The previous headquarters building still stands on the southwest corner of State and Main streets.
MassMutual established its first agents training school at the home office in 1939.
SPRINGFIELD – When MassMutual Financial Group started 160 years ago it had one employee in one rented room, handwritten records on what looks today like tissue paper and the average life expectancy of its insurance customers was 38 years.
Today, the average life expectancy is 78, soon to be 80 years of age, said John W. Chandler Jr., senior vice president and chief marketing officer for MassMutual.
The company, still headquartered in Springfield, is celebrating its 160th anniversary Sunday, May 15 with an interactive timeline on its website, www.massmutual.com, that will go live the next day, Monday the 16.
There will also be advertisements in The Republican and The Wall Street Journal and a fresh effort to archive MassMutual’s holdings at the Wood Museum of Springfield History.
Guy A. McLain, director of the Wood Museum of Springfield History, said MassMutual’s Archive is a bonanza, particularly of photographs. That includes a photo of Caleb Rice, the first president of MassMutual and the first Mayor of Springfield when it became a city in 1852.
A MassMutual newspaper ad from 1888, encouraging readers to "provide a future support for those who depend on your now strong arm."
“MassMutual executives played many early important roles in Springfield. The company is very entwined with the history of Springfield, McLain said. “They built the first steel-frame skyscraper in the city. A lot of people don’t know that MassMutual was headquartered downtown for many years.”
The previous headquarters building still stands on the southwest corner of State and Main streets, Chandler said. The company outgrew it in 1925 and built the current headquarters on State Street on the site of a huge brewery that had been shuttered by Prohibition.
Historic materials will go on display at company headquarters as well as at the museum, McLain said.
Chandler outlined the changes over the years.
When it began, MassMutual had an excess capital of about $5,000. Today, that figure is $10 billion. It had 341 policies in force. Today it has 99,000 policies in force, some have been active for more than 50 years.
MassMutual’s core business of whole-life insurance policies has changed very little over the years, Chandler said. The company is also still a mutual company, owned by its policy holders.
“Lots of companies were founded and lots of companies disappeared,” he said.
The Springfield headquarters for MassMutual on State StreetMassMutual now has more than 10,000 total employees. There have been cutbacks. MassMutual laid off 75 information technology employees last week.
But Chandler said the company has to find a balance: taking care of employees versus cutting cost and getting a good return for policy holders.
Since 1999, MassMutual has donated $54 million in philanthropy focused on education and neighborhood betterment including $7 million last year.
McLain said MassMutual donated $300,000 to the museum in exchange for naming rights to the lobby.