Hopedale 1858  

In The Model Company Town (1982, out of print), the author, John Garner, says of  the mechanic shop shown in this map, “It was this building completed in 1843, that was known as the “mechanic shop” and that first housed the Drapers’ enterprise as well as other small businesses and also served for a time as a school.” (p. 130)  

Ballou gives the dimensions of the 1843 shop as 30 x 40.  The Red Shop is 20 x 90. While we know that the Red Shop has had two additions, bringing it to its present length, it’s hard to figure how its 20 foot width could ever have been 30….or 40. It seems to me that the 30 x 40 building was the one that eventually became the Dutcher Temple Co. shop.

Water Street, shown here and on other early maps, disappeared as the business prospered and more and more shops were built. The name of Main Street was eventually changed to Hopedale Street.

“The small mechanic shop was renamed the Hopedale Machine Company in 1868 and transferred to the other side of the river to make room for additional construction.” (Garner, 132)

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