The house shown in the views above is the one that is the subject of the
    story below. Governor Draper's son, Eben S. Draper, Jr., replaced it with
    the house that is now on the property (The Ledges, 55 Adin Street)

    Hopedale History
    August 15, 2015
    No. 282
    Red Cross Home, 1918

    Hopedale in August   

    Memories of Marge Hattersley   

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    The Draper property on K Street, Washington, has been offered for sale by Princess Margaret Bonconpagni,
    who is not likely to return to this country in the near future. Many of the art treasures at the home in
    Washington have been removed to  Italy, where the Princess and her husband will make their permanent
    home. Milford Daily News, July 23, 1920

    The end of another significant part of Hopedale will come to an end soon and the yellow building located at
    the corner of Hopedale Street and Depot Street will no longer be the home of Walter H. Tillotson Post,
    American Legion. Milford Daily News, November 16, 1977.

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    The slogan, "Support Our Troops" didn't exist back during World War I, but on "the home front" millions were
    doing just that. The newspapers of the time reported regularly on activities in support of the war effort. The
    Milford News article below is one of many that told what women were doing in Hopedale during the war.

                               "Ledges" Opened as Red Cross Hopedale Home

    It was a delightful opening that dedicated to Red Cross work of Hopedale lades the spacious mansion of
    the late Gov. Eben S. Draper, now owned by his son, Lieut. E. S. Draper, U.S. Army., who is now in France,
    yesterday afternoon, and it surely was a most gracious thought that afforded the Hopedale ladies so
    beautiful a home for their war relief work. The "Ledges," known all over Massachusetts by prominent public
    men who have been entertained there, including ex-President Taft, when he was a Bay State summer
    resident, was inspected by more than 125 ladies, who are keenly interested in Red Cross work and
    workers, from 3 to 5 p.m. They came from not Hopedale alone, but Milford and adjacent towns.

    The visitors were profuse in their praise of the spacious and well adapted rooms, the system for work and
    the workers of Hopedale, and for the splendid enthusiasm manifested for so great a cause.

    Mrs. C.E. Nutting and her committee welcomed the oncoming guests, and in the reception room, to the right
    of the entrance hall, Mrs. B.H. Bristow Draper, who was in charge of the punch bowl, proved an ideal and
    gracious hostess. She and Mrs. Nutting made their guests not only welcome, but gave a detailed
    explanation of the plan of work to be followed, and the admirable arrangement of rooms for the expeditious
    manufacture of supplies for the soldiers at the front.

    The large pantry adjacent to the dining room is allotted as a storage room for supplies, and its shelves were
    well filled, in spite of the fact that a great amount of made garments and other supplies had been sent to
    Worcester yesterday, in response to a hurry call. That these articles could not have been displayed to the
    visitors, as first planned, was naturally a disappointment to the ladies who made them, but this did not affect
    the genuine pleasure of those present.

    The room adjacent to the pantry, formerly the dining hall, is devoted to sewing, with ample tables for cutting
    and making.

    The living and billiard room, which stretches across the whole house, and the west end of which opens on
    a spacious bay window, is devoted to surgical dressings, at the west end of which, at a small table, sits the
    inspector, Mrs. J. Newton Nutter. Facing her are three long tables for cutting and sewing, and here, as well
    as in the adjacent rooms, are several sewing machines. The equipment for work in each room is very
    complete, in keeping with the system of work the ladies have adopted.

    In the library, or west end of the reception room proper, are arrangements for packing and examination of
    articles to be sent away, and in the east of this reception room are the sock knitting machines, one of which
    was yesterday on exhibition, and attracted much attention.

    It is difficult to conceive a more complete organization for Red Cross labors than is here assembled, and it
    is a most happy idea to have under one roof, and under a united management, the diversified activities that
    heretofore have been scattered in homes, halls and church vestries.

    The committee, with Mrs. C.E. Nutting, chairman, are: Sewing and knitting, Mrs. C.E. Nutting, Mrs. G. E.
    Ambler, Mrs. F. Hatch, Mrs. Herbert Shattuck, Mrs. Frank Edmands, Mrs. W.S. Hague, Mrs. H.E. Ball, Mrs. F.
    L. Dudley; surgical dressings, Mrs. J. Newton Nutter, (inspector), Mrs. Richard Peters, Mrs. Florence Proctor,
    Mrs. G.W. Lunt, Mrs. A.E. Beck, Miss Lucy Day, Mrs. Wm. R. Stearns, Miss Esther Edwards.

    The rooms will be open on Monday and Friday evenings for surgical dressing work, and on Tuesdays,
    Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., all the Red Cross workers will assemble for sewing,
    knitting and all other work to be done by the ladies. Milford Daily News, June 7, 1918.

    According to the custom of the time, married women were identified in newspaper articles and elsewhere,
    not by their own first name, but by their husband's name. I thought it would be of interest to see that these
    ladies actually had their own first names, and to see where they lived. Here they are, in the order named in
    the article, from the street listing books at the Bancroft Library.

    Ada Nutting, 190 Dutcher Street

    Sylvia Ambler, 45 Bancroft Park

    Ada Hatch, 102 Dutcher Street

    Fanny Shattuck, 10 Mendon Street

    Nettie Edmands, 66 Dutcher Street

    Jennie Hague, 76 Dutcher Street

    Mrs. H. E. Ball, Probably 75 Freedom Street

    Mrs. F. L. Dudley, Probably at 26 Bancroft Park in the late 1890s. Out of town by the 1900s.

    Marion Nutter, 123 Dutcher Street

    Mrs. Richard Peters, Not in any of the street listing books.

    Florence Proctor, 34 Mendon Street

    Alta Lunt, 1 Bancroft Park

    Edna Beck, 15 Union Street

    Lucy Day, 17 Daniels Street

    Lillian Stearns, 42 Progress Street

    Esther Edwards, 62 Freedom Street

                                                                       
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