114-116 Mendon Street - May 25

    Hopedale History
    June 1, 2016
    No. 301
    Hopedale's Early Homes

    Hopedale in May

    During the past two weeks, additions have been made to the following previously existing pages on
    hope1842.com.   Frederick Austin (Milford News article about Austin's death after a U-boat torpedoed and
    sunk his ship.)     The Henry Patrick Watering Trough (A Gordon Hopper article tells of the four locations
    where the trough has been.)     G&U Locomotives (Information on the electric locomotive "steeple cabs"
    sent by Peter Metzke.     Deaths   

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    Twenty-five years ago - June 1991 - South Africa repeals the last legal foundations of apartheid, the laws
    that segregated places of residence and employment.

    About 200,000 people attend a parade of 8,800 returning Persian Gulf War troops in Washington, D.C.

    Boris Yeltsin is elected President of Russia.

    President Zachary Taylor is exhumed to discover whether or not his death was caused by arsenic
    poisoning, instead of acute gastrointestinal illness; no trace of arsenic is found.

    Fifty years ago - June 1966 - The final new episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show airs (the first episode aired
    on October 3, 1961).

    Surveyor 1 lands on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on another world.

    Civil rights activist James Meredith is shot while traversing Mississippi in the March Against Fear.

    Miranda v. Arizona: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the police must inform suspects of
    their rights before questioning them.

    U.S. planes begin bombing Hanoi and Haiphong.

    The National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded in Washington, D.C.

    News items above are from Wikipedia. For Hopedale news from 25, 50 and 100 years ago, see below
    this text box.

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                      Hopedale's Early Homes - National Register Nomination

    Only two extant buildings in Hopedale Village are believed to predate the establishment of the Hopedale
    Community settlement of 1841. The Cook house, 114-116 Mendon Street (ca. 1820) is 1 1/2 stories on a
    granite foundation with a side-gable roof, brick chimney located behind the ridge, and a five-bay main block
    with later side-gabled extensions to the southwest. Windows and center entry on the facade are placed
    close to the eaves.

    The Herring-Daniels house, 66 Mendon Street (ca. 1825) is also 1 1/2 stories, with a cut stone foundation,
    side-gable roof, with a shed-roofed addition at the northeast corner.  Another distinguishing feature, likely a
    later addition, is the three-bay porch with turned balusters and shed roof, located at the center entry. Neither
    the Cook house nor the Herring-Daniels house faces south, suggesting the each may have been moved to
    its present location. Judging from their existing foundations, these moves likely occurred in the 19th century.

    Two other important early buildings in the area have been demolished. The John Jones house (aka The
    Old House) on Hopedale Street near Peace Street (ca. 1703, enlarged 1735, razed 1874) was the focus of
    the Jones Farm purchased by the Hopedale Community. The Old House Memorial at Adin Ballou Memorial
    Park, Hopedale and Peace streets, describes the siting of the Jones house. The Hopedale Community's
    first schoolhouse, located between Freedom and Chapel streets (1844, razed 1954), also housed the
    village store and the first chapel.

    Clusters of early dwellings in Hopedale Village appear along Hopedale Street, particularly on the
    southeastern side of the street, and on Mendon Street (State Route 16) near the intersection with Hopedale
    Street. Built from the 1840s to the 1860s, these are 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 story buildings on granite foundations,
    oriented gable end to the street, with facades typically three to five bays across and entries in either an end
    bay (on three-bay facades) or the center bay (on five-bay facades). Some retain flushboard siding. All of
    these houses display ornament of forms that are associated with the Greek Revival style.

    Among the more ornamented of the early houses is the Adin Ballou house, 64 Dutcher Street (1843, moved
    1900). This gable-front cottage, three bays by two bays, displays a wide frieze, paneled corner pilasters,
    and gable returns. Though moved in 1900 from the site of the present Adin Ballou Memorial Park on
    Hopedale Street, the house retains its original granite block foundation, which also was moved. A full width
    front porch with turned balusters and the existing window sash are modifications that appear to date to ca.
    1900, when the building was moved. A more modest example of this cottage form, with the historic
    ornament removed, is found at 7-9 Social Street (ca. 1865). The Utopian Community House, 155 Hopedale
    Street (ca. 1850), is an austere example of the period form.

    Other versions of the gable-front cottage tend to show the influence of the Gothic Revival or Italianate styles,
    either in a gabled roofline of steeper pitch than the Greek Revival examples, or in the use of wide
    overhanging eaves. Some also include bay windows. The two-bay by two-bay dwelling at 125 Mendon
    Street (ca. 1850?) displays all three of these features, as well as round-arched attic window and a full width
    porch, with turned balusters and brackets that may be later additions. The George Draper house, 87
    Hopedale Street (ca. 1860) is a three bay by two bay cottage with several rear additions and a full width front
    porch with paneled square posts; this house also displays overhanging eaves and long first floor windows
    on the facade. Variants of the gable-front cottage form were built during this period, including gable front
    and wing versions and side-gabled cottages. A gable-front and wing form is seen at the A. Cook house, 82
    Hopedale Street (ca. 1860), which is distinctive in part for its full-width integral porch on the main block, pair
    of bay windows on the lateral wing, triangular dormer on the wing, and bargeboards throughout. The gable-
    front three-bay cottage form with end-bay entry persisted in the area into the 1870s, as seen at 124 Mendon
    Street (ca. 1875), which includes a full-width front porch. Finally, a well detailed cottage with steeply pitched
    gable roof, wide plain frieze, paneled cornerboards, molded window heads, and center-gabled eastern
    wing is the E.S. Stimson house, 5 Peace Street (ca. 1860). This house, which may have been remodeled in
    the late 19th century, now features a porch wrapping the northwest corner and an entry that faces southwest
    toward Hopedale Street. Hopedale Historic District  National Register Nomination, Kathleen Kelly
    Broomer.

                                        More on Early Hopedale Homes        Architecture in Hopedale        

                                                   
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    Click here to go to Now and Then - The Country Club, to see
    photos of the first, second, third and fourth clubhouses.

Click here to go to Now and Then - Patrick's Store.

Click here to see much more on the historic hike.