Summertime is a great time to get to know the Town of Hopedale just a little bit better. 

History of Hopedale 

Begin your journey with a review of the History of Hopedale which you can find at www.hopedale-ma.gov/about-us/pages/history-hopedale. Here, you will learn how, “in 1842, Adin Ballou and his followers, idealists who wanted to combine biblical individualism with social responsibility and religious liberalism, purchased 600 acres in what is now downtown Hopedale to establish Fraternal Community Number One. Thirty houses, chapel and workshops were built on an architectural plan for the 170 people who joined in the social experiment, which combined farming with manufacturing, and took strong social stands on temperance, women’s rights and abolition. Unfortunately, disagreements over how to administer the community ended in bankruptcy by 1856 and George and Ebenezer Draper, followers of Ballou, took over the property.”

The town has a very interesting history. 

Little Red Shop Museum 

A great starting point is the Little Read Shop Museum which is located on the banks of the Mill River. The circa 1845 Little Red Shop, the oldest remaining industrial building in Hopedale, was the original home of the Draper Company which manufactured parts for textile looms. The company expanded to the complete manufacture of looms and all their parts, eventually becoming the world’s largest textile loom manufacturing operation. 

During the 1950s, the Little Red Shop was the Draper Corporation museum. Today, the scope has expanded to include the history of the town and the region. 

The Little Red Shop Museum holds artifacts related to the town’s development, the region, and the textile industry (in which Hopedale played a starring role). However, unlike our cousins to the north (The Lowell National Historical Park, The American Textile History Museum) and the south (The Slater Mill), the Little Red Shop Museum is not a museum about cloth production. The Little Red Shop began as a machine shop, and the Draper Corporation, which it became, produced the looms used all over the world to create high-quality, cotton-woven fabrics.

Because the Draper Corporation was the single most significant and longest-lasting influence on the Town of Hopedale, it often overshadows other important histories of the area. The Little Red Shop Museum preserves this history’s many facets and shows how that history is still relevant today.

Explore Hopedale

There is so much more to see, and learn about, in this little town of 6,000 people. Other areas of interest include: 

A walking/bike tour brochure of Hopedale is available in the museum or at adinballou.org/walktour.shtml 

A walking tour of Hopedale by the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor is available at the museum or at blackstoneheritagecorridor.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Hopedale-Walking-Tour.pdf 

History of Hopedale by Dan Malloy at www.hope1842.com/ 

Hopedale Women’s History Project at hopedalewomen.org/ 

Enjoy your time learning more about this gem of a town. 

Source: www.littleredshopmuseum.org/