The Good Shepherd window at the Unitarian Church.
    Click here to go to a page of all of the stained glass
    windows at the church.

    The Sacred Heart window, at Sacred Heart Church.
    Click here to go to a page of all of the stained glass
    windows at the church.

    Click here to see a page with a list of 148 military service
    veterans buried at Hopedale Village Cemetery.

New words in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in 1921.

    From the constitution of the Hopedale Community. I presume
    where it says, "any community," it was written with those words
    because the hope of Community members was to establish
    many more.

    Click here to go to the article. It's at the
    bottom of a long page on the matter.

    Another old Hopedale house gone. This shows the site where it stood until
    recently, between the Green Store/Community Bible Chapel (on right) and
    what some remember as the Hartford Avenue School.

Here's a sight rarely seen on Dutcher Street.

    Bridge for the Milford and Uxbridge Street Railway. Click here to
    go to the trolley and railroad menu. You can see that this
    postcard view was taken before the Lake Street houses were built.

March 13

    Way down south in the land of spindles, the pond was free of ice
    by March 14. Maybe before that. I hadn't been by there in a while

March 14

    While walking along Hopedale Street on the afternoon of March 16,
    I noticed another section of the shop had been taken down. It was
    the part that had the Dutcher Temple Company sign on it. (Arrow
    points to it in photo above- close-up view below. Picture on the
    right shows that section is now gone.) I hope the sign has been
    saved. That would be a nice item to have on the ground in that
    area when the demolition work has been completed.
March 14, 2021

    This gentleman told me that the bell had been taken
    down this morning, (March 17) and is being saved.
    Below are Charles Merrill's thoughts about the bell.


    I dedicate this paragraph to The Shop Bell; that worthy instrument for
    telling off the divisions of Hopedale time, calling all good people to their daily
    labors, and closing that day with the ancient admonition to cover one's fires
    for the night. The daily rites of ringing the Shop Bell perpetuate a
    custom of long ago, and link us closely with the past.  Here is a thread of
    continuity running unbroken through the years when other remnants of
    antiquity have all but disappeared, the places thereof knowing them no more.

    I first heard The Shop Bell ring curfew on the evening of my arrival so long
    ago.  I heard it open the gates of day next morning at six.  I heard it call
    people to work at seven, and again at one.  I have heard it perform this
    routine thousands of times in almost half a century, and its sound falls as
    pleasantly in my ear as it did when I first heard it.

    I have learned the moods of The Bell; sharp and metallic on a zero morning;
    soft and muffled in a snowstorm; clear and mellow in the rain; sometimes
    almost inaudible when a strong wind carries the sound away from me.  When
    it was rung by pulling a rope, I could say that this man or that was counting
    off the strokes and the measure of rest between peals.  The people of
    Hopedale, perhaps without ever thinking about it, have a unique and
    distinctive symbol of their community, with a voice proclaiming that here
    abideth industry, order and peace.  May the tongue of The Shop Bell never
    be stilled! From Charles Merrell's memories, Hopedale As I Found It.


    Click here to read the article. It's near the bottom of a
    long page of articles about the G&U/Parklands issue.

    The first day of spring and the first day this year that Hopedale Pond has been free of
    ice at the lower end. This was the fourth time since 2008 that the "iceout" occurred on
    March 20. Click here for more about when the ice was gone from the pond in the past.

Patiently waiting for lunch - Blackstone River, Manville, RI,

    Click here for the article. It's near the bottom of the
    page of demolition of the Social to Freedom section.

Click here to go to the article.

    When we moved to Inman Street in 1970, the street was lined
    with maple trees. Now there are only about three left.


    Site of recent house demolition on South Main
    Street. The photo on the left was taken in 2014.

    Thanks to David Lowell for a box of Bancroft and Draper photos,
    including this one of the Bancroft family tomb at Hopedale Village
    Cemetery. It's the only picture I've seen of it with the door open. It
    looks like they're set up for guests to drop in, maybe for a spot of tea.

    The ezine for March 2019, titled Brilliant Man, Tragic Life,
    was about George Draper Osgood. Linda Hixon recently
    found this clipping from The Springfield Daily News that
    tells more about his life.