What's in those containers??? Here's
    a site with a discussion about them
    and what they are usually filled with.
    Note to those who go to that page: I
    didn't smell anything from these.

    Mellen Street bridge over the Charles River. Here's a
    Milford News article about the possibility of rebuilding it. As
    I recall, the last time this was proposed, some years ago,
    Milford was in favor of it. Hopedale selectmen, however,
    opposed it because Mellen Street residents didn't want the
    large increase in traffic that would result, when commuters
    to and from 495 would use it to avoid the long wait at the
    lights at the  Hartford Avenue/140 intersection.

Phillips Brothers' Field

    Google Earth view showing the Osgood
    estate, (a bit to the left of center) better
    known later as the Harel House.

Hopedale in February 2017

and a few items from Februaries of the past.

Ezine for February 1 - 1917, Part 3   

Ezine for February 15 - 1917, Part 4   

Hopedale in January   

HOME   

.

Click here for more on the Union Evangelical Church.

    Thanks to Gail (Burton) Earle for scrapbooks of news
    clippings that had been collected by her mother-in-law.
    They included these stories from the gasoline crisis of
    1973-74, and the Draper foundry article below.

    Dutcher Street with a little snow
    that fell on January 31.

    In 1973, Rockwell spent $900,000 on
    the foundry. At the end of 1975, they
    closed it. Click here for more on the
    West Foundry.

    Same corner - different centuries. Click
    here for more on the Park House.

Dutcher Street

    Click here to see some Hopedale Highway
    Department vehicles from years ago.

    February 5 - Archer Rubber, one of Milford's
    oldest businesses is being razed.

    This might be of interest to some. I erased last names in case descendants of some of the
    folks listed don't want it known that they'd had an ancestor at the Worcester Lunatic Asylum or
    was otherwise named here. There was no concern about that in 1903. Of course everyone in
    town would have known about all this even if it hadn't been in the town report. I left Heman
    Hersey's name here since there's a whole page about his bout with smallpox on this site
    anyway. He was probably the last person in Hopedale to have it.

    Route 495 in Milford - February 8. It won't look like this
    tomorrow with more than a foot of snow predicted.

    Both mansions were razed in the 1920s.

    February  9. Snow in front yard measured 9.5 inches.
    Other places, especially closer to the coast got more
    snow and a lot more wind than we did here.

Traffic jam caused by delayed school opening - February 10.

February 11.

February 12 - 14.

Inman Street, February 12

Snow blowing off the shop roof - February 13.

    Looks like Dollar Tree on 140 had another
    one of those "door buster sales" recently.

February 18- That's all that's left of Archer Rubber.

    I finally finished this jigsaw puzzle, a gift from my sister-in-law Maureen
    Piette, that I had been working on since Christmas. It's a map that
    includes parts of Hopedale, Milford, Mendon and Upton. They can be
    ordered with any location at the center, and cover an area of four by six
    miles. In this one, the site of our home on Inman Street is in the house-
    shaped piece at the center.

    Here's a bit about it from the website where Maureen ordered it.

    A real-life map puzzle with your home as the center piece!  A love of
    puzzles and pride in the home are combined in this stunning jigsaw
    which will challenge jigsaw enthusiasts from the whole family as they
    race to recognize local landmarks and features and finally create a
    picture of the neighborhood. The perfect gift to commemorate a
    college, sports field or family home, you can select any address to form
    the center of this puzzle.

    I recently added an interview with Lyn Lovell of
    Milford to the site. It's about her childhood growing
    up on a farm in Vermont - one-room school, no
    paved roads, no electricity other than some battery-
    operated lights, etc.  Click here to go to it.

    For many years the vote on allowing alcohol sales in
    Hopedale was similar to the one shown above for 1935.
    Click here to see when Hopedale voters decided to "go wet."

February 23

    Gamblers, this one is for you. It shows construction of the casino
    in Everett. It was taken by my son, DJ, on February 23.

February 13

February 24

    The ice at the lower end of Hopedale Pond (and the rest except for
    very small amounts in a couple of coves) was gone on February 26.
    Click here to see when it was gone in other years.