Hopedale Village Historic District - Hopedale MA - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The town grew between the perion of 1841 to 1955 marking the end of of its period of significance. Settled as a utopian community led by Rev. Adin Ballou, transformed into a planned community and a model company town under the direction of the Draper family. The town was centered around the Draper factory that manufactured cotton textile machinery. The utopian experimented ended in 1856. The assets of the utopian community were purchased by the Draper brothers thru a bankruptcy. It was the Draper family that expanded the cotton textile machine manufacturing into a very profitable entity producing some of the most sophisticated looms of the time. In 1894 the company introduced the Northrop automatic loom, which "inaugurated the modern era of the ancient art of weaving", revolutionizing the industry. By 1931 a single operator could manage over 100 looms from the two that could be managed in 1894.

In addition to the company the Draper family was very much involved with the devleopment of the town of Hopedale creating a model company town. They built or provided the funds for nearly all of the civic buildings in town and built homes for the factory workers to live in.

Street address: Milford Town Line, Malquin Dr., Mendon Town Line and Upton Town Line , Hopedale Hopedale, MA County / Borough / Parish: Worcester Year listed: 2002 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Person, Architecture/Engineering, Event Periods of significance: 1950-1974, 1925-1949, 1900-1924, 1875-1899, 1850-1874, 1825-1849 Historic function: Commerce/Trade, Domestic, Education, Government, Industry/Processing/Extraction, Religion, Transportation Current function: Commerce/Trade, Domestic, Education, Government, Industry/Processing/Extraction, Religion, Vacant/Not In Use Privately owned?: no Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 1: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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