This wonderful image taken at the Hopewell train station in 1881, and provided courtesy of Steven Cohen, illustrates the importance of the arrival of the railroad in the 1870s to the villages of Hopewell and Pennington.
This is from a promotional poster created by Reuben Savidge, who ran the general store in Mount Rose and also distributed Lister Brothers fertilizer.
The poster features this photo showing horse-drawn wagons taking delivery from a long line of railroad boxcars, annotated as:
“Over 200 Tons delivered this day, September 1st, 1881. Of Lister Bros’ fertilizers at my store house, Hopewell Station, N. J.”
This 1897 image shows a similar view, 16 years later.
- On the right is the railroad small freight house, built around the same time as the Hopewell train station (1876).
- On the left is the Savidge storehouse building, with painted lettering in the 1897 image as “Listers Pure Fertilizers / R. Savidge.”
[Printed earlier in Healthful Historic Hopewell, 1897 – This 1905 postcard courtesy Bill Frenchu]
It was this ability to transport large quantities of material that helped drive the growth of the industrial district down Railroad Place in Hopewell, receiving and shipping products including coal, feed and grain, lumber, cans of tomatoes, and chocolates.
The arrival of two railroads in the 1870s spurred the growth of the towns of Hopewell and Pennington, as more convenient transportation brought greater opportunities for residents and businesses. But local boosters in Hopewell also saw a greater opportunity, and invested in developing Railroad Place as an industrial district that could support larger-scale manufacturing to provide more jobs and stronger growth.
This story is told in Industrial Hopewell: Railroad Place – see the link for references on the presentation and research on Railroad Place, including the webinar video, presentation slides, tour handout, more detailed briefs on the individual properties, associated slide shows, and related Hopewell Museum videos.
More on Hopewell Railroads
Two railroads were built in the 1870s to connect Philadelphia and New York by travelling up from the Delaware River, through Pennington and Hopewell, and then north towards New York. The Mercer and Somerset opened in 1874, but was shut down in 1880. The Delaware and Bound Brook opened in 1876, and is the predecessor of the line that still runs through the area.
Hopewell Valley Railroad Lines
- Post – The Railroads of the Frog War – Hopewell Valley Railroads
- Post – Hopewell Reading Line Railroad Timetable Collection – Local train service
- Post – Hopewell Railroad Research – Mercer & Somerset in Hopewell Boro
- Post – Railroad Trains and Flooded Bridges
- Post – Hopewell Valley Railroad Artifacts
- Post – The “Frog War” in Hopewell – with references
- History Brief – Hopewell Valley Railroad Lines (PDF)
Hopewell Valley Train Stations
- Post – The Hopewell and Pennington Train Stations (1876)
- Post – Railroad Stations in the National Register of Historic Places – Documents
- Post – Hopewell Railroad Sidings
- Post – Pennington Train Station Underpass
- History Brief – The Hopewell and Pennington Train Stations (PDF)
Hopewell Railroad Presentations
- Presentation / Video – Industrial Hopewell: Railroad Place – References
- Presentation / Video – Life in 1900s Hopewell With the Arrival of the Railroad – References
- Presentation / Video – Hopewell Train Stations: History and Art – References
Train Stations in Photos
- Post – Train Station Photos by Harry Abendroth
- Post – Ralph Curcio Hopewell Railroad Photos
- Post – Hopewell Train Station in 1881
- Post – Hopewell Train Station Photos – 1914 & c1940
- Post – Hopewell Trains and Stations – 1955
- Post – Images of the HOPE Switch Tower – 1950s
- Post – Hopewell & Pennington Train Stations and Buildings – 1973
Railroad Collections
- Pamphlets – Railroad Timetable Collection
Media – Railroads in Image Gallery
- Artwork Gallery – Hopewell Train Station Art Gallery
- Gallery – All Hopewell Train Images and Hopewell Train Station Images (HwRR)
- Gallery – All Pennington Train Images and Pennington Train Station Images (PnRR)
Media – Railroad Artwork
- Post – Hopewell Train Station Art Gallery
- Post – More Intriguing Hopewell Train Station Art
- Post – Hopewell Train Station Art by Jerry Cable
- Post – Hopewell Train Station Painting with Steam Engine 602
Media – Railroad Video
- Video – 1940s videos of people boarding trains at the Hopewell Train station (YouTube)
[…] Then behind the station on the other side of the tracks is the passenger shed on the left, and a glimpse of the storage buildings on the right – all now gone. (For more on the storage buildings, see the earlier post on Hopewell Train Station in 1881.) […]
[…] now-gone station buildings including the passenger sheds and sidings, the Pennington underpass, the Hopewell station from 1881 (only five years after the station was built), and other buildings along Railroad […]