The May 2024 updates to the History Project focused on the St. Michael’s Orphanage presentation and videos and images of local Memorial Day activities. (See Site Updates for more.)
By the numbers, we finished the month with 323 files in the Archives, including 161 documents and 162 maps and aerials. The Image Gallery now has 4163 files, and the Panoramas Collection has 50 images. The Pamphlet Collection has 269 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 34 videos, plus 22 external local history videos, including 9 videos of History Project presentations. Please keep the materials coming!
St. Michael’s Presentation & References
The video and references for the St. Michael’s Orphanage: A Visual History presentation by Douglas Dixon have been posted. These include the presentation slides, over 200 images from a variety of contributors, and additional videos.
Additional reports include Post – St. Michael’s Census Records and a 1914 Report for the Michael’s Farm.
St. Michael’s Songs
The Songs and Prayers of the Children of St. Michael’s video features the audio recording of Cecille Haggerty O’Brien singing and reciting the songs and prayers familiar to the girls of St. Michael’s Orphanage in the 1930s.
Cecille (“Cece”) Haggerty O’Brien was at St. Michael’s from 1933 to 1943 (almost age 3 through age 13).
Memorial Day – Parade Photos and Videos
We have added four short videos of local parades and events from the early 1990s, plus photos of the 1990 Pennington Memorial Day parade. These all are provided courtesy of Holly Weise.
The videos include the 1992 Pennington Memorial Day parade, two Titusville Fourth of July parades from 1992 and 1994, and a May Day celebration (with maypole) at Toll Gate Grammar School in 1992.
The photos are from the 1990 Memorial Day parade in Pennington, showing the variety of people and organizations participating in the event.
- See the Parade Videos Playlist on the History Project YouTube Channel
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.
