Hopewell Valley History Project
Preserving Our History
The Hopewell Valley Bistro and Inn building at 15 East Broad Street and Seminary Avenue has been in the news, with plans to demolish the structure and rebuild a historically familiar design for use as an upscale restaurant and apartments (see MercerMe article). The building has a nearly 150 year history as a residential home … Continue reading The Hopewell Inn / Central Hotel
It’s Hopewell Borough’s 2021 Annual Town-Wide Yard Sale weekend! So as you clear out the attic and browse the sales, please be on the lookout for historic artifacts that we can preserve and share here on the History Project site. We welcome all types of materials that illustrate and explain our past, including: Printed – … Continue reading Preserving Hopewell Yard Sale Artifacts
Gary Saretzky has kindly shared his collection of black and white photographs of Hopewell Borough from 1978 to 1980, which also conveniently provide a record of the buildings and businesses of the time. UPDATE – 9/15/21 – Added 7 more Hopewell photographs from Gary Saretzky == See the Hopewell Artwork album in the Image Galley … Continue reading Hopewell Photographs by Gary Saretzky
What do you see in this photo from around 1916? What are these two ladies doing? And where is this? The area looks empty – without many houses or trees. We are used to our current tree-lined streets, but this was the state of our towns at the turn of the century – even as … Continue reading Hopewell Trees: 1900s vs. Today
The August updates on the Hopewell Valley History Project site included a new history brief on the forgotten story of Mercer Street – not just the earlier home of the American Legion, but also a major stonecutting operation for the first half of the 1900s. Another post highlighted the registered historic sites of Hopewell Township, … Continue reading August 2021 Update – Historic Sites
Do you know the many historic sites in our Hopewell Valley? The Hopewell Township Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) has helped spread the word by publishing two sets of bookmarks describing local historic properties. The HPC published these in two sets, with sixteen bookmarks done in 2004, and a second set of eight in 2020 (with … Continue reading Hopewell Township Historic Sites
[Updated 9/3/21 – Additional photos for clearer view across back of Seminary] The 1910s saw a revolution in the lives of people and towns with the introduction of the automobile, including Henry Ford’s Model T, launched in 1908. We can track this change in Hopewell Borough and other local towns through the decline of the … Continue reading Hopewell’s Lost Liveries: From Horses to Cars
Can you help identify and date these photos taken in Pennington in the mid to late 1900s? These are from different sets of postcards, but none of the cards were dated. There are some clues in the images, especially the models of the cars, but does anyone know more about these – when they were … Continue reading Postcards of Pennington
Mercer Street in Hopewell is a fascinating example of how familiar – and also how different – our streetscapes appear compared to the early 1900s. For example, today’s Mercer Street has businesses in the commercial area the West Broad Street end, and is residential at the Model Avenue end. But at the northeast end, before … Continue reading Mercer Street – Legion Hall and Stonecutting
The July updates on the Hopewell Valley History Project site added two new history briefs – on the well-remembered Soupe du Jour restaurant, and the long-forgotten Hopewell brickyard. We also added two collections of images around town from the 1960s and 70s – a set from Bob Gantz showing both familiar buildings and lost streetscapes, … Continue reading July 2021 Update – Bricks and Soup
