C.F. Roper & Co., Northrop Street

    The Roper Company operated a brass foundry owned by Charles Roper, who had
    begun his years in Hopedale as an inventor with the Draper research department. The
    building was located on Northrop Street, adjacent to the town park. The company made
    and sold boat propellers, boat speedometers and a number of other devices. Eventually
    it became the Hopedale Manufacturing Company, which later built a larger plant in
    Milford.

    When I was a kid going to the Park Street School in the late 1940s, I used to pass by
    where the shop had been and wondered what had been there. By that time the shop
    was gone and all that remained was a concrete slab. Eventually the lot was purchased
    by Nick and Adelia (Dell, I think she was called) Narducci, who built the home shown in
    the photo at the bottom.

                    Charles Roper                 Motorcycle inventor Sylvester Roper       
      
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Cover ad - Milford-Hopedale directory - 1912