Blackstone River Valley National Historic Park – MA sites

February 17, 2023 by Trish in UncategorizedComments Off

February 8, 2023.

Most of the Blackstone River Valley sites are in Rhode Island (separate post coming soon), but there are two self-guided walking tours in MA described on the NPS website. One is for Hopedale. This community started as a Christian commune and evolved into a factory town.

Adin Ballou Park contains a likeness of the community’s founder and the only remains of the original commune farmhouse
The Draper Company operated a massive textile production/machine works here. The buildings stood from the 1860s all the way up until they were demolished just this past year (2022).
The Little Red Shop, now a museum, once housed the Draper brothers as they worked on ways to improve the mechanical weaving process.
The Parklands is a 200+ acre park where the residents of Hopedale, then and now, can enjoy trails, water, and trees.

The walking tour continues past original housing of the Dutcher Street Company, but I did not take photos because those houses are occupied today. It didn’t seem right to post pictures of people’s private property and belongings.

This Unitarian church was built in 1898 as a memorial to George and Hannah Draper.
This building was donated by a member of the original Hopedale community, Joseph Bancroft. There is a large fountain next to the building, but it was covered during my visit.

After my walk around Hopedale, I headed to nearby Whitinsville, another manufacturing town.

Whitinsville was managed by the Whitin family for over a hundred years and consisted of an iron forge, a cotton mill, and the world’s largest textile machine shop.

The Brick Mill was a cotton mill built in 1826 by the Whitins.
Part of what used to be the largest textile machine manufacturer in the world (left). The community center (right) was built by the Whitins in 1922 and remains operational and popular today.
John Whitin’s first mansion, now a retirement home
Whitin Park, location of Whitin’s second mansion
1875 Victorian house of Gustavus Taft, Whitin’s Superintendent of Works (now a funeral home).
Memorial Square includes a variety of war memorials.

One can also see row houses and other buildings from the Whitin days; however, those buildings are in current use as private homes/apartments, so I did not feel comfortable taking photos.

The rest of this National Park site is in Rhode Island, which I’ll visit in the spring.