Hopewell Valley History Project
Preserving Our History
How did the Hopewell Quarry and other late 1800s / early 1900s operations turn walls of rock into crushed stone? The first step is clear: drill holes into the rock wall, stuff in dynamite, and then blow off the front layer of the wall. But now you have a mess of boulders and big chunks … Continue reading Stone Crushing Machines
The Hopewell Quarry Swim Club, west of Hopewell Borough, was once the site of a rock quarry that operated from the 1890s to around 1920, making crushed stone for local roads. And the stone crusher equipment there did provide the name for the adjacent Crusher Road. In this profusely illustrated presentation, Doug Dixon surveys this … Continue reading Memories of the Hopewell Quarry – Video and References
The “Memories of the Hopewell Quarry: Stones to Swimming” talk is this Wednesday, September 6 at 7 pm, at the Hopewell Presbyterian Church or online over Zoom. This profusely illustrated presentation by Doug Dixon starts back in the late 1800s with the development of quarrying in the Hopewell Valley to generate crushed stone for local … Continue reading Hopewell Quarry Swim Club Photo Gallery
In addition to the Hopewell Quarry swimming club, there were multiple other quarries operating in the Hopewell Valley in the late 1800s and into the 1900s. These were making crushed stone for use on the local roads – to replace the pain of rutted and muddy dirt roads with solid macadam roads that allowed travel … Continue reading Hopewell Valley Quarries
The lake at the Hopewell Quarry Swimming Club was not just for swimming – there also were a variety of boats and floats used in the water. Some of these were for play and relaxation, while others were there for the lifeguards so they could quickly get to someone who needed help. So here are … Continue reading Hopewell Quarry Swim Club – Boats and Floats
The story of the Hopewell quarry that made crushed stone for local roads in the 1890s, and of the Quarry Swim Club that developed in the 1920s as the quarry pit filled in with water, which then was sustained and enhanced for over a century, and now has been preserved as open space. Douglas Dixon, … Continue reading Talk: Memories of the Hopewell Quarry: Stones to Swimming
A century ago, the Quarry Swimming Club outside of Hopewell Borough was a just a big hole in the ground – a rock quarry with a acre-sized pit that had filled up with spring water. So how did this flooded quarry evolve into a swim club? Thanks to multiple contributors, we have a series of … Continue reading The Evolution of the Quarry Swimming Hole
