Hopedale Massachusetts (MA) Real Estate Tour

http://www.hopedalemarealestate.com Tour Hopedale, MA neighborhoods, condominium developments, subdivisions, schools, landmarks, recreational areas, and town offices. Hopedale, Massachusetts occupies the valley of the upper Mill River. Benjamin Albee set up a grist mill on the Mill River to grind settlers' corn in 1669 in the first recorded settlement. Until the mid-19th century, Hopedale followed the pattern of many communities with a combination of agriculture and small industry. But 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 brothers 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. The Drapers believed that good houses make good workers and created a model self-contained company town with one of the best collections of architecturally significant double houses in the country, built on hills and in valleys in garden settings which preserved the views. The company charged low rents, and provided high quality housing, impeccable maintenance and recreation opportunities. In addition, the Drapers donated the high school, playground and bandstand to the town and built roads, sidewalks, sewage systems and water and gas lines to service their 250 buildings of worker housing. The Drapers' secular, paternalistic industrial complex was highly successful, resulting in an integrated, planned community with innovative 19th and early 20th century employee housing, a central institutional complex and proprietors' estates, all of which remain essentially intact in Hopedale today. For other town tours visit http://www.virtualhomes.com . For towns in MA visit http://www.ma-virtualhomes.com . For MA relocation information go to http://www.relocationma.com . For a MA MLS map search visit http://www.virtualhomesmls.com .