Recently, our company celebrated it’s 50th anniversary. All of us in the Central Cooling “family” realize what a big milestone this is, and we’re thankful to our founders Doug and Carol Hamilton and to all the people who have helped our company becomes a success.
Wondering how Central Cooling got started? Here’s a brief history:
In 1966, a young sheet metal worker named Douglas Hamilton, Sr., decided to take the biggest gamble of his life and open his own heating and air conditioning business. For his first job, Doug installed a humidifier in a Lynn home for $35.
During their first three years in business, Doug and his wife Carol worked out of their basement, but in 1969 they moved their young company to and old barn in Reading. A few years later the barn burned to the ground, but with the help from friends Doug and Carole were able to continue to run their business.
In 1978 Central Cooling and Heating moved to the first of several Woburn locations. As the company grew, it continued to move to larger space, eventually settling in its current location in 1987.
In 1981 Doug hired Ed Pollack out of college to manage a fledgling insulation business, of which Doug was part owner. In 1983 Doug made the decision that he needed to concentrate all of his time on Central Cooling and Heating. He closed the insulation business and Ed was brought over to Central Cooling as a salesman.
Doug realized how important it was to provide excellent on-call service to his increasing number of customers, and in 1994 he asked Ed to become a partner in the company to help manage and build the service department.
Doug, Sr. retired in 2001, leaving his two sons Doug, Jr. and Darren to run the business with Ed.
In 2015, 32 years after Doug had closed down that original insulation business, the company launched a new division: Central Home Energy Experts, which provided a variety of energy-efficiency services including home insulation.
In 2016, Ed retired from Central, noting with irony that he came to the company to manage an insulation business only to spend his career in HVAC, then retire soon after the company started insulating again.
Through both the good times and bad times, Central Cooling and Heating has been successful because of the core values and solid foundation established early on by Doug and Carol.
We thank all —including customers and partner businesses — who have contributed to our growth over the past 50 years. We would especially like to thank our hard-working and dedicated employees who have helped make the company a success, and we look forward to another half-century of dedicated service to our customers.