took the photo above, a few hundred yards northwest of the Rustic Bridge, but the rock, named "Texas," is still there.
|
Hopedale History March 15, 2017 No. 320 Manning in Hopedale, Part 2 Hopedale in March
Recent additions to hope1842.com pages: Hopedale Community Centennial Pageant, 1942 (Another photo added.) Deaths <><><><><><><><><><> The increasing interest of the children who fully appreciate the privilege of sitting at the little table prepared for them has made the trustees feel that the efficiency of the library would be much increased if a children's room could be provided. The plan of allowing the interest from some of our special funds to accumulate till such a room can be made possible is now under consideration. Anna M. Bancroft, for the Library Trustees, 1912. The new lights which have been placed about the children's table have added greatly to its usefulness. The table long ago justified its place, and now the Trustees are anticipating the time when the children may have a room by themselves for their books and games, with a trained assistant in charge. Report of the Bancroft Library Trustees, Arthur C. Johnson, secretary, 1916. The children's room was added in 1927. It was given to the town by Anna M. Bancroft. <><><><><><><><><><> Warren Henry Manning's Work in Hopedale, Part 2 Manning's earliest involvement with developing Hopedale's park system coincided with his eight-year tenure in the firm of Frederick Law Olmstead. However, the plan was not formalized and work was not begun on The Parklands until 1898, by which point Manning had established his own practice. In 1899, the town's Park Commission, consisting of Frank J. Dutcher, Charles F. Roper and George Otis Draper, accepted Manning's proposal for a park of nearly two hundred acres, encompassing the entire shoreline of Hopedale Pond, known as the Upper Privilege. The Hopedale project provided Manning with "the opportunity on a small scale to do what Olmstead and Eliot did in Boston with the Muddy River development, which emerged as the nation's first regional park system in 1892. " (John Garner, Model Company Town) The town appropriated $14,000 initially for the park project and $2500 annually thereafter, implementing each year until 1914 a Manning-designed addition or improvement. A park superintendent directed the planting work and maintenance year-round. Even in the winter, the woods were continually thinned out and brush was burnt. The work crew burgeoned to thirty to forty men during the spring planting season. (Alvord, James C. "What the Neighbors Did in Hopedale," Country Life in America, 24 (January 1914) pp. 61-62; Garner, John, The Model Company Town, 1984, pp.192-195) The principal objective of the design and execution of the Parklands was to keep the pond and the park "as natural as possible, to refuse any touch of artificiality except in that portion where closeness to the houses forces certain yieldings to a cultivated aspect." (Alvord, 61) As described by Garner, landscaping entailed combining several properties, surveying and planning, and ground reclamation through draining, filling, and replanting. (Garner, 194) One of the first improvements was the creation, in 1899, of a bathing beach at the southern end of the park, near the intersection of Hopedale, Dutcher, and Northrop streets. Sand dumped on the ice in the pond during the winter settled to form the beach. (Alvord, 61) The bathhouse, designed by Chapman and Frazer, was added in 1904. Near the northeastern side of the pond, a nursery was established within the boundaries of the park for the purpose of cultivating seedlings, and transplanting from the nursery took place during a period of at least three weeks each spring. Maple, ash, birch, hickory and pine seedlings were native to the park. Tree species that were introduced included hemlock, tulip, mountain ash, Carolina poplar, black alder, striped maple, willows, Japanese barberry, red-osier dogwood, bittersweet, and cedars. A period account described the "three rules for planting: the trees must look as though they came there by accident, the bare places must be gradually covered, {and} picturesque trees must be set on the border of the water." (Alvord, 62) A ribbon of trails designed in 1907 wound around the irregular shoreline for more than a mile in length; by 1914, this path system of "natural-looking walks," which survives today, extended for more than four miles. Hunting was prohibited in the park, and 125 birdhouses were raised. Stone shelters were constructed. The view south from the shore of Hopedale Pond to the Draper plant on Freedom Street provides a striking image of large- scale industry framed by a natural, albeit designed, landscape. A period account offers the highest compliment of the park's planning and execution, as well as, indirectly, a tribute to the vision of the Drapers: To-day Hopedale possesses, in place of an ugly mill-pond, disfigured with dead trees and unsightly dump-heaps, a park whose path plunges from her very thresholds right into cool, deep woods, whose lake surface is fit for fishing, boating, swimming, and skating in the winter, whose brooks are crossed with artistic bridges, whose gorgeous and varied forest looks as though it originated there, and whose winding paths seem the offspring of chance and idle wanderings. (Alvord, 82) Kathleen Kelly Broomer, Hopedale HIstoric Village National Register Nomination
Park, Pond, Parklands and Sports Menu Ezine Menu HOME |
This photo and article are from the Bancroft Library's collection of material from the Community House Women's Club. I don't have the date, but it must have been in about 1955. |
The picture above the article was taken at the Community House,. This event appears to been at the Town Hall. |