{{Short description|American businessman and politician (1878–1958)}} {{Infobox officeholder |image=Alvan Tufts Fuller circa 1920.jpg |caption=Fuller circa 1920 |order1=50th |office1= Governor of Massachusetts |term_start1= January 8, 1925 |term_end1= January 3, 1929 |lieutenant1= Frank G. Allen |predecessor1= Channing H. Cox |successor1= Frank G. Allen |order2 = 48th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts |term_start2 = January 6, 1921 |term_end2 = January 8, 1925 |governor2 = Channing H. Cox |predecessor2 = Channing H. Cox |successor2 = Frank G. Allen |state3=Massachusetts |district3 ={{ushr|MA|9|9th}} |term_start3 = March 4, 1917 |term_end3 = January 5, 1921 |predecessor3 = Ernest W. Roberts |successor3 = Charles L. Underhill |office4 = Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives |term4 = 1914–1917 |birth_name=Alvan Tufts Fuller |birth_date= {{birth date|1878|2|27|mf=y}} |birth_place=Charlestown, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |death_date= {{death date and age |1958|04|30|1878|02|27}} |death_place=Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |spouse=Viola Theresa Davenport |children=4, including Peter D. Fuller |profession=Motor Car Dealer |party=Republican<br />Progressive }} '''Alvan Tufts Fuller''' (February 27, 1878 – April 30, 1958) was an American businessman, politician, art collector, and philanthropist from Massachusetts. He opened one of the first automobile dealerships in Massachusetts, which in 1920 was recognized as "the world's most successful auto dealership",<ref name=ffoundbio/> and made him one of the state's wealthiest men. Politically a Progressive Republican, he was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1916, and served as a United States representative from 1917 to 1921.
From 1925 to 1929 Fuller was the 50th governor of Massachusetts, continuing the fiscally conservative and socially moderate policies of his predecessors. In 1927 he was enveloped in the international controversy surrounding the trial and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, Italian immigrant anarchists convicted of robbery and murder. Fuller's handling of the affair, in which both domestic and international sources sought clemency for the two, effectively ended his political career.
Fuller was an avid collector of art, some of which has since been donated to museums in eastern New England, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He founded the Fuller Foundation, a charity that supports a variety of causes in eastern Massachusetts and the seacoast region of New Hampshire. Fuller Gardens, founded by him in North Hampton, New Hampshire, are now open to the public.<ref name=ffoundbio/>
==Early years== Alvan Tufts Fuller was born in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston on February 27, 1878, to working-class parents,<ref name=Clarke48/> Alvan Bond and Flora Arabella (Tufts) Fuller.<ref name=Herman208/><ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AU4LAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Son+of+Alvan+Bond+and+Flora+Arabella+(+Tufts+)+Fuller%22 | title=The Minute Man | year=1927 }}</ref> His family moved to Malden, Massachusetts, when he was still a child. He first worked in a rubber factory, repairing bicycles on the side. To promote his bicycle business he raced, winning local events.<ref name=Clarke48>Clarke, p. 48</ref> He also engaged in a practice, shared by other bicycle shops in the area, of holding an open house on the Washington's Birthday holiday.<ref name=howyoung>{{cite news|last=DeMarco|first=Peter|title=On Presidents' Day, hail to the chief salesman|newspaper=Boston Globe|date=February 19, 2012|url=https://archive.boston.com/news/local/articles/2012/02/19/how_young_malden_entrepreneur_alvan_t_fuller_may_have_launched_presidents_day_car_sales/|access-date=2016-03-30}}</ref> Through an entirely paternal line Alvan T. Fuller was descended from English Puritan settler Captain Matthew Fuller.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=78tMAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA276|title = Genealogy of Some Descendants of Captain Matthew Fuller, John Fuller of Newton, John Fuller of Lynn, John Fuller of Ipswich, Robert Fuller of Dorchester and Dedham: To which is Added Supplements to Volume I: Genealogy of Some Descendants of Edward Fuller of the Mayflower, and Volume II: Some Descendants of Dr. Samuel Fuller of the Mayflower|year = 1914|publisher = compiler}}</ref> He was also distantly related to Benjamin Franklin.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Family relationship of Benjamin Franklin and Alvan T. Fuller via Josiah Franklin. |url=https://famouskin.com/famous-kin-chart.php?name=8453+benjamin+franklin&kin=172692+alvan+t+fuller&via=8454+josiah+franklin |access-date=2024-10-24 |website=famouskin.com}}</ref>
==Automotive business empire== Enamored by the new automobile, Fuller sold his racing trophies to finance a trip to Europe in 1899, where he learned more about the automobile industry.<ref name=Clarke48/> He acquired two cars (French De Dion-Bouton ''voiturette''s),<ref name=Herman208/> and had them shipped to Boston; they were the first motor vehicles brought in through that port.<ref name=Clarke48/> In 1903 he was awarded the Boston franchise for selling Packards,<ref name=Einstein32>Einstein, p. 32</ref> and later also acquired the local Cadillac franchise.<ref name=Clarke48/>
[[Image:1900 De Dion Bouton (5924973709).jpg|thumb|left|A 1900 De Dion-Bouton Vis-à-Vis]] Fuller was enormously successful in the automobile business, extending his sales reach as far west as Worcester and south to Providence, Rhode Island. He opened his first dealership on Commonwealth Avenue in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, then a largely undeveloped area known by sheer coincidence as Packard's Corner, after the owner of a nearby livery yard.<ref name=Clarke48/> He was, however, soon followed by other auto dealers, creating the Boston area's first auto row.<ref>Clarke, pp. 48–49</ref> Fuller was a significant factor in the success of Packard sales on the east coast,<ref name=Einstein32/> and was in 1920 dubbed the world's most successful car dealer.<ref name=ffoundbio>{{cite web|url=http://fullerfoundation.org/about/|title=About the founder|date=26 May 2015|publisher=Fuller Foundation|access-date=2016-03-30}}</ref> In 1927 he began construction on a new building at 808 Commonwealth Avenue. Designed by the noted industrial architect Albert Kahn, it became the flagship showroom for his Cadillac dealership. It is now owned by Boston University, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.<ref name=MACRIS>{{cite web|url=https://mhc-macris.net/details?mhcid=bkl.1755|title=MACRIS inventory record for Peter Fuller Building|publisher=Commonwealth of Massachusetts|access-date=2017-02-28}}</ref>
As a car dealer, Fuller continued the practice of holding Washington's Birthday open houses, but the scale of events he staged was significantly more elaborate, and he is generally credited with popularizing the idea of the President's Day car sale that is now common in the United States.<ref name=howyoung/>
==Political career==
===Congress=== Fuller became interested in politics around 1912, supporting Theodore Roosevelt in his Bull Moose presidential bid. He refused the Progressive Party nomination for Governor of Massachusetts in 1912, but won election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1914 under its banner.<ref name=Herman208>Herman, p. 208</ref> Joining the Republican Party in 1916, he served as a delegate to its convention in 1916. The same year, he ran for the United States House of Representatives as an independent, winning a 16-vote victory over longtime incumbent Republican Ernest W. Roberts.<ref name=Gentile540>Gentile, p. 540</ref> He served two terms, in the Sixty-fifth and Sixty-sixth Congresses, from March 4, 1917, to January 5, 1921,<ref name=timeobit>{{cite news|newspaper=Time|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,863430,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090422055018/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,863430,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 22, 2009|title=Milestones, May 12, 1958|access-date=2010-06-24}}</ref> winning election to the second term by a wider margin as a Republican.<ref name=Gentile540/>
Fuller was an outspoken proponent of reform within Congress, and as a matter of principle never cashed paychecks he received for his public service, or used the Congressional franking privilege.<ref name=Gentile540/> He criticized the inefficient means by which legislation made its way through Congress, calling it "the most expensive barnacle that ever attached itself to the ship of state."<ref name=gc58>''Guide to Congress'', p. 58</ref> Criticisms such as these prompted President Woodrow Wilson to introduce a new and more centralized budgeting system in 1919.<ref name=gc58/> Reforms Fuller proposed included a number of steps designed to increase transparency and reduce opportunities for political influence within the operations of Congress.<ref>Haines, p. 12</ref>
[[Image:Channing H Cox.png|thumb|right|upright|Governor Channing Cox]] In 1920, Fuller ran for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, and won two terms, serving as the 48th lieutenant governor from 1921 to 1925 alongside Governor Channing Cox. His principal opposition in both elections was in the Republican primary, where he was pitted against the Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Joseph E. Warner.<ref name=Gentile540/> The Democrats were then relatively disorganized and lacking effective leadership, and were unable to counter the basic Republican message of "economy and sound administration" that had characterized recent elections.<ref>Huthmacher, p. 49</ref>
===Governor=== Fuller was elected the 50th governor in 1924<ref>Huthmacher, p. 111</ref> after Cox decided not run for reelection.<ref>{{cite news|title=Uncertainty in Massachusetts|newspaper=New York Times|date=May 6, 1924}}</ref> The 1924 election was against the colorful Mayor of Boston James Michael Curley. Fuller's campaign rhetoric focused on the excesses of what it called "Curleyism", which it likened to a "graft-ridden spending spree".<ref>Huthmacher, p. 106</ref> Curley attempted to tie Fuller to the Ku Klux Klan, but his charges were exposed as meritless{{spaced ndash}}Fuller's wife was Roman Catholic (a group the Klan disliked), and Fuller was known to have contributed to Catholic charities.<ref name=Gentile540/> Fuller was reelected by a substantial majority in 1926 over William A. Gaston, in a campaign dominated by Democratic calls for reform of Prohibition.<ref>Huthmacher, p. 145</ref> As he had while in Congress, Fuller refused compensation for his services.<ref>{{cite news|title=Fuller Explains Refusal of Salary|date=September 20, 1926 |newspaper=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1926/09/20/archives/fuller-explains-refusal-of-salary-bay-state-governor-says-duty.html|access-date=July 24, 2010}}</ref>
Fuller was viewed as a law and order pro-death penalty governor and a fiscal conservative. He was, like his predecessors, a social moderate, enacting modest reforms in areas such as automobile insurance.<ref name=Gentile5401>Gentile, pp. 540-541</ref>
[[Image:Sacco e Vanzetti.PNG|thumb|left|Police mug shots of Sacco and Vanzetti]] Fuller's tenure as governor coincided with the Sacco and Vanzetti case, a series of trials for murder and robbery followed by legal appeals that culminated in domestic and international calls for the governor to either grant a new trial, or to commute the death sentences, of the two Italian immigrants active in anarchist political circles. He appointed a three-member panel, consisting of Harvard President Abbott Lawrence Lowell, MIT President Dr. Samuel W. Stratton, and retired Probate Judge Robert Grant to conduct a complete review of the case and determine if the trials were fair.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1927/06/02/archives/appoints-advisers-for-sacco-inquiry-fuller-picks-exjudge-grant.html|title=Appoints Advisers for Sacco Inquiry|date=June 2, 1927|access-date=2010-01-06}}</ref> The committee reported that no new trial was called for and based on that assessment Governor Fuller refused to delay their executions or grant clemency. On May 10, 1927, while Fuller was considering requests for clemency, a package bomb addressed to him was intercepted in the Boston post office.<ref>Watson, pp. 303-4</ref> A few months after the executions, he endorsed proposals to reform the state's judicial procedures to require a more thorough review of capital cases.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=New York Times|url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0D1FFC3A5B127A93C7A9178AD85F4C8285F9|title=Fuller Urges Change in Criminal Appeals|date=January 5, 1928|access-date=2010-06-22}}</ref> The episode led to Fuller being characterized in the international press as provincial, and the controversy surrounding the cases and criticism of his handling of it (which was widely seen to exacerbate rather than diminish political tensions) effectively ended his hopes for higher office.<ref name=Gentile541>Gentile, p. 541</ref> ''New York Times'' reporter Louis Stark repeated a widely held belief that Fuller's decision to deny clemency was motivated by a desire to succeed Calvin Coolidge in the presidency, but there is no substantive evidence to corroborate this idea, beyond the coincident timing of Coolidge's announced decision not run in 1928 and Fuller's decision.<ref>Neville, p. 109</ref><ref>Temkin, pp. 84-86</ref> In 1930, Fuller stated in an interview that he was more concerned about the political activities of the two men and their supporters, which he saw as a threat to order and security of the United States.<ref>Temkin, p. 84</ref> When Fuller was offered a print edition of ''The Letters of Sacco and Vanzetti'' in 1929 at the inauguration of his successor, he deliberately threw it to the ground.<ref>Temkin, p. 288</ref>
In 1928, Fuller was an early supporter of Herbert Hoover's presidential campaign, after considering his own run for the presidency,<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1928/01/29/archives/bay-staters-cast-fullers-hatin-ring-governors-friends-see-in-him-a.html|first=F. Lauriston|last=Bullard|title=Bay Staters Cast Fuller's Hat in Ring|date=January 29, 1928|access-date=2010-06-24}}</ref> and was briefly considered as a candidate for vice president. He was dropped from consideration because, as Republican Senator William Borah put it, "The Republican Party cannot afford to spend the summer debating the Sacco-Vanzetti case."<ref>Jouhgin and Morgan, p. 314</ref> His handling of the case was seen to reduce support for the ticket among immigrant communities.<ref name=Gentile541/> He was dropped from consideration by the Hoover administration for consideration as United States Ambassador to France after the French government indicated it could not guarantee his safety due to the Sacco-Vanzetti affair.<ref name=Gentile541/> (When the controversy was at its height in 1927, the Fullers had traveled to France, and the French government had secretly provided heightened security around their movements.)<ref>Neville, p. 76</ref> Fuller considered running for Senate in 1930 and Governor in 1934, but dropped out of the primaries in those races. In 1933, he was appointed by the Public Works Administration (PWA) to a board overseeing the distribution of PWA funds in Massachusetts. He was again considered as a vice presidential nominee in 1932, but ran well back in the convention balloting.<ref name=Gentile541/>
==Later years== After leaving office, Fuller returned to his automotive business, serving as chairman of the board of Cadillac-Oldsmobile Co. of Boston. In 1949 he dropped the Packard dealership, and focused exclusively on the Cadillac and Oldsmobile brands.<ref name=Gentile541/>
Fuller was a philanthropist and art collector, serving as a trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA). Painters represented in his collection included Renoir,<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Museum of Fine Arts|url=http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/boating-couple-said-to-be-aline-charigot-and-renoir--33686|title=Alvan Fuller Renoir's Boating Couple|access-date=2017-02-28}}</ref> Rembrandt, Turner, Gainsborough, Sargent, Monet, van Dyck, Romney, Boccaccino,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/shepherd-boy-playing-bagpipes-33696|title=Alvan Fuller donates Boccaccino's Shepherd Boy Playing Bagpipes|publisher=Museum of Fine Arts|access-date=2017-02-28}}</ref> Boucher and Reynolds. Paintings that he and his successors donated to the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the MFA include: Monet's "The Water Lily Pond," Renoir's "Boating Couple," and van Dyck's "Princess Mary, Daughter of Charles I."<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Museum of Fine Arts|title=Fuller donates van Dyck|url=http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/princess-mary-daughter-of-charles-i-33684|access-date=2017-02-28}}</ref> His philanthropy was wide-ranging and included art, hospitals, education, religion, municipalities and social services.<ref name=Gentile541/> He established The Fuller Foundation, Inc., during his lifetime; still in operation, it supports many charitable agencies in the Greater Boston area and the Seacoast Region of New Hampshire.<ref name=ffoundbio/>
Fuller died in Boston on April 30, 1958.<ref name=timeobit/> He was interred in East Cemetery (also known as the Little River Cemetery) in North Hampton, New Hampshire, where he had a summer home.<ref name=nytrun>{{cite news|newspaper=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1928/06/26/archives/gov-fuller-wont-run-talked-of-for-cabinet-as-allen-seeks-bay-state.html|title=Gov. Fuller Won't Run|date=June 26, 1928|access-date=2010-06-24}}</ref> The summer property included a large garden that the Fullers developed, with landscape design guidance by Arthur Shurtleff and the Olmsted Brothers. It is now open to the public seasonally.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fullergardens.org/about-fuller-gardens/garden-history/|title=Garden History|date=24 May 2013|publisher=Fuller Gardens|access-date=2017-02-28}}</ref>
==Family and legacy== Fuller married Viola Theresa Davenport of Somerville in Paris in 1910, with whom he had four children, two boys and two girls. She had a brief career as an opera singer, performing in Paris and then debuting in Boston in 1910. She died in 1959.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=New York Times|url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0917FC3958137B93C7A91783D85F4D8585F9|title=Mrs. Alvan Fuller Dies|date=August 5, 1959|access-date=2010-06-24}}</ref>
Peter D. Fuller, his youngest son, was an avid supporter of civil rights and continued the family auto business. He was the owner of Dancer's Image, the horse that won the 1968 Kentucky Derby,<ref>{{cite news|last=Tower|first=Whitney|title=And The Last Was First |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1081157/1/index.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130410173037/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1081157/1/index.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 10, 2013 |access-date=March 9, 2013|newspaper=Sports Illustrated|date=May 13, 1968}}</ref> but was disqualified because a drug banned in Kentucky was found via a post-race urine test. Fuller subsequently lost a four-year legal battle to retain the Kentucky Derby title and prize money.<ref name=martin>{{cite news|last=Martin|first=Douglas|title=Peter D. Fuller Dies at 89; Had to Return Derby Purse |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/sports/peter-d-fuller-dies-at-89-had-to-return-derby-purse.html|access-date=March 9, 2013 |newspaper=New York Times|date=May 19, 2012}}</ref> Fuller also owned Mom's Command, the American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly in 1985 that was ridden in most races by Fuller's daughter Abigail.
Fuller's automobile dealership, established with license #1, continues to be operated within the family. Now dealing in rentals and used vehicles, it has locations in Watertown and Waltham, Massachusetts.<ref name=about>{{cite web|url=http://www.peterfuller.com/about-peter-fuller/|title=About Peter Fuller|publisher=Peter Fuller Rentals & Pre-Owned|access-date=2016-03-29}}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Biography}} * 1915 Massachusetts legislature
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==Sources== *{{cite book|title=Guide to Congress, Seventh Edition, Volume 1|publisher=Congressional Quarterly Press|year=2013|location=Thousand Oaks, CA|isbn=9781452235325|oclc=815668911}} *{{cite book|last=Clarke|first=Theodore|title=Brookline, Allston-Brighton, and the Renewal of Boston|publisher=History Press|year=2010|location=Charleston, SC|isbn=9781609491857|oclc=681534964}} *{{cite book|last=Einstein|first=Arthur Jr.|title="Ask the Man Who Owns One": An Illustrated History of Packard Advertising|year=2010|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, NC|isbn=9780786456611|oclc=667274241}} *{{cite encyclopedia |last=Gentile|first=Richard H |title=Fuller, Alvan Tufts |encyclopedia=Dictionary of American National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press |volume=8 |location=New York |pages=540–541 |year=1999 |isbn=9780195206357|oclc=39182280}} *{{cite journal|last=Haines|first=Lynne|title=Making Congress Function: An Interview With Alvan T. Fuller|journal=The Searchlight|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iCo4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA12|date=May 1919}} *{{cite book|last=Herman|first=Jennifer|title=Massachusetts Encyclopedia|publisher=State History Publications|year=2008|isbn=9781878592651|oclc=198759722|location=Hamburg, MI}} *{{cite book|last=Huthmacher|first=J. Joseph|title=Massachusetts People and Politics, 1919-1933|url=https://archive.org/details/massachusettspeo0000huth|url-access=registration|publisher=Belknap Press|location=Cambridge, MA|year=1959|oclc=460668046}} *{{cite book|last1=Joughlin|first1=Louis|last2=Morgan|first2=Edmund M|title=The Legacy of Sacco and Vanzetti|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, NJ|year=1978|isbn=9781400868650|oclc=908042195|orig-year=1948|url=https://archive.org/details/legacyofsaccovan0000joug}} *{{cite book|last=Neville|first=John|title=Twentieth-century Cause Cèlébre: Sacco, Vanzetti, and the Press, 1920-1927|publisher=Praeger|year=2004|location=Westport, CT|isbn=9780275977832|oclc=237853843}} *{{cite book|last=Temkin|first=Moshik|title=The Sacco-Vanzetti Affair: America on Trial|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven, CT|year=2009|isbn=9780300156171|oclc=586143213|url=https://archive.org/details/saccovanzettiaff0000temk}} *{{cite book|last=Watson|first=Bruce|title=Sacco and Vanzetti: The Men, the Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind|url=https://archive.org/details/saccovanzettimen00wats|url-access=registration|location=New York|publisher=Viking Press|year=2007|isbn=9780670063536}}
==External links== {{commons category}} * {{CongBio|F000405}} * [http://fullerfoundation.org/ Fuller Foundation web site] * [http://www.fullergardens.org/ Fuller Gardens web site] * [http://www.peterfuller.com/ Peter Fuller Rentals & Pre-Owned web site]
{{S-start}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|rows=2|before=Channing H. Cox}} {{s-ttl|title=Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts|years=1920, 1922}} {{s-aft|rows=2|after=Frank G. Allen}} {{s-ttl|title=Republican nominee for Governor of Massachusetts|years=1924, 1926}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state=Massachusetts | district=9 | before=Ernest W. Roberts | after= Charles L. Underhill | years=March 4, 1917 – January 5, 1921 }} {{s-off}} {{succession box | before=Channing H. Cox | title=Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts | years=1921–1925 | after=Frank G. Allen }} {{succession box | before=Channing H. Cox | title= Governor of Massachusetts | years= 1925–1929 | after= Frank G. Allen}} {{S-end}}
{{Governors of Massachusetts}} {{Lieutenant Governors of Massachusetts}} {{USRepMA}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuller, Alvan T.}} Category:1878 births Category:1958 deaths Category:Politicians from Boston Category:Businesspeople from Boston Category:Republican Party governors of Massachusetts Category:Lieutenant governors of Massachusetts Category:Republican Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Category:Republican Party United States representatives from Massachusetts Category:Corporate executives in the automotive industry Category:American company founders Category:Philanthropists from Massachusetts Category:20th-century American art collectors Category:People from North Hampton, New Hampshire Category:People from Charlestown, Boston Category:Automobile salespeople from Massachusetts Category:20th-century United States representatives Category:20th-century members of the Massachusetts General Court Category:American people of English descent