Hopewell Valley History Project
Preserving Our History
It’s the Wooden Car Derby! This annual event originally was held as part of Hopewell Community Day in the 1980s, and then continued with the same team as part of the successor Hopewell Harvest Fair event. And we have over 25 fun photos of the action, from five different years during the period of 1983 … Continue reading The Harvest Fair Wooden Car Derby – 1983 – 2006
The Hopewell Valley Bistro & Inn building, formerly at 15 East Broad Street on the corner of Seminary Avenue in Hopewell, was demolished in July 2022. Long known as the Central Hotel, the building had a nearly 150 year history as a residential home and store, a bar and restaurant, and as a hotel, rooming … Continue reading Hopewell Inn Tours: Pans, Videos, Photos
This is a stereo view of J. Q. McPherson’s general merchandise store at 47 West Broad in Hopewell Borough, which he operated in the 1870s. (This is the last of the block of commercial buildings on the left as you head out of town on West Broad, across from the Old School Baptist Church near … Continue reading Hopewell Stereo Image – 1870s
The arrival of railroad service in the 1870s along the foothills of the Sourlands helped drive the development of Hopewell into the town that we know today. See below for the presentation video and slides, and references from the Life in 1900s Hopewell With the Arrival of the Railroad presentation by Douglas Dixon, held on … Continue reading Hopewell with the Arrival of the Railroad – Video and References
Hoproco, the Hopewell Products Company, operated from 1923 to 1929 on Burton Avenue in Hopewell, manufacturing metal and wooden mechanical toys and novelties. This presentation and references explore the history of Hoproco, its factory building, and the five known toys that the company created that are still prized by collectors today. See below for the … Continue reading Hoproco Toy Company – Video and References
The October updates to the History Project included several posts on the railroad in Hopewell, plus the Model Ave. Lumber Yard, more on the Twin Pine airport, and Hopewell toys of the 1920s. (See Site Updates for more.) By the numbers, we finished the month with 284 files in the Archives, including 137 documents and … Continue reading October 2022 Update – The Railroad in Hopewell
Hopewell was the home of the Hoproco toy company in the 1920s, which manufactured a variety of metal toys that are still popular with collectors. But what were toys like in the 1920s? And how did the Hoproco products fit into the market? We can get a sense of this by looking at the toys, … Continue reading Hopewell Toys of the 1920s
Tomatoes and milk, chocolates and lumber – just some of the products that helped Hopewell grow after the arrival of the railroads in the 1870s. This Thursday, October 27, Doug Dixon will present Life in 1900s Hopewell with the Arrival of the Railroad, exploring how the arrival of the railroad drove the development of Hopewell … Continue reading When The Railroad Came to Hopewell
Here are some amazing artifacts of the early railroad service in the Hopewell Valley, courtesy of Rich Anderson and family. And they raise interesting questions … The first railroad to arrive in the area was the Mercer and Somerset (M&S), which started service in 1874 as part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. The Delaware and … Continue reading Hopewell Valley Railroad Artifacts
The lumberyard on Model Avenue is remembered in Hopewell Borough as “Van Doren’s,” with Bob and George Van Doren, but its history there goes back over a century – to their father, J. C. (“Jake”) Van Doren, who took over in 1923, and earlier to A. S. Golden, who founded the coal, lumber, and feed … Continue reading Model Ave. Lumber Yard – Golden & Van Doren
