Mann Orchards is the oldest business in Methuen.  We have been farming since 1877.  Started by Charles Mann in the early fall of 1877, the farm was later taken over by his son, Charles Mann Jr. in 1924.  Then in the mid 1950's Charles Jr.'s daughter Ruth and her husband Donald started to help Charles Jr. run the farm.  Around this time Ruth started to make her now famous Apple Pies.  Ruth started to make her pies to allow the couple to purchase a bed for their middle child, William. 

  
William, or as he is really known as "Bill", always showed a love for the trees and the wonderful fruits that they produced.  Bill worked side by side with is father and grandfather over the next 20 years to help not only the farm grows, but the business as well.  In August of 1973, the "team" of Charles Jr., Don and Bill, moved into Mann's previous location at 65 Pleasant Valley Street.  It was here that Bill was able to raise his two boys the same way he had been raised by his father, working side by side.

In the early 1980's, Bill and his wife Kathy married and together joined Don and Ruth in running the orchard and farm stand.  Over the next 15 years the business went through many changes.  The bakery expanded to help meet the demand for fresh, home-made baked goods and the fields started to grow a wider variety of products, such as tomatoes and hardy mums in the fall.

Today the business has grown so much so that we have left our home of over 30 years at 65 Pleasant Valley St in Methuen, for a new bigger home right down that street at 27 Pleasant Valley Street still in Methuen.  This is a very big step for the business as well as the Fitzgerald Family.  Bill and Kathy's sons Josh and Matt are very excited about the move and the opportunity to build the business again, just like their father Bill and Grandfather Don did over 30 years ago.