In 1886, Hopedale, Massachusetts separated from Milford, almost entirely due to the young, and successful Draper Corporation growing in The Dale village of town. When George and Eben Draper succeeded in creating their own town of Hopedale, with their factory at the center, it gave the Draper brothers almost complete control over the development of a 3,547 -acre community. In the ensuing decades the factory village of Hopedale became a “model” company town. The Draper Corporation controlled every aspect of the town and worker life in a paternalistic program that extended beyond social structure to include architecture and urban planning of the village, with the company developing hundreds of homes for workers, a town hall, library, churches, schools, and recreational facilities, generating an entire town centered around the industrial giant. Draper Corporation originally made doors, window sashes and blinds and ran a printing office, but they discovered early on that their most profitable business was making textile machinery. By 1892, with the advent of the Northrop Loom, Draper became the largest producer of textile machinery in the country! Due to their success at the end of the 19th century, much of the complex was built and rebuilt in fire-proof brick factory buildings with large windows to allow light and air into the facilities. Draper’s dominant position within the textile machine manufacturing industry began to erode shortly after World War II, and the company began to sell its company houses to their occupants as private homes in 1956. During the 1960s American textile machinery makers such as Draper lost their technological leadership to foreign manufacturers due to cheap labor, and the general American textile industry collapsed. The plant eventually closed in 1980, and has sat vacant until the bulldozers came this year. The site is undergoing a full demolition, which is striping this town of its historic heart. It is truly sad to see.
Buildings of New England 
The final end of an era. I still remember my time as a watchman. First it started falling over. Then it fell over.
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So sad to see this complex go.. It’s history is intertwined with that of Hopedale and its founding. Such a loss.
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My great great grandfather, the silver-tongued patriot, Jedediah Springfield, once expressed that this cromulent town had such hope and Draper Factory Building, revived this community, and where a noble spirit embiggened them all.
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There were, maybe still are, railroad tracks near the factory. Are those going to be part of the new plans going forward? A monorail to get people around a nice town center would be nice.
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Likely not sadly. If the town doesn’t have enough to require preservation of the complex, they wouldn’t have enough money to do a monorail and make it financially sustainable 😦
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Is there a plaque commemorating the building, or some sort of historic marker? In Shelbyville, they planted a lemon tree with a statue and bench. I know in Springfield, they had a small museum and sundial placed in the town center, made available to the public to learn about the building’s prior use. It seems a shame that this beautiful piece of town history is being demolished due to budgetary, environmental and political reasons. Is it being turned into a rail yard or doomed to be used tire lot or comic book store? I absolutely love this site, I recently discovered ‘Italianate’ is the name of descriptive architecture (not the aforementioned building, of course). I wonder how the owners of this page feel about the blog site ‘McMansion Hell’- it’s examples of houses that combine architectural styles. It’s quite funny. But, I’m a retiree, I enjoy this sort of thing.
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I’m glad you like it! I am still learning the ropes in terms of website design so bear with me! As far as a plaque or some other marker in Hopedale, I am not sure what the plans for the town are. I surely hope they are going to install something since the complex basically helped found the town.
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I recently came to the site after searching online for this particular building. I was driving through town with my children and my children’s children following just a three month absence. Things have “progressed” so fast.
It could be a case of Adin Ballou’itis talking, but it would be nice to see a portion of this building renovated as a historical society for the town. I would be happy to volunteer as I’m sure others would as well.
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Hay, Mayor Quimby, nice to see you here. As to the monorail idea, I suppose it would be easier to hop on that than taking ten minutes to walk around the Draper site and the center of town. No word yet on what the owner of the property plans to do. Here’s where you can find lots of info on the Draper family and Draper Corp. https://www.hope1842.com/drapermenu.html/
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As I am drove back home to Hopedale for Thanksgiving I was shocked at how much progress had been made with demolition. I told my children how their uncle worked at Draper for many years before eventually opening a bowlarama a few towns over with his Uncle Al that unfortunately burned down. Great Uncle Al had pictures in the bowlarama of his time at Draper. There is one of a parade in front of the building that I would like to donate. He mentioned that the mill couldn’t keep up with cheaper labor and technology into the late 70s and 80s. He also joked about his colleague that worked there as well. Said probably best because one man Mr. Skinner who was a part time locksmith also lived on password drive and probably would have used “password” for the code to get into the building if it was still around today. I would like to donate pictures that are probably from the 50s or 60s. Because they were in the dark bowlarama and various attics over the years they are still in great shape. Can’t wait to see what they do with the land.
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So you wrote back in November and I’m just seeing this now. Guess I don’t get here often enough. Do you still have the pictures? In situations like this, I like to take pictures of the pictures, and then they go to the Little Red Shop Museum.
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I am never tired of viewing Historic Hopedale buildings. I remember Donny on Evergreen walked into office saying: ‘Hello Dean, me and my forthright chums think it’d be quite corking of you to turn over the oil well to the local energy concern.” We never guffawed so hard. But
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