Sociology and politics often dictate migratory patterns. But for the Armenians of Watertown, Massachusetts, it was economics.

The beleaguered ethnic group found a working home at the Hood Rubber Company , which had opened in 1896 in the town , located six miles northwest of Boston. Until its closing in 1969, the factory offered employment and stability to Armenians fleeing from the Abdul Hamid massacres and the 1915 genocide.