09/16/2017
People are always asking...when are you going to reopen the Donut Shop?
I thought it would be interesting to tell you how the Donut Shop started.
John Neville Sr. was a bread-maker at Renton's Bakery for years. Yvonne Smith worked in the Bakery. Yes, this is where they first met! When the regulators came in and said chemicals (preservatives) needed to be added to recipes to improve shelf-time, John said, "Not in my bread!" and left with his wife, Yvonne. Around about this time, John and Yvonne lived in Hoosick Falls, N.Y. These were the WWII years and though he had three children, John joined the Navy to help with the effort.
Yvonne, with other wives pulled together to give each other aid and comfort during this time.
The Atom Bomb was deployed ending the War and John came home. The Neville family moved back to North Adams and John, now a veteran joined the American Legion, becoming the commander. John, with his bread-baking skills and Yvonne, with her recipes, especially baked-beans started catering weddings and dinners held at the Grand Army Hall in North Adams. Their children: Peggie, Linda and John Jr. remember their parents and friends carving turkeys and the rolls and large pots of mashed potatoes.
North Adams, during the early 1950"s was an industrial town with many mill workers. Numerous diners opened early in the morning for a hot cup of coffee and a donut or muffin. John thought this was an opportunity to start a business where he would make the donuts and muffins for these diners.
In 1951,he rented a two-room space on Eagle Street and purchased a fryolator and an oven. Many of Neville's Donut Shop's first customers stopped in for 1/2 a doz donuts on their way to work; others were entrepeneurs who had their own baked goods trucks who delivered pies, bread, donuts and muffins to homes along a route. Neville's had their own deliveries to the diners and business offices for their meetings, and to cafeterias in many of the mills, where employers could get something to eat on their breaks.
