The April updates to the History Project featured information on Pennington Bicentennial quilts, and new research on St. Michael’s Orphanage. (See Site Updates for more.)
By the numbers, we finished the month with 322 files in the Archives, including 160 documents and 162 maps and aerials. The Image Gallery now has 4145 files, and the Panoramas Collection has 50 images. The Pamphlet Collection has 267 documents, and the Property Reports Collection has 89 documents. The interactive History Map includes 775 addresses with 103 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!
Pennington Bicentennial Quilts
We now have information on two Pennington Bicentennial quilts: the Pennington U. S. Bicentennial quilt (1976), and the earlier Pennington Methodist Church Bicentennial Quilt (1974/75) that celebrated 200 years from the founding of the Pennington Methodist Church.
Both quilts are still with us, but we have few details about them and little information from documents, so please get in touch if you have more information to share.
The Pennington U. S. Bicentennial quilt from 1976 has blocks of white diamonds on a blue background, with 24 blocks in a 4 x 6 pattern, containing Pennington scenes with labels and founding dates.
The Pennington Methodist Church Bicentennial quilt was created for the 1974 bicentennial of the founding of the Pennington First United Methodist Church. It has 20 blocks in a 4 x 5 pattern with red outlines, depicting various themes and historical aspects of the church.
St. Michael’s Orphanage Census Records
These St. Michael’s Orphanage Census Records include U. S. Census records for St. Michael’s from 1900 through 1950 (all that exist).
They include a Stats Summary document with overall totals and decade-by-decade comparisons, plus the six separate Census Extract documents with the census listing for each decade and associated statistics (all as searchable PDF files).
St. Michael’s – Behind the Building
Thinks to multiple kind contributors, we have a growing collection of images of and around the St. Michael’s Orphanage. These include views of three additional structures that were out of sight behind the main building: the Chapel addition, the separate Gymnasium / Auditorium building, and the back of the South wing.
These photos are courtesy of the archives of the Sisters of St. Francis, the order that operated and staffed St. Michael’s throughout its existence.
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.
