The November 2024 updates to the History Project include the origins of the Hopewell American Legion Monument and the history of the Hopewell Pharmacy group of buildings at the center of Hopewell Borough. (See Site Updates for more.)
By the numbers, we finished the month with 332 files in the Archives, including 169 documents and 163 maps and aerials. The Image Gallery now has 4289 files, and the Panoramas Collection has 50 images. The Pamphlet Collection has 326 documents, and the Property Reports Collection has 101 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!
The Hopewell American Legion Monument – 1925
This historic 1920s photo, courtesy of Joan Bratsko, shows a parade coming up West Broad Street to Greenwood Avenue, in the center of Hopewell Borough. Plus, visible across the street are the drugstore and other buildings that still stand there today.
But the amazing discovery is the structure on the far left – This is the only known photo of the American Legion monument that was installed at the center of town in 1925. It soon was clear clear that it was not such a great idea to have large monument blocking the middle of the main intersection in town. In 1933, a serious auto accident that monument from its base “about two feet,” it was relocated to its current location in front of the Hopewell Elementary School.
The Hopewell Drug Store Businesses
These the stories of the Hopewell Pharmacy and the two other buildings at the corner of West Broad and South Greenwood in Hopewell.
The three buildings are the Hopewell Pharmacy at the corner (1 West Broad), the adjacent one-story market building with the step-up false front above the roofline (7 West Broad), and another connected smaller storage building (9 West Broad).
The Pharmacy building has hosted up to three businesses – pharmacy left, retail right, and paint in the back left corner. The second one-story building next to the Pharmacy is 7 West Broad Street, with the step-up false front covering the roof line, has been used for various grocery stores and markets. The third smaller building on the right, 9 West Broad, originally had a plumbing business, and then was used as an extension of #7.
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.
