The March updates to the History Project featured the updated Hopewell Borough History Briefs – 2022 Edition, plus a variety of fun contributions, and the upcoming talk on the Hopewell Inn. (See Site Updates for more.)
By the numbers, we finished the month with 299 files in the Archives, including 149 documents and 150 maps and aerials. The Image Gallery now has 3233 files, and the Panoramas Collection has 44 images. The Pamphlet Collection has 191 documents, and the Property Reports Collection has 87 documents, with 58 Site Survey reports and 29 Property Briefs. The interactive History Map includes 775 addresses with 102 historic places in Hopewell Borough. The History Project YouTube Channel is hosting 25 videos, plus 14 external local history videos, including 5 videos of History Project presentations. Please keep the materials coming!
Hopewell Borough History Briefs – 2022 Edition
The Hopewell Borough History Briefs – 2022 Edition is a compilation of some 40 Hopewell Borough History Briefs written over the past three years. These History Project research reports have been compiled into a book, available as a free PDF download for convenient reference, searching, and printing.
The goal of this ongoing work is to help recover, document, and preserve the forgotten history of the people, institutions, and businesses of our town.
This material is available in two versions: The Full version, containing all of the briefs, is 500 pages. The summary Digest version is 68 pages, with summaries of each brief, containing chronologies and key names and events. (These are mostly the first pages of each of the briefs.)
Hopewell & Pennington Train Stations and Buildings – 1973
We have five new Pennington and Hopewell train station photos from 1973 that provide a glimpse of the past.
These not only provide good views of the station buildings, they also show the additional structures along the tracks that have since been lost – including the passenger shelters across from the stations, the Pennington underpass, and the Hopewell signaling equipment.
Hopewell Train Station Painting with Steam Engine 602
This painting by Fred Schuster shows the Reading Railroad #602 steam engine travelling past the Hopewell train station.
It’s fascinating, because Schuster took some artistic license in rendering the scene, imagining the old steam locomotive in the c1970s scene, and because Schuster is something of a mystery, since we do not have much information about him.
It’s clear that Schuster knew his locomotives, and was quite able to retrofit the #602 steam engine into this striking image, with the clouds of steam billowing up and merging with the clouds in the sky.
Hopewell Valley Map Scarf by Ann Gross
This wonderful bandana with a Hopewell Valley map is by Ann Gross, and dated 1974.
The map features our major places, roads, and rivers, and is decorated with fun illustrations of life in the valley, ranging across farms and barns, cows and birds, kids fishing and biking, skiers and golfers and painters, and even two kinds of airplanes.
It also shows some local places that are no longer with us, including Western Electric, Hopewell Valley Golf Club, Twin Pine Airport, and the Belle Mountain Ski Area in Lambertville.
Talk: The Story of the Hopewell Inn – and the People Who Sustained It
The Story of the Hopewell Inn – and the People Who Sustained It
– Wed., May 3, 2023, 7 pm; Hopewell Theater, 5 S. Greenwood, Hopewell
– Or join online via Zoom – Click the link to register
Doug Dixon of the Hopewell Valley History Project will explore the forgotten history of the Hopewell Inn, and the people and families who nurtured and reinvigorated the building and ran the businesses through the years.
We also will take a visual tour the building in its final form – not only the exterior and public spaces, but also the upstairs rooms and cellar – and discover clues about how the building was constructed and expanded over time.
Hopewell Public Library Speaker Series.
Co-sponsored by the Hopewell Valley Historical Society and The Hopewell Museum.
Please contact us if you have – or know of – other images and materials that we can share to help illuminate the history of our Hopewell Valley.
