From hull to home: The Kirby family's 169 year legacy in paint

If George Kirby IV is particular about paint, he has good reason for it ­– his name is on the label and it has been for the past 169 years.

“My slogan is 'my name’s on the can, my can’s on the line,'” said George IV, a Rochester resident.

As the seventh (possibly eighth generation) Kirby to run the George Kirby Jr. Paint Company in New Bedford, he practically has the signature copper marine enamel coursing through his veins.

George IV took over from his dad a year and a half ago, and with his wife, Shari, is bringing the family business into the 21^st century.

George IV, his father, George III, and his grandfather, you guessed it, George the II, all grew up in Rochester, but the family business has always been based in New Bedford. Originally on the waterfront, George Kirby Jr. started the company as Kirby Paint & Colorworks in 1846, selling marine paint to protect wooden whaling ship hulls.

By 1879, the company had developed a popular copper bottom paint that was shipped from New Bedford to California and beyond. That recipe hasn’t changed much since the 19^th century, though the company has undergone hardships.

The original building on the New Bedford waterfront. Photo courtesy: George Kirby IV

In 1887, the original building on Wall Street burned down. It was rebuilt and sustained two major hurricanes before the city forced the Kirbys to move in the 1970s to make way for Route 18.

The city placed the business in a much smaller facility, an old brick dairy building miles from the water. The relocation came at a price. No longer in the hub of marine life and now tucked away on Mt. Vernon Street, the company relied heavily on the customers it had built up for generations and word of mouth. New Bedford’s fishing industry also suffered, which trickled down to business built on marine paint.

Most of the company’s current sales come from outside the New Bedford area, but the couple wants to tap into the local customer base, providing an alternative to impersonal big box stores.

“Local is where we’re trying to reestablish ourselves. Local used to be our bread and butter,” said George IV, who has spent most of his life at the shop.

Aside from a stint in the Air Force, where he met Shari, he has worked at the paint store. When his father retired, Kirby had no hesitation about taking over.

“I’ve always just felt like it’s what I was supposed to do,” he said.

Shari, who previously worked in insurance in between staying home with the couple's four kids, came on board to work in the office and to help revamp the shop to make it more customer-friendly.

They are doing that, in part, with the same reliable, top-secret marine paint recipe that has been passed through seven generations of Kirby fathers and sons and uncles.

In addition to the marine paint, appropriate for wooden hulls and decks, the company also debuted a new line of 100 percent acrylic interior and exterior house paint. The new, high quality paint is something customers have requested for years, but it is also intended to draw in new people.

“It’s kind of a build it and they will come attitude,” George IV said.

He has no doubt that the product itself will pass muster.

“Usually once I can get paint in people’s hands, they become a customer. It’s good paint, a fair price. When people use it they like it.”

Other popular paint brands as well as all the supplies needed to paint a house or hull are available at the shop as are pine tar and deck oil. The Kirbys added fiberglass to their offerings as well.

“We have everything any paint contractor would need to paint a house, paint cement floors, paint metal,” George IV said.

But as both a retailer and an on-site manufacturer, the Kirbys’ offer something almost unheard of – an old-fashioned paint store experience.

Using century-old machinery, the paint is mixed in the back rooms using pretty much the same techniques as that of Kirbys past. In addition to their own paint colors, such as warship gray, see red and colonial yellow, the Kirbys can match any shade.

Made-to order is the company’s “big niche,” said George IV. “There aren’t many places that will custom make your paint for you.”

Mini paddles showcase the Kirby's signature paint colors. Photo by: Georgia Sparling

Plus nothing beats the fact that the people you meet in the store or speak with on the phone, including George III's first cousin Bill, are the same ones whose name is on the can.

“There aren’t too many people that can say, ‘I met the person that made the paint that’s on my house,’” said Shari. “Literally the guy you talk to when you order is the guy who carried the ingredients and mixed your paint for you.”

Now they just need to get people in the door. It’s not that the George Kirby Jr. Paint Company is hard to find, but it’s not necessarily a place one would stumble across. Kirby IV and Shari hope that advertising, attending trade shows, and the new, large hand-painted signs on the building’s exterior will draw in customers and highlight the fact that they are not only a manufacturer but also a store.

“That’s our goal,” Kirby said, “To let people know we are still here and going strong.”

Adding the next generation of Kirbys to the payroll will help. Next spring George IV and Shari plan to welcome the eldest of their four children, George V, to the business.

Ultimately, such additions and modernizations are what will preserve the legacy built over the past 169 years of the George Kirby Jr. Paint Company, one not only of a product, but of a family.

Said Shari, “It’s not just a business, it’s a heritage for him.”

George Kirby Jr. Paint Company is located at 163 Mt. Vernon St, New Bedford. For more information, call 508-997-9008 or visit kirbypaint.com.