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 <><><><><><><><><><> 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. <><><><><><><><><><> 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 Ezine Menu HOME |