The July 2024 updates to the History Project include 1960s vintage road maps showing changes to the local road network, railroad timetables from 1945 to 1978 illustrating the decline of service from the 1940s, plus more on the St. Michael’s Orphanage, school, and cemetery. (See Site Updates for more.)
By the numbers, we finished the month with 329 files in the Archives, including 166 documents and 163 maps and aerials. The Image Gallery now has 4182 files, and the Panoramas Collection has 50 images. The Pamphlet Collection has 306 documents, and the Property Reports Collection has 91 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!
Hopewell Valley Changes – 1962 & 1972 Road Maps
These 1962 and 1972 Hopewell Township road maps illustrate changes to the Hopewell Valley landscape in the 1960s, and continue the story of the development of the Hopewell Valley road network.
Much of the Valley is still shown as open land, but these maps also show new roads from several now-familiar housing developments that were added during this period, particularly around Bear Tavern and between Pennington and Rocky Hill.
Hopewell Reading Line Railroad Timetable Collection
This new collection of twenty complete railroad timetables from 1945 to 1978 provides a clear view into the changes in local service through that period. There are kindly contributed by Harry Abendroth, a life-long train enthusiast and almost life-long railroad photographer.
These timetables document service between Philadelphia and Newark / New York over the former Reading line that still serves our area. These illustrate how Hopewell regularly had some 16 to 20 weekday stops from 1880 through at least the mid 1940s, but then began declining after World War II, down to 14 to 10 to 4 weekday stops.
Service was eliminated to Pennington in 1965,, and Hopewell train service and the then West Trenton line over the Reading tracks finally ended in 1983.
The St. Michael’s Cemetery – and Celtic Cross
There was a cemetery at St. Michael’s Orphanage in Hopewell. It was located in a tree-lined lane set back from the south side of the building, where an estimated several hundred infants and children were buried.
After the orphanage was closed and the building demolished in 1973, the children’s remains were reinterred at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Trenton. Rev. Michael J. O’Farrell, the first Bishop of Trenton, and Col. Daniel E. Morris, a major early donor, were also interred at St. Michael’s, and then reinterred at St. Mary’s.
Any additional information about the St. Michael’s cemetery would be greatly appreciated.
St. Michael’s School & Mission Reports, 1940s-1973
We have copies of two sets of annual report documents from St. Michael’s Orphanage between the 1940s and 1973, courtesy of the archives of the Sisters of St. Francis (the order that ran and staffed St. Michael’s and the school).
- The Mission Annual Reports, 1947 – 1971, list the sisters and their roles at the school, plus totals by grades of boys and girls.
- The School Annual Reports, 1929 – 1972, provide the numbers of students in each grade (broken out by boys and girls), along with the name of the teacher (sister).
These provide a glimpse into the enrollment, courses, textbooks, and other elements across each grade of the St. Michael’s grammar school, as well as how the sisters were assigned to St. Michael’s and their teaching roles.
Other Materials
Other materials posted in the History Project collections this month include:
- Pennington Fire Co 85th Anniv Booklet (also with the 125th)
- 1994 Off-Broadstreet Theatre 10th Anniv. Program (with other Theatre programs)
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.
