The school and chapel of the Hopedale Community as it looked in the 1950s, not long before it was razed. Long before that it had been divided into two apartments, and for some years a store operated out of the lower level with and entrance on the left end of this picture.
This building was the original chapel and school for the Community. In the early days, it also housed the library. “By 1855 the Hopedale library, located in the combined school and chapel building, had over six hundred volumes, excluding various public documents sent to it by Senator Charles Sumner and other sympathetic congressmen. Open at least once a week, for lending purposes, the library had its established rules, including fines for overdue books.” Hopedale: Commune to Company Town, Edward K. Spann, p. 87
The building was later used for a store and a residence. In the 1950s this structure, the two homes behind it and the Chapel Street School were demolished. The only building left standing on the block was the Dutcher Street School. which was converted into condominiums in 1986.
As for the statement about the possibility of a clock on the roof of the school, the following was stated by Thomas Gaffney.
When Almon Thwing, brother-in-law of George Draper, lived at the corner of Hopedale and Hope streets he had a large clock on the front of his barn. It was the only clock of its size in town, and everybody referred to it as the Town Clock. It was built and maintained by Mr. Thwing with a great deal of pride. The house in which Mr. Thwing lived is now located on Union Street. (The link goes to a page about the possibility that it was an Underground Railroad house.) (In Frank Dutcher’s memories of Christmas in early Hopedale, he mentioned that Thwing had made a clock that was on the roof of the Community chapel/school. It seems likely that after that building was no longer used for its original purpose, Thwing moved the clock to his barn.)