Hopedale History November 1, 2014 No. 263 Homes with Names Hopedale in October
G&U train rolling through the Parklands - October 13, with a background of fall color.
Milford News photos, 1972 - Baseball awards, tennis awards, police at cemetery, Women's Club book awards. Additions have been made to: Now and Then - The Larches (First home there destroyed by fire - 1909.) Mendon Menu (Mendon Historical Society program news for 2014-1015) Clare Hill Draper (Obituary and photo of the house that stood where Memorial School is now.) Parklands Map, 1904 (Henry Patrick wins suit against town for price paid for land taken.) Cub Scouts (Milford News photo of Cubs in about 1950.) The Upton "Cave" (Link in textbox to the latest Milford News article - speculation on the origin.) Deaths <><><><><><><><><><> Twenty-five years ago - November 1989 - First commercial dial-up Internet connection in North America is made, by The World STD. Cold War and Fall of the Berlin Wall: Günter Schabowski accidentally states in a live broadcast press conference that new rules for traveling from East Germany to West Germany will be put in effect "immediately." East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, allowing its citizens to travel freely to West Germany for the first time in decades (November 17 celebrates Germans tearing the wall down. There were several other stories in November 1989 connected to the end of the Cold War. Click here to go to the Wikipedia 1989 page for more. Fifty years ago - November 1964 - Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson defeats Republican challenger Barry Goldwater with over 60 percent of the popular vote. The British House of Commons votes to abolish the death penalty for murder in Britain. Vietnam War: United States National Security Council members, including Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, and Maxwell Taylor, agree to recommend a plan for a 2-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam, to President Lyndon B. Johnson.
<><><><><><><><><><> Homes with Names A few weeks ago I began putting some notes together about Hopedale mansions with names to add to the Origins of Street and Place Names page. I kept adding and adding and eventually decided it would be better to use it as No. 263. Of the ten houses below, seven are still standing. If you'd like to own one, the good news is that you have three to pick from. You missed out on Oakledge, but The Crossways, Urncrest and The Ledges are for sale. The Crossways - 105 Adin Street - Bristow and Queena Draper. A Milford News article from May 11, 1952, reported that Mr. and Mrs. Bristow Draper, Jr. would be leaving their home at Griffin Gate and moving to The Crossways in about a month. (Bristow, Sr. had died in 1944 and Queena in 1949.) It must have been a brief stay. According to a Milford Daily News article written in 1978, "The estate was sold at auction about 1953 and the late Dr. Nicholas Mastroianni was the successful bidder. The Mastroianni family occupied the house until about two years ago, when the doctor's widow built a smaller home on the property, fronting on Mendon Street. She moved from The Crossways at that time, selling the large home to her son, Nicholas, Jr. and his wife, Charlotte." Bristow, Jr. retired from Draper Corporation in 1952 and died in Florida in 1957 at the age of 49. Griffin Gate - 66 Adin Street - Bristow Draper, Jr., and Margaret (Alewel) Draper. The house was built in 1935. Griffin Gate was possibly also the name of the earlier mansion at that site owned by George Albert and Jessie Preston Draper. Jessie was from Lexington, Kentucky. There's a Griffin Gate area in Lexington. Could that be the site of the nineteenth century home of the Prestons? The house was named for the griffins that sat for years on the wall at the end of the driveway. The first people to live at Griffin Gate after the Drapers were William and Anna Child. He was vice president of Draper Corporation. Harvest Hill - Mendon Street, west of the river, north side, in the area of Fitzgerald Drive and the entrance to Hopedale Village Cemetery. Samuel Walker. From Ballou's History of Milford: "His leading business has been in the leather, boot and shoe line. He owns the ancient Chapin lands near the Mill River, toward Mendon, and has erected a costly family mansion on the site once occupied by Adams Chapin, Esq. He has vastly improved it's grounds and surroundings, so that it has scarcely a rival seat in town. He is president of Home National Bank, and constantly building dwellings and places of business for the accommodation of the incoming population at So. Hopedale." The house was razed long ago. Holiday House - 54 Adin Street - Holiday House was originally the home of Charles and Frances (Draper) Colburn. It later became the home of Frances's nephew, Clare Draper and his family. It's now the site of Memorial School. The Larches - 11 William(s) Street - The first house on the site was the home of George Otis Draper, and, for a while, until their divorce, Lillie Duncan Draper. In 1909, he sold it to his aunt, Hannah Thwing Draper Osgood. A short time later, the house burned. She built the one that's there now. Later, for a few years, the home was known as Hillcrest when the Townshends lived there. Hannah Draper Osgood Townshend was the daughter of Edward and Hannah Thwing Draper Osgood. (I've seen the name spelled both Townsend and Townshend. Even the Draper and Preston genealogy book has it both ways. Townshend seems to have been used more frequently.) Hannah Draper Townshend was a twin sister of Fanny Osgood. Fannie and her mother also lived at the Larches for a few years. Both Fanny and her mother died in 1929. The Townshends were there after that. Then it was used for some years as A Draper Corporation inn. In the years of Rockwell ownership of Draper, Robert Page, president of the Draper Division lived there. The home is now operated by Riverside Community Care/Crossroads Clubhouse, a rehabilitative community for adults with mental illness.
(Draper) Osgood. The house was bought in 1946 by Harry and Elizabeth Lacey. They operated a furniture and house furnishings business there under the name, The Harel House. Dana Park was named for Dana Osgood. McVitty Road was named for Louis McVitty, the real estate developer who bought the Osgood property and put in the streets. The Ledges - 55 Adin Street - Gov. Eben Sumner Draper and his wife, Nannie (Bristow) Draper built the first house on the property. That was razed in the early 1920s and the present house was built by their son, Eben Sumner Draper, Jr. In 1960, the property was purchased by Dr. and Mrs. Vincent Arone and operated as The Ledges, a community for developmentally disabled adults. Oakledge - 34 Adin Street - Home of Frank and Malinda Dutcher. The house there now is the second one on the site. The Dutcher's first home there burned down in 1909. In 1952, the Howes family bought the house and converted it to a nursing home. It was recently purchased by the Seven Hills Foundation. Unrcrest - 85 Adin Street - William and Frances (Smith) Lapworth. Lapworth's fortune was made producing elastic fabric. For some years his factory was among the Draper shops in Hopedale. Later he moved the operation to Milford. Wind'll Blow - Adin Street - Eben Draper Bancroft and Lelia (Coburn) Bancroft. It was near where Steel Road meets Adin Street. It was razed long ago; probably in the early 1940s. By the 1890s, the Draper mansions in Hopedale were becoming their summer homes. The winters were spent in Boston for the "social season," with the men commuting to Hopedale for work. Even in the summer, they weren't in Hopedale all the time. There were trips to Europe and vacations at Narragansett, the Cape and Bar Harbor. Click here to read about their Boston homes.
a link to the menu for them. Also, here's a war veteran page about Philip Callery that I just added after receiving an email from the Netherlands asking about him. . |
Griffin Gate, 66 Adin Street. The name was used for the present house shown below. I don't know if the George Albert Draper house, on the same site, shown above, was also called Griffin Gate, but I think it probably was. |
Harvest Hill, Mendon Street. The picture is from the 1888 birdseye view of Hopedale. |
Holiday House - Adin Street |
Above - the first Larches. Below - The Larches built after the first one burned in 1909. |
Above - The Ledges - The home built by Gov. and Mrs. Eben Sumner Draper. Below, the present house on the estate known as The Ledges, build by Eben Sumner Draper, Jr. |
Oakledge, 34 Adin Street. Above, the first home of Frank and Malinda Dutcher. It burned in 1903. Below, the Dutcher's second home on the same site. |
Urncrest, 85 Adin Street - The home of William Lapworth. Above, the original home. Below, the home with alterations. |
Wind'll Blow, Adin Street. The home of Eben Draper Bancroft and Lelia (Coburn) Bancroft. |
Above and below - Lawlah, the Greene Street home of Dana and Laird Osgood. It was better known in more recent times as the Harel House. |
Adin Street - Probably the steps that once led to Wind'll Blow. |
Almost two years after posting the article above, I learned of another house in Hopedale that had a name. It's the one across the street from the Bancroft Library, shown above. Although it was long known as the Day House, for the original owners, Charles and Lura Day, it was originally called Bellecrest. |
The Warren and Malinda Dutcher home at the corner of Adin Dutcher streets was named Graceland. |