It’s interesting to see that this little clipping of the 1922 town directory shows that there was an occupied house on Saltbox (or Salt Box, as it’s also spelled) Road. The last year Hapgood’s name appears is 1925. For some years after that, I haven’t found anyone listed as living on Salt Box. My guess is that the house was very old and in such poor condition that no one wanted it, and it was eventually razed or fell down on its own. In recent years one house is shown being on Old Salt Box Road. Possibly that’s where the Hapgood home was. I’ve looked through the street listing books, but the fact that for many years the Overdale houses didn’t have numbers adds to the difficulty of figuring what was where.
I’ve included this clipping here because, according to Frank Dutcher, it was the Dillon saltbox-style house that gave Saltbox Road its name. The house may have stood on one of the foundations shown in pictures above. “Overlook” must refer to what’s now called Overdale Parkway. I don’t know if that’s what it was called at one time, and later changed to Overdale, or more likely, it’s a typo.
Saltbox Road and the Parklands Beyond the Railroad Tracks
Saltbox Road is an abandoned road (to car traffic, anyway) that extends from Freedom Street a few hundred yards beyond the railroad crossing, up to Overdale Parkway. Originally it continued on to North Avenue in Mendon. In the top picture you can see the road, the yellow gate at the entrance, and a bit of Freedom Street on the right. It runs more or less parallel to Freedom Street, from behind the old dump to the intersection at Overdale Parkway.
In recent decades that section of Freedom Street has often been referred to as Saltbox Road, and sometimes as Soapbox Road. In town records and the street listing books, an Old Salt Box Road is included up to present time. One house is shown as having 1 Old Salt Box Road as its address. It’s the last house on the left, as you travel up Overdale Parkway. You’d think it would have an Overdale address, since Old Salt Box Road almost looks like its driveway. (photo below) As to the nearby section of Freedom Street, from behind the old dump to the Mendon line, Saltbox is evidently an informal thing, resulting from people attaching the name of the old dirt road to the newer paved road that replaced it. Town records wouldn’t be calling a piece of Freedom Street by another name. Informal names that people tag onto things can be an entirely different matter. There has been quite a discussion on Facebook during the past couple of days (in July 2015) about whether the correct name is Saltbox or Soapbox. I’d say there’s no doubt that the old dirt road is Saltbox. (Frank Dutcher, who knew a thing or two about Hopedale, wrote that it had gotten that name because there had been a family by the name of Dillon who had lived in a saltbox-style house along the road.) It may be that saltbox sounds close enough to soapbox that some started calling it by that name. Some commenting on Facebook thought there had once been soapbox derby races there. My guess is that the younger you are, the more likely it is that you call it Soapbox Road or Soapbox Hill.
Soapbox derby races, sponsored by the American Legion, were held from 1950 to 1952. The races were on Freedom Street, but not on the “Soapbox Hill” section of Freedom Street. The starting line was near the Oak/Freedom intersection and the finish line was at Dutcher Street. It’s possible that kids made their own cars and raced down Soapbox Hill from time to time, but I’m sure there were never any formal races there. Click here for a page on the races.
For most of its length, Saltbox Road looks much like what you see in the first four pictures near the top of the page. Stone walls run along most of it on both sides. The last hundred yards or so, as you get near Overdale Parkway, are overgrown.
Several old foundations can be seen near the road. They’re fairly close to each other, and I think at least one of them was probably for a barn.
There are several paths that branch off of Saltbox Road. One of them leads to the fieldstone shelter called the Lookout. The bottom picture, which shows Hopedale Pond, was taken near the Lookout.
Saltbox (or Salt Box) Road got it’s name from the saltbox style house on the street. It was probably the only house in the area at the time it got the name. One of the fieldstone foundations shown on this page may have been the cellar of the saltbox house.
Freedom Street at that time (during the days of the Hopedale Community – 1842 – 1856) went to Mendon, up the steep hill past the “Saltbox” place, now (1910) occupied by the Dillon family. Frank Dutcher, Hopedale Reminiscences.
The Lookout Back to Parklands Walk, Page 1
