"I was Hopedale’s New Year’s baby of 1931. The doctor couldn’t make it
    through the snow on time, so I was born at home. My father delivered me.
    Our home on Hopedale Street became the Sacred Heart Church rectory four
    years later."    Click here to find out who wrote this.

    Our house in Bancroft Park would now be considered rather primitive.  It had been built to be heated with
    stoves, and in both dining-room and living room (parlor in those days) there were places in the wall to
    insert stove-pipes.  The house had been supplied with a hot-air furnace before we arrived.  There were
    no laundry facilities, and the week's washing had to be done in the kitchen with tubs, buckets, scrub-
    board, hand wringer and copper boiler on the stove.  There was no gas or electricity, and our light came
    from kerosene lamps.  The week's ironing was done with half a dozen irons that were heated on top of
    the stove, and tested for heat with a wet finger.  A few years later, gas was brought across the pond and
    we became quite modern.  The simplest gas light was the open flame, but for brighter illumination the
    Welsbach mantle burners were superior, and gave off a sizzling sound as they burned.. From Charles Merrill
    writing of his early years in Hopedale, starting in 1910. Click here for his article, Hopedale As I Found It.

    Click here to see more pictures
    of Bancroft Park like this one.

    At Bancroft Park exterior siding of cypress shingles covered the walls, which were left
    unstained to weather. The trim, however was painted. North Carolina pine was used for interior
    finish, and the best grade of beech and maple was laid as flooring. "Service floors are oiled,
    the bathroom floors varnished, the remainder are waxed...The plumbing...includes an iron
    kitchen sink, an enamel tub and lavatory  and a vitreous water closet with brass water-pipes
    throughout." As regards design and construction, these houses rank among the best worker's
    dwellings ever built in the United States. Model Company Town by John S. Garner, p. 216

Hopedale in January


Ezine for January 1 - Hopedale in 1919, Part 1   

Ezine for mid-January - Hopedale in 1919, Part 2   

Hopedale in December 2018   

Hopedale in January 2018   

HOME   

.

    There was electricity in Bancroft Park when we moved there. The light fixtures had originally been made for
    gas lights. We didn’t have an electric refrigerator. We had an icebox. We heated the house with coal and
    wood, and the heat came up through a big register in the floor. The coal was carried in sacks and poured
    down a chute to the coal bin in the cellar. Wood would be dropped by the bulkhead and we’d take it in. Coal,
    wood, and ice were all brought to us by horse-drawn wagons. When the ice wagon was on the street, we’d
    go out and ask the man for chips of ice to chew on. Marjorie Horton, 2015.   Click here for more of Marge's
    memories of growing up in Hopedale.

    Back in the days when high school plays were performed at the town hall, usually for
    the benefit of the Washington trip, it became the custom for cast members to write their
    names on the walls of a closet at the side of the stage. Here are a couple of photos of
    them. Click here to take a look at more. Maybe you'll recognize some names.

    The Bancroft Memorial Library opened in 1899. Before that, the town had its
    library in the town hall. The picture above shows the library, and the one below
    shows the reading room. Below the reading room picture is a paragraph from
    the report of the library trustees from 1887. It describes the reading room and
    library as being where the town clerk's office and the Draper Room are now.

    Click here to see more recent pictures
    of the G&U and Draper yards.

    Beaver dam and tree cut by beaver, about
    100 yards upstream from the Rustic Bridge.

    Daniel Chester French (1850 - 1931)
    Lot 120: DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH | General William F. Draper)

    Sold:
    Sotheby's
    October 2, 2018
    New York, NY, US

    Lot 120: DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH | General William F. Draper
    Estimate: $30,000 - $50,000

    Thanks to Anne Lamontaigne for sending this. Click here for
    more on the General Draper statue.

    The fate of the high school cupola has been the subject of a discussion on the
    Hopedale Bulletin Board Facebook page recently, with about three dozen
    comments so far. If you'd like to see what's being said, you can go to the Facebook
    page, and/or read about it on this site.Thanks to Karen Pendleton for the drawing.

G&U yard, January 4

    The Great Molasses Flood, also known as the Boston Molasses Disaster or the Great
    Boston Molasses Flood, occurred on January 15, 1919 in the North End neighborhood
    of Boston, Massachusetts. A large molasses storage tank burst and a wave of
    molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph, killing 21 and injuring
    150. The event entered local folklore and for decades afterwards residents claimed
    that on hot summer days the area still smelled of molasses. From Wikipedia. Click
    here to read the rest of the article.

Hopedale Pond, January 10

Icehouse photos

    For those of you who have been driving under the
    G&U bridge over Hopedale Street, and wondering
    what had been done there, this will save you the
    trouble of going up for a look.

    This was a new (obviously) street in Hopedale
    in the 1950s. Click here to see where it is, and
    some more photos.

    January 17 and 19. There's been a bit
    of ice on the pond for a few days now.
    ith a winter like this has been so far.
    It's just enough for a few ice fishermen
    and skaters to get out there.

Whitinsville and the Mumford River. Click here for more.

    We had snow, rain, sleet on the night of January 19-20.
    Above - Neighbor Bob doing a bit of shoveling after
    finishing with his snowblower. Below - Other neighbors
    cleaning up the snow.

    The frame for the Statue of Hope cover is in place,
    waiting for the new cover to be put over it.

Geese on Spindleville Pond - January 28.