The two items above are from the online Park Department history. Click here to go to a link to the PDF.
Articles like these above were in the Milford News every summer for many years
Since I was misquoted three times in two paragraphs, I’d like to make corrections. It’s Lake Singletary, not Lake Singleton, and it’s larger than Hopedale Pond. I have no idea what that is about trees planted and birds brought in. I agree about it being the place to be. When I was a kid, you’d see almost all of your classmates every summer day at the park and the pond.
The rafts at Hopedale Pond were sold and taken to Mashpee in December 2010.
Attendance at the pond peaked in 1968 when the number who signed in to swim reached 18,387. Swim lessons passed were 196 that year. Attendance in 1970 was 17,620, but by 1972, it had dropped to 7395. It went back up into the 12,000s for a couple of years. Numbers weren’t recorded after 1974. These statistics are from the Park Department history. There’s a link to it in the text box at the bottom of the page.
Swimming at Hopedale Pond – YouTube Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
NEAAU Swimming meets, Hopedale Pond, 1938, 1939
Hopedale’s best-known swimmers of the past:
The Howarth Sisters John Stanas