BROSCO History In 1890 C. Fred Smith went into partnership with Louis G. Brockway and formed Brockway & Smith Company, known in the trade as BROSCO. As jobbers of doors, windows, paint, and hardware, Brockway & Smith made a very modest start in Lynn, Massachusetts occupying a small store with less than 1,000 square feet of floor space. In 1905 the company started to distribute western doors enabling them to retire from the paint and hardware business. Shortly thereafter, the company expanded into downtown Boston and purchased the first motorized delivery truck in the industry. Brockway & Smith was the first company in the country to use a truck for deliveries, while others continued to use horse drawn wagons. Around 1910 the company moved once again, this time to a plant on Medford Street in Charlestown. The side tracks and waterfront made this an ideal location for receiving and shipping of products. BROSCO first published the "Book of Designs" in 1923. This book, initially a pocket-sized catalogue, has become the bible of the building industry in New England. In 1924 a new five story building was erected at the Charlestown location. All operations were consolidated into the Charlestown location, with only a small branch sales office remaining in Lynn. The Lynn office was given up entirely in 1944. Major expansion of the company occurred in 1926 when a new warehouse facility was established at Morrill's Corner in Portland, Maine. This plant was destroyed by fire in 1936, and was moved to Commercial Street in Portland. In 1928, Brockway-Smith merged with two other firms - Jackson & Newton Company and Lovell & Hall Company. The company became known as Brockway-Smith-Haigh-Lovell Company, now operating as a regional distributor of millwork rather than a retailer of millwork. In 1929 a warehouse was established in West Springfield, MA. In 1955 this branch was moved to East Longmeadow. In 1960 another new plant was built in North Haven, Connecticut and in 1963, the Portland, Maine location was moved to Read Street. In 1969 the company moved its Charlestown plant and main office to Andover, Massachusetts. At the same time the company changed it's name to Brockway-Smith Company. In 1986 Brockway-Smith expanded its service area to include eastern New York, with the purchase of Iroquois Millwork in Albany. Later in 1989 a new facility was built in Coxsackie, New York to replace the plant in Albany. In early 1987, the East Longmeadow plant was moved to a new facility in Hatfield, Massachusetts to service western Massachusetts and surrounding areas. Finally, in 1995, the company closed the out-dated North Haven plant and consolidated its western territory to be served from their two modern Coxsackie and Hatfield facilities. The company remains today as a regional independent wholesale distributor, maintaining four plants in Andover, Massachusetts (headquarters and main plant), Coxsackie New York, Hatfield Massachusetts, and Portland Maine servicing seven states in the Northeast. Brockway-Smith, owned and operated by four generations of family members since 1890, continues to be recognized as the largest distributor of doors, windows, and other high quality millwork products in the Northeast.