The February updates to the History Project featured a new YouTube video channel with clips from 1940 plus links to other interesting external videos. Other contributions include a 100th Anniversary scrapbook of the history of Hopewell Boy Scout Troop 71, and a new history brief on the former Rockwell Fire Brigade building, a fun example of discovering history in unexpected and even undistinguished places. In addition, the site added some school and church pamphlets, and a variety of images including railroad scenes. (See Site Updates for more.)
By the numbers, we finished the month with 254 files in the Archives, including 119 documents and 135 maps and aerials. The Image Gallery now has 2536 files, and the Aerial Panoramas Collection has 23 images. The Pamphlet Collection has 156 documents, and the Property Reports Collection has 79 documents, with 58 Site Survey reports and 21 Property Briefs. The interactive History Map includes 775 addresses with 102 historic places in Hopewell Borough. Please keep the materials coming!
1940s Hopewell Videos
We are amazingly blessed to have some two hours of 1940s Hopewell videos, shot in and around Hopewell Borough eighty years ago(!)
These first videos posted on the History Project YouTube channel are short extracted clips of particularly interesting scenes, including kids at the Grammar school playground, kids at an Easter egg hunt by the firehouse, the Fire Department in action, swimming and diving at the Quarry, trains at the Hopewell station, and the WW II Honor Roll dedication event.
== View the Hopewell Valley History Project YouTube Channel ==
Thanks to Richard Anderson for sharing this wonderful collection of Anderson Hopewell Family Memories – 1941-1947.
Hopewell Video Gallery
In addition to these contributed History Project videos, the new History Project YouTube channel also includes external videos on Hopewell history from around the web.
These are highlighted in the new Video Gallery, including a huge variety of Hopewell Valley High School productions, and videos of Reading Railroad trains passing though our area.
== View the Hopewell History Video Gallery ==
Boy Scout 100th Anniversary Scrapbook
The Hopewell Boy Scout Troop 711 100th anniversary scrapbook, compiled by scout Darin Howell in 2012, is a wonderful example of capturing the history of an organization.
This 108 page document contains a chronological collection of documents and pictures from troop records back to 1912, along with articles from research in local newspapers.
It also is a great example of how the history of one organization can intertwine with local and national events, as shown in the articles and clippings.
== View the full Hopewell Troop 71 100th Anniversary Scrapbook (1912 – 2012) (PDF) ==
Rockwell Fire Brigade on Somerset
There is a small one-story building at 8 Somerset Street in Hopewell Borough that is a fun example of discovering history in unexpected and even undistinguished places. The other side of the street is filled with the large former Rockwell and Kooltronic industrial facility, with its history back to before 1900. But this building has its own story as well.
This small building seems to appear on maps back to 1927 as a “Stock Shed,” but the first known specific use was for the Rockwell Fire Brigade, which served Rockwell and Hopewell from 1954 to 1968. The Rockwell equipment (“Old Number 1”) was returned to the Hopewell Fire Department and is still in use today for ceremonial purposes.
The building then continued to provide useful service to a variety of organizations in Hopewell – J. B. Hill hardware, the Mower Ranch, the Hopewell Antique Cottage, the Princeton Doll and Toy Museum, and now the twine gift shop.
== View the full brief on 8 Somerset Street for more information (PDF) ==
Please contact us if you have – or know of – more images and materials like these that we can share to help illuminate the history of our Hopewell Valley.
In particular, we have other videos to share (soon) on the new History Project YouTube channel, and welcome other contributions of or links to historically interesting local videos.
