George Huntington Hartford

Birth Name:

Birth Date:

September 5, 1833

Birth Place:

Augusta, Maine

Death Date:

August 29, 1917

Place of Death:

Spring Lake, New Jersey

Age:

Cause of Death:

Natural Causes

Cemetery Name:

Rosedale Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

Business and Finance

George Huntington Hartford headed The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P Super Market from 1878 to 1917. During this period, A&P created the concept of the chain grocery store and expanded into the country's largest retailer. By 1930, A&P operated approximately 16,000 stores and became the first retailer to report combined revenue of US$1 billion. By 1950, of every dollar the U.S. spends on food, about 10¢ is passed over A&P counters—a massive yearly total of $2.9 billion. Next to General Motors, the A&P sold more goods than any other company in the world. Unfortunately the last 25 years of A&P were not kind as they made one bad business decision after another and after 156 years in business, they closed the doors for good in 2015.

Fun Facts

Grandson George Huntington Hartford II was born April 18, 1911, in New York, and given the name of his grandfather, a tea merchant who founded the company that his sons would expand into a chain of full-service supermarkets. After graduating from Harvard University, Mr. Hartford – who had an annual income of $1.5 million from his grandfather’s estate – joined the New York-based family company, expecting to be placed in upper management. Instead, his two uncles, who ran the company, assigned him to a rank-and-file role monitoring sales of bread and pound cake. “I had an income of over a million dollars a year. Can you imagine me sitting out with a bunch of clerks?” Mr. Hartford told author Lisa Gubernick for her 1991 biography, “Squandered Fortune.” His uncles fired him after six months, and Mr. Hartford became a man of leisure – sailing, partying in New York’s best clubs, and surrounding himself with drugs, women and alcohol.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Rosedale Cemetery

408 Orange Road

Montclair, New Jersey, 07042

USA

North America

Map:

Cemetery Map of Rosedale Cemetery in Montclair, New Jersey

Grave Location:

Plot 42, Lot 8

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery take the first right and drive a short distance until you see the white “Hartford” mausoleum (no relation). Make a sharp left with the Hartford mausoleum on your right and drive 200 feet and park. On your right you will see the massive 4-column mausoleum that is the final resting place of George Huntington Hartford and his wife Marie. Note none of the plots are marked so … good luck!