The April 2025 updates to the History Project included extensive detail on the contract and specification for the construction of a Hopewell house in 1938, and more information on Central High School in the 1930s in the form of over 10 photos of students in business classes. (See Site Updates for more.)
Hopewell House Construction in 1938
How did people go about building a house in the 1930s – in the days before cell phones and computers and the Internet? Thanks to the kindness of the Van Dyke family, we have the 1938 construction contract and associated specifications for the house at 5 North Lanning Avenue in Hopewell Borough.
The house was based on a Sears catalog design, but was customized and constructed locally. The contract document is a single typed page proposing to build the house for $5850. The contract includes a series of extras and credits described on a second typed page that added $143.98 to the total.
The remaining seven pages are handwritten specifications detailing the components used for the job. These include the lumber, major elements including floors, roofs, windows and doors, and trim, plus fixtures, insulation, footings and block walls, and exterior sidewalks.
Business Classes at Central High School, c. 1966
Thanks again to Edith Kostron Labaw, we have a collection of over 10 photos of business classes held at Hopewell Central High School from 1964 through 1971.
These photos show two classrooms for business classes taught by Edith Kostron: a typing classroom with manual typewriters at each desk, and a bookkeeping classroom with a large collection of pull-down posters and other teaching materials.
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.
