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Make No Little Plans: A.B. Wells, A Collector of Americana

Excerpts from osv.org on their founding collector extraordinaire

ld Sturbridge Village began
as one man’s hobby, but
Oover the years has evolved
into a national institution, recreating
life as it was in Colonial New
England, right down to the tools of
the trade.
Industrialist Albert B. Wells of
Southbridge, Massachusetts, son of
American Optical Co-Founder George
Wells, became interested in the beauty
of hand-wrought utilitarian objects in
the early 1900s on annual tours of
Europe with his father-in-law, the
noted Chicago Architect Daniel
Hudson Burnham. Wells had great
respect and admiration for Burnham,
who famously advised, “Make no little
plans; they have no magic to stir men’s Albert B. Wells Interior of home with antiques on display
blood … Make big plans; aim high in
hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical the chauffeur to bring it all home, recalled that Wells directed him to stash it in the
diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we garage because “he did not dare tell his wife.”
are gone be a living thing.” Wells took this advice to A.B. later wrote a friend, “When the collecting bug bit me, it bit me hard.” His
heart and kept Burnham’s words framed on his wall as a collecting became a consuming passion. Within a few years, he was buying truckloads of
lasting source of inspiration. antiques scoured from the New England countryside and bringing his finds back home
A.B. Wells also thought big about his hobbies. In the to Southbridge. Soon, his finds outgrew his large mansion at 176 Main Street in
mid-1920s A.B. went to Vermont with some friends for Southbridge (itself designed by Daniel Burnham). Two large barns were added to the
a relaxing weekend of golf. When rain prevented golfing, house, and they too were soon filled to the rafters. A.B. and his wife were forced to move
his friends suggested they go antiquing instead. Wells to another home.
objected, asking what his friends found so appealing In 1935, A.B. formed the Wells
about “those old junk shops.” He gave in to their Historical Museum, a not-for-profit
cajoling, and in Henniker, New Hampshire had an trust to ensure the preservation of his
epiphany. A.B. Wells fell in love with what he called collection. As A.B.’s son George
“primitives” and “oddities,” the unique, handcrafted Burnham Wells observed, the
tools and implements of an earlier day: spinning wheels, collection was “too big and too
rolling pins, baskets, butter molds, wooden bowls, apple numerous to be simply one man’s
peelers, mouse traps, wrought iron hinges, painted hobby.” For 25¢ admission, the
country furniture, and more. That weekend he bought curious were treated to a two-hour
enough “primitives” to fill two station wagons. His tour through 45 rooms packed with
assistant George Watson, who was dispatched along with Wells’ collection of antiques.
Still making big plans, in 1936
A.B. hired an architect to design a Interior photo of Wells' original museum
series of gallery buildings to sit on
an adjacent lot and better display his treasures. Wells was excited about this scheme
when he presented it to family and friends in July, but his son George, “knocked it full
of holes,” saying museums were dead” and that “nobody ever went into museums but
old people.” But, “the historical value” of his father’s collections “was tremendous,
provided it could be put to proper usage and used educationally...” “It would be
necessary to have a village, a live village, one with different shops operating...”
Within a week A.B. and his brothers, who inherited their father’s company and
turned American Optical Corporation into what was once the largest and most
innovative eyeglass manufacturer in the world, bought the old farm in Sturbridge, then
known as the Ballard place, on which their mother had been born. The Quinebaug River
ran through the rolling property, providing the requisite waterpower. Trusted assistant
George Watson was sent out to find and move old houses, barns, and mills to create the
village, and help design new buildings constructed from new and reused materials to
resemble early structures. These structures became the new homes for A.B.’s collection.
A.B. Wells home in Southbridge, Massachusetts

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