The block between Hopedale, Chapel, Dutcher and Social streets, probably taken in the 1890s. As you can see, this was before the fire station, the gas station and the Main Office were built. A bit of the earlier Draper office can be seen at the lower left. At that time Social Street crossed Hopedale Street and continued west for one block. The Chapel Street School is a bit to the left, with a flag on the roof. Beyond it, a bit to the right is the boarding house called the Park House. The Roper house, on Freedom Street can be seen near the top, middle.
The earlier Draper Main Office, on the west side of Hopedale Street..
The Draper Main Office
Of great importance to the [historic] district architecturally as well as historically is the Draper Company’s Main Office building, 25 Hopedale Street (1910 - 1911). Designed by Milford architect Robert Allen Cook and built by Woodbury & Leighton Company of Boston, the building is located across Hopedale Street from the plant, directly opposite the employee entrance on the erecting shop fronting Hopedale Street. This massive brick building, consisting of two stories on a raised basement, is one of the best examples in the historic district of the Renaissance Revival style. Thirty-one bays on Hopedale Street and eight bays on the side elevations at Chapel and Social Streets, the building originally had a T-shaped plan, though the central rear portion was removed in 1998 during its rehabilitation for adaptive reuse as an assisted living complex. Details include rustication of the basement level, splayed windows, a parapet and cornice, and door surrounds, string courses, and oversized keystones executed in red terra cotta. The Main Office building remains an imposing presence in the streetscape of the historic district and, with the erecting shop directly across the street, contributes to the “canyon” effect created by large corporate buildings in this block of Hopedale Street. Kathy Kelley Broomer, National Register Nomination.
Police hired for the 1913 strike at the Draper Company, shown by the Main Office.
Main Office on the left, a little of the Dutcher Street School, the gas station, middle, and on the right, the fire station.
Once the back, and now the front, this view shows the section that was removed when the office was converted to an assisted living facility.
Atria Draper Place, assisted living facility - Hopedale and Social streets - 2008.
Atria Draper Place, shown from the corner of Dutcher and Chapel streets, 2008.
The Draper Corporation Main Office
Atria Draper Place Now and Then Menu HOME