The December 2024 updates to the History Project include a 2016 / 1966 Hopewell Valley Scrapbook with 330+ photos and the evolution of the Hopewell Museum. (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 4528 files, and the Panoramas Collection has 50 images. The Pamphlet Collection has 329 documents, and the Property Reports Collection has 102 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!
2016 / 1966 Hopewell Valley Scrapbook and Photos
This 2016 / 1966 Hopewell Valley Scrapbook by Charles Hunt includes a collection of over 230 images of sites across Hopewell Valley from 2016, plus recollections of them back to 1966.
These are from a reunion scrapbook prepared for the Hopewell Valley Central High School Class of 1966 at their 50th reunion in 2016. The scrapbook also includes clippings of ads from 1966 newspapers, recollections from high school days, and discussions of changes to the Valley over the years.
These are organized by four geographic areas in the Valley – Hopewell Township, Pennington, Washington Crossing / Titusville, and Hopewell Borough. The collection includes both the original scrapbook, with photos, 1966 newspaper ads, and commentary, and the individual photos from the album plus additional related shots.
Seeing the Hopewell Museum Building
Photos of the Hopewell Museum building show how it evolved over time – and with more details than the obvious changes to the front porch.
The Hopewell Museum building is a three-story, three-bay brownstone dwelling built in the Second Empire style, with a Mansard roof and full height projecting bays on the front façade. It was built in 1877 as the Stout residence, and taken over by the Library / Museum in 1924.
Around 1920, the building acquired a full-width porch, which was removed Around 1960, the large front porch was removed, but the base of the wide porch remained on both sides. Finally, a 1999 restoration returned the front porch / portico back to the original design.
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.
