The January updates to the History Project featured information on automobile travel in the early 1900s – maps, travel guides, and cars – plus a video of the 1984 Pennington Memorial Day parade. (See Site Updates for more.)
By the numbers, we finished the month with 319 files in the Archives, including 157 documents and 162 maps and aerials. The Image Gallery now has 4074 files, and the Panoramas Collection has 50 images. The Pamphlet Collection has 236 documents, and the Property Reports Collection has 88 documents. The interactive History Map includes 775 addresses with 102 historic places in Hopewell Borough. The History Project YouTube Channel is hosting 29 videos, plus 18 external local history videos, including 7 videos of History Project presentations. Please keep the materials coming!
1920s and 1962 Hopewell Road Maps
These three local road maps continue the story of the development of the Hopewell Valley road network.
The 1924 and 1926 N. J. State Road Maps show the original route of our Route 31 (previously Route 69) – directly through downtown Pennington and then forking at Marshall’s Corner.
The 1962 Hopewell Township Road Map then shows roads in the process of being expanded and upgraded – from unimproved to improved township roads, and then to county and state highways
1924 A.L.A. Automobile Green Book
The A.L.A. Automobile Green Book Official Touring Guide is an early version of what we now know as AAA tour guides, with maps, travel information, and directions. These were published from c. 1920 through the 1940s and apparently into the 1950s.
This 1924 Volume 2 had 924 pages in small type with turn-by-turn directions for trips between major towns across the Mid-Atlantic, plus Central Canada and Florida, and trunk lines to New England and the West.
This 46-page extract from the 1924 edition, provided courtesy of Roger Labaw, includes general information, representative advertisements, sample pages from each section, and listings for travel from Trenton, N.J.
1935 LaSalle and 1941 Studebaker in Hopewell
The Hopewell Valley not only has fine historic buildings, but also antique cars that go well with the historic feel, including these 1935 LaSalle, 1941 Studebaker, and 1941 Dodge in Hopewell.
Here’s a wonderful photo of a 1941 Studebaker taxi at the Pennington train station, courtesy of Mark Krisanda. The image looks historic, but the photo actually was taken just last year.
The photo of the 1935 LaSalle Touring Sedan at the Hopewell Train Station is similarly timeless looking, but again was taken last year, courtesy of Roger Labaw.
The third car is Art Slack’s 1941 Dodge Custom Luxury Liner taken in 2022 in front of St Alphonsus church in Hopewell, courtesy of Anne Slack Kenyon.
1984 Pennington Memorial Day Parade Video
Here a short video of the 1984 Pennington Memorial Day parade, with glimpses through the trees from a front porch on South Main.
The day was overcast and drizzly, with raincoats and umbrellas, but families and kids were out on the streets enjoying the show.
The video includes the high school band marching and playing, kids marching, the Newt Stewart Jazz Band playing from a truck bed, the Fire Department marching with a Dalmatian, and a Pennington Fire Department truck and pumper.
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.
