pilings at that original site. It housed the company’s offices, retail market, and lobster storage and shipping facilities.
“The fire pulled the rug right out from under us,” said Al Hook. “It was our family livelihood for 80-odd years.”
James Hook & Co., with its 20-strong workforce, buys about 10 million pounds of lobster each year locally and over-the-road and wholesales and retails them to mainly domestic customers. The company’s on-site holding capacity before the fire was up to 250,000 pounds of live lobster.
Accidental
Fire investigators ruled that the cause of the blaze was accidental, with signs pointing towards either an electrical or mechanical malfunction. The building was insured.
Eddie Hook recalled that he closed the place at 5:30 pm on Thursday, May 29, after making sure all of the lights were off and the alarms were set.
“Never did I realize this would be the last time I would ever do this here. Also, while driving off in my car on the expressway, I looked back at the business from my rear-view mirror. The next time I saw the business, it was burning to the ground,” he said. “You can’t take anything for granted.”
Rebuilding
Eddie Hook said family members knew they had to get back to work immediately.
“People in this business need their lobsters right away, and if you can’t supply them, they’ll go to someone else,” he said.
The Hooks were working this summer on rebuilding at their Northern Ave. location, which was fenced off and largely cleared of debris within days of the fire. However, working through the insurance situation was taking some time.
“We hope to first set up a couple of modular trailers there as a retail annex,” Eddie said. “We also have been talking to a lot of builders but haven’t made any decisions on what kind of building will go there.”
Peter K. Prybot
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