HOPEDALE-With the sound of excavators digging into tons of dirt in the distance, local historian Dan Malloy tells the story of his growing up in the town, when the dominant force was Draper.

The company was not only the lifeblood of the town, it provided 4,200 jobs and award-winning housing in its heyday. The factory was once the world’s largest manufacturer of automatic looms, producing more than 2,000 looms per month. A local historian Linda Hixon (Linda Hixon) and the Milford Daily News Archive. 

On a gloomy afternoon last week, 79-year-old Malloy said: “They sold a lot.” At the time, construction workers were demolishing a 1.8 million square-foot facility. "The loom is their main product."

But all this came to an abrupt end in August 1980, when the last two employees went on strike for the last time at Draper. After more than 130 years of operation, the lights are bright and the gate is always closed. 

For more than 40 years thereafter, most of the facility was empty. Over the years, various buildings have been demolished. Then, in December, Philip Shwachman's company, First American Reality, which owns approximately 80 acres of land, announced that he would demolish the entire complex and plan a major reconstruction, which may include housing, shops, and bike lanes. 

The Draper family may have long since disappeared from Hopedale, but the story about the Draper Company and how the Draper family became the most influential and influential participants in town began with a pastor’s contribution to the utopian Christian society and patents The dream of technology. 

Historian Anita Cardillo Danker wrote in her academic journal article that Pastor Adin Baru, a monotheistic pastor from Cumberland, Rhode Island, wanted to create a Christian community dedicated to ending slavery, supporting women’s rights and sharing Commodities and other businesses, "From Christian Utopia to Corporate City: Community Life and Corporate Patriarchal Style in Hopedale, Massachusetts in the 19th and 20th Centuries."

Danker wrote that in 1842, about 28 people decided to start this utopia on some 258 acres of farmland across the Mill River in a remote area of ​​Milford.

Hickson said the community believed in "all things that were progressive at the time." 

"Abolition of the death penalty, temperance, women's rights-all major progress issues. Women in the town began voting in 1842," she said. "Think about it, when women across the country got the right to vote - it was 1920. 80 years later, other women in the country got the right to vote. He had this vision of this utopia, where they could argue that they were corrupt Live this hidden life outside the government."

Among the 28 people was Ebenezer Draper, who became one of Ballou's closest allies and eventually became the chairman of the community. Malloy said that in order to bring income to the community, Draper founded a business based on his father's patented automatic loom temple technology. 

"It became the most successful product in the Hopedale community," Malloy said. "After the disappearance of other communes at the same time, this is what allowed them to continue to exist for a long time."   

Malloy said that in 1853, Ebenezer's brother George moved to the city. George Draper plans to expand the family business and make it a more mature participant, while Ebenezer is more interested in aligning with the ideals and goals of the Christian utopian society founded by Ballou.  

Malloy said: "I usually say that even if you look at the pictures of these people, Ebenezer seems to be a person who truly believes in a better way of life." "George looks like a shrewd businessman." 

Malloy said that by the mid-1850s, George had convinced his brothers that they were basically the backbone of the community and could push for more control. 

Danker wrote that although the community is performing well financially, there are internal struggles in the economy and people's daily lives. Small cracks appeared in the walled garden of utopian society. 

She wrote: "The economic life of the Hopedale settlement has never been efficient and has always been characterized by individualism and the struggle between community power." 

According to Danker, at the annual community meeting in the mid-1850s, Ebenezer Draper, then president, stated that the community’s net benefit exceeded $7,000. However, it has a small gap of $300. 

Drapers and other Hopedale officials reached an agreement that allowed Drapers to repay the debt, but also gained more control. 

Danke wrote: "The negotiations reached a hasty compromise. The Draper family will take over the industrial property rights and repay all the debts of the community in turn." "Residents can stay as they please, and newcomers can settle freely in the village. , The church is maintained, but all the decorations of the public lifestyle have been discarded. The Christian utopia is about to give way to a corporate town."  

Malloy said that in the next 30 years, the Drapers continued to expand their business, producing various textile-related machinery. As they became more successful, they expanded their scale. They hired inventors to help make better and more competitive machines. 

By the end of the 1880s and early 1890s, they began to sell the famous Northrop automatic loom. Later, during the Second World War, the company produced equipment for the military. 

The Drapers not only established their own business, but also left the town behind. Danke wrote that they have built and provided much wealth to the communities they love. 

"The story of Hopedale is the story of the United States, but this community is unique, because unlike many desolate and depressing factory towns, chimneys and soot appear in the landscape and leave scars. Hopedale has evolved into a model industrial village. It has lush sections, excellent schools, beautiful public buildings, and award-winning working housing," she wrote. "These are gifts from the Draper family. They are typical entrepreneurs with a social conscience." 

But just as they love Hopedale itself, they also love control. According to Dank, the towns under the Draper family are very different from the towns under Baru. 

"Hopedale may also be called Draperville, so the family has very strict control over town development," Danker wrote. "When Hopedale separated from Milford in 1886, it was an initiative initiated by the perpetually opportunistic George Draper. The first by-law strictly regulated the planting of trees, the construction of fences, and the parking of trucks. , Even kite-flying and kite-throwing. Baseball on the streets of Hopedale." 

A labor dispute occurred. The workers organized a strike against the company. She wrote that a forward named Emilio Bacchiocchi was killed by a policeman.   

By the mid-1960s, business did not look good. Malloy said that overseas competition has become fierce, and the company's innovation speed has not been as fast as before. In 1967, it was acquired by the manufacturing group Rockwell International. 

Malloy said: "There was some hope at the time that Rockwell would have funds to invest in research to obtain some updated modern looms." "Draper did introduce several different types of what they called the Shuttle looms use different methods to shuttle back and forth instead of using shuttles. But they really haven't kept up with the competition, so when you enter the 70s, they are laying off more and more workers."   

Malloy said this eventually led to its closure in 1980. 

In the next few years, this property went through several hands. Malloy said that some smaller companies appeared inside, but they only used 5% of the facilities. 

Sometime in 1988, some pipes broke and water started to gush. Malloy said that some people have noticed that the building will continue to deteriorate after the mess is cleaned up. 

It was also at that time that there were plans to redevelop the site and build 1,200 apartment units there. But according to the Milford Daily News archive, the plan was never realized. 

Shwachman purchased part of the property for the first time in January 1990, and over the years he has purchased approximately 80 acres of land that his company now owns.  

You can contact Cesareo Contreras at 508-626-3957 or ccontreras@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @cesareo_r.