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Stephen Howe - Owner of Howe & Bassett They say it's better to be lucky than good. I'm fortunate to be both! I've been lucky since I was a Baby Boomer born at 11:11 & weighed 7lb. 7oz. I don't remember if my length was lucky. The 7-11 franchise thing was just gravy. Bob & Dor put me through Catholic School and allowed me to hitch-hike to and from McQuaid every day. I'm not sure they knew I was hitch-hiking. They may have been watching the other 9 kids. No, they are exceptional parents that still are in my daily life. I attended at least 2 colleges that I remember (it was the 70's) and then had fun washing dishes, parking cars, filling car batteries with acid (luckily jeans were more reasonable back then), repairing cars (like my Plymouth Fury, the Red Shark, my Mustang, the Green Hornet. I probably shouldn't shock you with my 3 children's names/nicknames.). My father finally brought me back to the wisdom and glamour
of being an apprentice plumber. It was my first experience with the
after-shower. You took one shower to just loosen up the grime and grit.
The 2nd shower made you feel like you could at least eat, but never
lick your fingers after chicken wings. I lead running tours of Mt. Hope Cemetery, I remodel 3/4 empty shopping malls on my lunch break. I translate ethnic slurs for oriental Eastman students at Java Joes. I write opera, I manage time efficiently, the laws of physics do not apply to me. Occasionally I'll walk the Appalachian Trail. In college, I wooed women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing. I can pilot a Fast Ferry & cook a 3 minute egg in 2 minutes, I am an aluminum kite expert and an outlaw in Peru. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Orioles. I am the subject of 7 medical essays. I enjoy urban hang-gliding. On Saturdays I repair vacuum cleaners for free. I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst and a ruthless bookie. I have been caller #9 and won backstage passes. I sleep once a week and then, upside down in my anti-gravity recliner. I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, my bills are paid by the CIA for that thing with the guy in the place. To let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. I don't perspire. In my Senior year at McQuaid I discovered the meaning of life, but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary 5-course meals using only a beaker and a microwave. I breed prize-winning clams. I have won bullfighting contests in San Juan. I have played Hamlet. I was Martha's 1st phone call. I have spoken to Elvis. But if I haven't earned you as a customer, I haven't tried hard enough. I will. – Stephen Howe |
Howe and Bassett Company History Over a century ago, the Howe & Bassett Company was established under the direction of Mr. J. Henry Howe and Mr. William T. Bassett. Both Mr. Howe and Mr. Bassett had been engaged in the business of plumbing and heating contracting previous to this time and so, in joining forces, became one of the largest firms in Upstate New York.
The founders continued on with their contracting business and became responsible for much of the work in their line throughout the state in both public and private buildings. Along with this type of work, they established relationships with the most reputable manufacturers of items in their trade — pipes, valves, fittings — and continued adding to these lines down through the years under the management of the second generation, Mr. Henry B. Howe. This second generation was responsible for the further growth and expansion of our Company along wholesale industrial lines as well as emphasizing our maintenance and repair service to the many factories and buildings in Rochester. Because of this expansion towards larger wholesale stocks of pipe, valves and fittings, Mr. Howe caused the Company to move to their University Avenue location (pictured above) where we were for 80 years. 2005 saw a move to more modern facilities in the Renaissance sic square area of Downtown.
In the early Howe & Bassett regularly issued catalogs of plumbing and heating parts and and distributed them throughout the northeast. We were a leading supplier of parts at that time. Howe & Bassett did the heating and plumbing for the U. S. Courthouse and Post Office in Norffolk Virginia. We built the steam plant on Randalls Island in New York. |
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