John Joseph Prindiville, Sr. (1870 – 1946) was a business and civic leader in early twentieth century Framingham and New England. He was the first of five children born to Maurice J. Prindiville, Jr. and Mary (Leary) Prindiville of Palmer, Massachusetts. At the age of twelve, Prindiville began working as a water boy on a construction site in Palmer, Massachusetts. He subsequently began a seven year apprenticeship under Michael J. Dillon, a Palmer brick mason and builder. In 1895, he established his own construction company, the J. J. Prindiville Company, in Athol, Massachusetts.
Around 1898, Prindiville was hired to do masonry work on the Twombly Building in Framingham’s Irving Square. Soon after, he relocated his business to downtown Framingham. The J. J. Prindiville Company was contracted to construct numerous buildings throughout the town. During the 1920s, downtown Framingham experienced a building boom. Because of its reputation for fine and creative work, the J. J. Prindiville Company played a major part in the downtown’s transformation. The Memorial Building, the Kendall Hotel, the stone building for Grace Congregational Church, St. Bridget Church, the brick Framingham Union Hospital, Framingham High School on Union Avenue, the armory for Company E on Union Avenue, The Arcade and the Hemenway, Wilsonia, Crouch, Mullaney, Prindiville, Fitts buildings are just a few of the innovative building completed by J. J. Prindiville Company.
The year 1928 was a high point for the J. J. Prindiville Company. The company was selected to build the Memorial Building on land purchased from the Merriam Family at the intersection of Union Avenue and Concord Street. The building, the new town hall, was completed in only sixteen months and came in under budget! On February 22, 1928, the Memorial building was dedicated in memory of the Framingham’s soldiers, sailors, marines, and nurses. To top off this success, in that same year, downtown shoppers were introduced to another construction jewel, the Arcade. Located inside the Mullaney Building, the space offered an indoor walkway with shops on both sides and skylights overhead, a predecessor to the modern mall!
Construction was not Prindiville’s only business. He was the owner and president of the LaPointe Machine Tool Company of Hudson, Massachusetts and Edgewater, England. This company under Prindiville’s leadership grew from a small concern to one of the largest broaching machine companies of the time. He also served as president of the International Engineering Works in Framingham. Prindiville was one of a group of local men who founded the Framingham Trust Company. For years, he served on the Trust Company’s Board of Directors.
Prindiville was also very involved in many civic activities. He was President of Framingham’s Chamber of Commerce, served as a sewer commissioner, and helped form the Public Works Commission, which was the predecessor of the Department of Public Works. Prindiville was selected by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to serve on the Public Works Administrations’ advisory board of Massachusetts.
Prindiville married Anna A. Mullaney on June 20, 1900 in Athol, Massachusetts. The couple settle in Framingham living for years in a house located at 78 Union Avenue (corner of DeLoss Street). Around 1919, the family purchased a home set on twenty of acres of land at 863 Central Street. The Prindivilles had six children, only four of whom survived to adulthood. Four years after Anna’s death of stomach cancer in 1923, Prindiville married Hazel Dillon.
John J. Prindiville, Sr. died on April 30, 1946 in Framingham. He is buried in St. Stephen’s cemetery.
Facts
- Born on December 8, 1870
- His second wife, Hazel Dillon Prindiville was the daughter of Michael J. Dillon, the man who had employed Prindiville as a water boy when he was twelve years old.
- The Prindiville estate on Central Street, sold to the Marist Foreign Missionary Sisters who then turned it over to the Order of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm in 1967, is the current day location of St. Patrick’s Manor.
- Broaching: a machine process that uses a toothed tool (called a broach) to remove metal quickly and consistently.
Bibliography
Herring, Stephen. Framingham: An American Town. Framingham Historical Society, The Framingham Tercentennial Commission, 2000.
“Leader in Building Industry [Obituary]. Framingham News 30 Apr. 1946.
Mullaney, Anna. “A Brief History in Pictures of John J. Prindiville, Sr.” Prindiville Family Reunion. 20 Sept. 2014, Wayside Inn, Sudbury Ma. Transcript.
“Plan 280-Bed Nursing Home on Central Street.” Framingham News 07 Dec. 1967.