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Nicholas Arakelian

The story of Nicholas Arakelian is one that would have made Horatio Alger proud. Fleeing Turkish oppression, the Arakelian family of Armenia boarded a French freighter of Marseilles in the 1890s. The family savings were spent, but the Salvation Army came to the rescue, contacting people in the United States who could help.

The Arakelians arrived in America in 1894, when Nicholas was 4 years old. The family moved from New York to Fall River to Malden, and then finally to Newburyport in 1895, where they settled on Merrimack Street. Nicholas’ father worked in a show factory while the kids went to school. That changed in 1905. The Merrimack Street house burned to the ground, with the elder Arakelian injured in the fire.  Nicholas had to leave grammar school to work at Fowle’s News in order to help his family.  It was the only place he ever worked.

The store was owned by Mrs. Stephen Hooper Fowle, a widow, whose son-in-law managed the store until 1907, when he moved out of Newburyport. Since Mrs. Fowle couldn’t handle the business alone, she gave Arakelian half. He bought the rest from her in 1920. 

When the federal government imposed the first income tax, Arakelian had to hire a bookkeeper. She was a high school student named Mary Alice Callahan. In 1993, the two married. For several years the Arakekians lived over their State Street shop.

Nicholas was a hard working progressive businessman who invested his money very well. The store, which boasts an art deco sign, was the first in the city to have air conditioning. And, in 1974, Nicholas led a campaign to buy Towle Manufacturing Company stock so it wouldn’t be taken over by a Rhode Island company.

The couple never had children and Nicholas thought he would die before his wife, so he wouldn’t have to worry about what to do with the millions he amassed in his long career.  But in 1965, Mary Alice died. Nicholas set up the Mary Alice Arakelian Foundation, which did not become active until after Nicholas died in 1980.