Ray Hubbell came to Northville as a five-year-old in 1854 when his parents moved there to enter the lumber business. His father, Sheldon Hubbell, built a sawmill along the river and lived there for 21 years before the family moved to Third Street in 1875 after the sawmill burned for the second time. Ray attended Troy Business College and entered the mercantile business in 1871, married Emily Beecher in 1873, and their only son, Frank Hubbell, was born in 1877. In 1879 Ray began producing brass corners for oil cloth, using a process he had learned in a blacksmith shop on Bridge Street, and soon built a factory at the corner of 2nd Street and Bridge Street. He became a well-known businessman who at one time operated two Globe Metallic Binding Company factories in Northville and two more outside New York. The Hubbell Glove Factory, built in 1880 by Stephen Acker and owned by Ray Hubbell and James Cole, later became known for the chimney where Chimney Swifts roosted in summer. The factory owned by Ray Hubbell burned in 1890 and was rebuilt with the tall chimney the swifts later used as their home, and the new factory burned again in 1918, leaving the chimney vacant. Each year the Chimney Swifts returned around May 6 from the Amazon, flying more than 5000 miles to Northville for breeding season and staying about 15 weeks, and their return became a major local event. People gathered from around the area to watch the birds circle the chimney and dive into it for the night, and this annual celebration continued from 1958 until structural problems led to the chimney's removal in 2013.