The Legion home site was purchased by Arthur Young. He was an accountant, and had a building constructed on the site to be used as his office. It was later purchased by the town and repurposed as the police station. The Legion home was purchased by the Mallard family, moved and attached to their existing home behind the post office, as shown in the picture above. Photo taken in 2014.
Satellite view of the center of Hopedale. The three canopies on the Community House lawn (top center) were there for a benefit event, held on June 19, 2010.
Depot Street as seen from the top of the steeple at the Unitarian Church. November 22, 2010. Click on the picture for more views from the steeple.
Left – The G&U station at the bottom of Depot Street.
Right – The remains of the station, razed in October 2008.
Depot Street
In the top picture, the Grafton & Upton Railroad station can be seen. The building that became the Legion home was evidently originally the Home School, which operated for a few years during the days of the Hopedale Community, Sons of at least two famous abolitionists, William Lloyd Garrison and Samuel May, were educated there, as well as the daughter of a Nantucket abolitionist family, Lilla Joy. She later marred William F. Draper. I don’t know if the smoke in the picture was from the shop or the train, (probably the train, though, being that low and in that location) but in any event, it must have been a normal part of daily life in Hopedale for many years.
The house became the American Legion home in 1922. In 1982, after the Legion disbanded, it was moved and was added to the Mallard home, behind the post office. The third photo shows it when it was the Legion Home. The picture under the “Legion Auction” article was taken in 1982, and it appears that they were getting ready to move it. The second picture shows the World War I honor roll, which was on the little piece of lawn on the Depot Street side of the town hall for some years The fourth picture is of a German mortar in the front yard of the Legion Home. (Thanks to Jack Ghiringhelli for sending the photo.). Below it is the World War II honor roll that was in the front yard of the Legion Home for many years. Click here for a larger version if you’d like to read the names. The building on that location now was built by Arthur Young as an office, and is now the police station.
In this article, Hopper says the honor roll was taken down after about ten years, but it seems to me that it was there for much longer than that. The one he refers to in the next-to-last paragraph was very likely the one shown in the second picture on this page, although that one was for World War I, and was on the lawn beside the town hall. Click here to go to the Veterans Menu.