Hopewell Valley History Project
Preserving Our History
The October 2024 updates to the History Project include the presentation video on Smith / Rockwell / “Hopewell 57” plus a Q&A and additional materials, new photos of the Tomato Factory, and mementos of Hopewell High School in 1927. (See Site Updates for more.) By the numbers, we finished the month with 332 files in … Continue reading October 2024 Update – Rockwell, Tomato Factory, High School
The video and slides from the “Hopewell 57” presentation on Oct. 9, 2024 now are available on the History Project site, along with the updated 25-page History Brief research paper on the facility and the street. This work is intended to document the history of this for this crazy-quilt of a manufacturing complex, and the … Continue reading Understanding “Hopewell 57” – Rockwell / Smith
The “Hopewell 57” complex at the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Somerset Street in Hopewell Borough was first known as Smith Novelty, and then Rockwell and Kooltronic. This presentation – Smith to Rockwell to “Hopewell 57” – chronicles the saga of Hugh A. Smith, who chose Hopewell in 1901 to pursue his dream of establishing … Continue reading Smith to Rockwell to “Hopewell 57” – Presentation Video and References
What is the story of the “Hamilton 57” site on Somerset Street in Hopewell? How did it grow and evolve over the past 100 years? Here are some questions in anticipation of the upcoming presentation – with brief answers. The Building Q: What is this crazy quilt of a building? Was it designed as a … Continue reading “Hopewell 57” Historical Questions
This wonderful collection of invoices from 1910s Hopewell companies vividly show the interconnections of local businesses of the time. The customer here was the Smith Novelty Company on Somerset Street (the predecessor to Rockwell), which at the time was growing past 40 employees. These invoices also show how local companies viewed their own businesses, with … Continue reading Smith Novelty Business Invoices c1910
What is “Hopewell 57” – that big brick building complex at the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Somerset Street in Hopewell Borough, which was earlier known as Rockwell and then Kooltronic? That block along Hamilton actually has an agglomeration of buildings that developed over time as part of a quintessential Hopewell story – as an … Continue reading Talk: Smith to Rockwell to “Hopewell 57”
