The large building in back of the [Hopedale Coal and Ice} office was the stable when I was growing up.  They had horses in it until 1930.  The horses were used for delivering coal and ice.  They were also used for plowing the roads and sidewalks.  I believe that my dad first bought Autocar two cylinder trucks in 1922.  They put on an ice plant about 1938, later a hardware store.  The small building in back of it, with the chimney, was the blacksmith shop.  He was a great guy and I used to enjoy watching him.  (A little more on the blacksmith.)I know that it was used until the mid '30s.  The lumber yard was on the other side of the bridge.  Bill Barney, September 12, 2002. At one meeting of the Council a lady presented a charge against her husband for exceedingly intemperate habits, and in consequence of his outrageous conduct, and continued threats, she had come to the conclusion that if he stayed in the family it must be as a boarder, and not as a husband and father.  The Council voted that they did not approve of his remaining in the Community, longer, in any capacity.  However, later on, the Council called a meeting to consider a written promise from the man to abstain from the use of all intoxicating beverages, for the future, and to acquiesce in all the rules and regulations of the Community if allowed to remain in the Domain.  Brother Ballou offered to be responsible for his good conduct, and the Council consented to his further residence. Ida D. Smith, Hopedale Reminiscences, p. 28.       The [Draper family] story starts in the 11th century with an ancestor who was a weaver and fuller of cloth.  We do not know the Christian name of this ancestor, but in those days it was the custom to add a descriptive phrase of some kind to the single name a man bore to distinguish him from others of the same name.  These descriptive phrases became in time the family name of later generations.  The descriptive name bestowed on this early ancestor was "Le Drapour," which in the language of that day meant "the weaver and fuller of cloth." Le Drapour went with William the Conqueror to England to become the first of many generations of English Drapers in each of which there was at least one weaver and dealer in cloth. William H. Chase, Five Generations of Loom Builders, p. 2.        Ira Draper was destined to give the Draper name a new and brilliant meaning in the industry with which it had been so long associated.  Ira was a prosperous farmer in Weston, Massachusetts in the early years of the 19th century.  He was a man of outstanding inventive ability.  Among his dozen or more inventions was the first threshing machine of which there is any record, the principles of which were incorporated in McCormick's later invention.  In 1816 Ira was granted a patent on an improved fly-shuttle hand loom.  A feature of that loom was the first self-acting loom temple.  For fifty years it kept the number of looms per weaver in American mills above that of their English cousins.  It was also notable because it was the second American textile invention, Whitney's cotton gin being the first, and because it became the foundation of the business of Draper Corporation. William H. Chase, Five Generations of Loom Builders, pp. 4-5.       In the early days of the Community many persons were interested in its establishment; and reformers with varied causes came to present their "isms" and secure a following.  Theodore Parker brought here his then radical ideas of the Bible and Jesus.  Samuel J. May and his brother were interested in prison reform and wished substantial aid.  Henry Wright came to advocate "free love," and living with your "affinity," kindred topics, but met with a chilling reception, and although he was allowed "free speech" was politely "frozen out."  Advocates of frugality in diet were numerous and experiments were tried to reduce the cost of living to the lowest figures without impairing the health.  Graham came to promote his flour.  Animal magnetism and clairvoyance were presented and their exponents gave many exhibitions at my own home, as did also the spiritual mediums, when the rappings, writing, and tipping of tables were investigated. Anna Thwing Field, Hopedale Reminiscences, pp. 20-21.       The mechanic shop was completed in the early Spring [1843], and the first story and basement were supplied with a considerable amount and variety of labor-saving machinery for facilitating work in carpentering, joinery, box-making, and kindred callings.  The story above was so partitioned and fitted up as to afford tolerable accommodations in its southern part for the printing press and its accessories, while the northern was made convenient and comfortable for school purposes and for services of public worship; in which twofold capacity it met our needs, in a rude fashion to be sure, until we were in a condition to errect a building for the same purposes the following year. Adin Ballou, The History of the Hopedale Community, p. 110.     It's not clear if this 1843 shop was the Little Red Shop. I think this may have been another building; one that was located on the lower pond and eventually became the Dutcher Temple Company. As far as I can tell, even though the Red Shop was moved once before 1900, it was never on the lower pond. It was close to the dam at Freedom Street. Shops powered by the dam of the lower pond were a few hundred yards downstream. DM                                                                                                  Little Red Shop Menu              Little Red Shop Interior Menu       Short Stories Menu                                                                               Back                    HOME                    Next