Adin Street. The mansions have been replaced, but the stone wall is still there. The house on the far right appears to have been the home of George Albert and Jessie Preston Draper. The one to the left of it was first the home of Charles and Frances (Draper) Colburn. It was later sold to Clare Draper, a nephew of Frances. It was razed, probably in the 1930s, and in the mid-1950s Memorial School was built on the site.

Dutcher Street. On the left, the Warren and Malinda Dutcher home. On the right, the Gen. William and Lilla (and later Susan) Draper home. The Draper home was razed in the 1920s. It was given to the town by Princess Boncompagni, daughter of the general and Susan, and Hopedale High School (then called General Draper High School) was built on the site.

Looking west on Freedom Street. The house on the right is 50 Freedom. At the time the photo was taken, it was the home of Charles Roper.

The caption for this picture says “South Hopedale.”

Hopedale High School. The picture was taken before an addition was put on. In 1935, several years after Gen. Draper High was built, the old school became Sacred Heart Church.

The caption for this picture says The Corners – East Hopedale. My first thought was the five-corner intersection of Northrop, Freedom, Williams and Jones, but another (probably better) possibility is somewhere near where Adin meets what was then called West Main Street. Or maybe???

The original Unitarian Church, replaced by the present one in 1898.

Hopedale Street. On the left, the Joseph and Sylvia Bancroft house. Also showing is the tower of the hose house.

Mill Street

Mill River

The caption for this photo says “Near factories.”

It looks like some serious road work was going on when this picture of the town hall was taken. Beyond the town hall the house that later became the American Legion home can be seen, and beyond that, the Harrison Block.

All photos on this page courtesy, American Antiquarian Society. Most captions are from the backs of the pictures.

Thanks to Mike Cyr for sending them. He also sent the following about the photographer from the AAS site.

The Photographer is Theodore Clemens Wohlbrück who worked out of a shop on Worcester’s Main Street from the late 1800s to 1911

Wohlbrück was photographing various locations of Worcester County and the City of Worcester at a time when the city was riding high on its self-designation as the “Heart of the Commonwealth.”  The collection includes images of forty-one different towns in Worcester County. These images, many of which were mounted and hand tinted by the photographer, focus on the landscape, roads and bridges of the communities across the county, from small and rural Dudley in the south to large and booming Fitchburg in the north.

                                                  Wohlbruck/AAS photos of Mendon     

                                                   Wohlbruck/AAS photos of Milford   

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