Destination Watertown: The Armenians of Hood Rubber by Roger Hagopian.

This documentary is about the Hood Rubber Company of Watertown, Mass., which employed many immigrants, including many Armenians, whose community evolved in the shadow of the factory’s giant smokestack. Indeed, the plant provided the impetus for the formation of the Armenian community of Watertown.

The plant opened in 1896, attracting Armenian immigrants newly-arrived from the Ottoman Empire, including refugees from the Hamidean Massacres of the mid-1890s.

Hood Rubber became a subsidiary of B. F. Goodrich in 1929, and the factory survived the great Depression and thrived during World War II. It closed in 1969.

Director Roger Hagopian has conducted extensive research and carried out numerous interviews with former factory employees of Armenian descent as well as other East Watertown residents and descendants of the Hood family. The documentary combines interview footage with historic photographs, maps, documents, artifacts and images of the remnants of the old factory, once one of the largest of its kind in the world.

Workers recount life on the conveyor belt and other harsh working conditions, yet many remember their time at the plant with gratitude, affections and humor. Others fondly remember the famous “sneaker” test whereby the durability of the product was demonstrated through daily activities of local kids.