Above – Hopedale Coal & Ice icehouse on left, and Henry Patrick Co. icehouse on the right. In the middle there is a platform for bands that was there before the bandstand was built.
A rustic bridge of serviceable design was constructed at Second Bridge (so called), enabling communication by foot or team with the Park land on the west side of the river. Report of the Park Commissioners, 1900.
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Hopedale Pond
The picture at the top, taken from the home of the photographer, Edwin Darling at 54 Freedom Street, looks down over the town park and onto Hopedale Pond. The structure on the left is the Hopedale Coal & Ice Company icehouse. The building on the right is the Henry Patrick icehouse. The next three photos show field day activities on the pond. The one with the wooden bridge with two women and a man on it shows Second Bridge, aka Rawson’s Bridge, built in 1900 and raised in 1901 to be high enough to let boats pass under. In 1928, the bridge was replaced by the fieldstone structure that became known as the Rustic Bridge. So what was considered to be the first bridge? It might have been the one at Freedom Street, but I’m thinking that the name more likely referred to the long-gone Cutler’s Bridge. which was at about the midpoint of the length of the pond. The pictures down through the first bridge photo were made from Darling’s negatives. The ones below those are copies of Darling’s prints from an album at the Bancroft Library, except for the one at the bottom which might be the earliest existing picture of the bridge as it is today. That one is from a Draper negative.
More photos from Darling’s negatives Miscellaneous Town Park