These photos are from a collection of Draper Corporation photography department negatives in the Hopedale history collection at the Bancroft Library. The first six are in envelopes with notes saying, “Aerial view of Draper Corporation Plant taken by Eastern Aerial Surveys, Inc on 6/23/47.” The undated ones (second and third from bottom of the photos above) are in envelopes with notes saying, “This negative purchased from McLaughlin Air Service by Draper Corporation on 11/30/51.” The note on the envelope for the one at the bottom says, “Copied on 1/18/55. As photographed in 1951 by Fairchild Air Serveys, Inc.”

The color photo below was in a brochure loaned by Ken Crowther. There isn’t a date on it, but it’s from the Rockwell era. One of the captions seems to indicate that foundry work wasn’t being done in Hopedale at that the time it was published. That would make it after 1975, but it probably was no later than 1977.

I don’t have the year for the picture above Draper activity –  cars in the parking lot and smoke over the shop indicate the picture was taken when the shop was active. We can get a bit more specific, since the West Foundry isn’t there. That was under construction in 1964. The road from the parking lot that goes down by the river looks a bit different. It was eventually rerouted to go straight out to 16 and at that time was named Fitzgerald Drive.That occurred in 1965. John Workman wrote to say that he remembers that road, having walked it while doing his paper route from 1959 to the spring of 1961.

The pictures below came from a different source – Bob Anderson, and are among the hundreds of photos he rescued from the trash in the years when Rockwell people were throwing such things out. (Click here to go to the first of a series of pages showing those pictures.)  Because of the number of cars in the Draper parking lots, they’re probably no later than 1970, and likely at least a few years earlier than that. The Draper Gym appears in some of them, and that was built in 1955.

It’s a little surprising that aerial photos were taken after 1979, but in the photo above, the Hope Street bridge is gone, so this must be after that. The approach to the bridge can be seen in the lower left, with the long, white Hopedale Coal & Ice building that became Hopedale Hardware just beyond it.

The pictures below were in a different number series than the ones above in the mysterious Draper photography department photo numbering system. The first one below would be from after 1979 – the Hope Street bridge is gone. The bridge can be seen in all of the others below, and all except one above.

Here you can see ball players on the diamond infield. There’s another view, so similar that I haven’t included it on this page, where the players are in playing position. Here you can also see the town beach raft in the lower right corner.You can just about see the Little Red Shop on the west side of the pond. It was moved to its present location in 1951. Maybe this is another of the aerials taken in 1947.

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