By Jacqueline Prusack Treasurer EFHS
and Bernard Rudberg President Hopewell Depot Restoration Inc.
Map from 1876
Have you ever wondered why Hopewell is called a Junction?
The original Hopewell Hamlet is on Beekman Road where Carpenter Road crosses. After the first railroad was built through the area. business began to grow BrO\Bld the depot. When a second and third railroad joined, Hopewell Junction was born.
The first railroad opened through Hopewell in 1869 and ran from Dut.chess Junction on the Hudson River through Fishkill. Hopewell. Millbrook. Pine Plains. and Millerton. The second Railroad came in 1881 from the east through Danbury, Connecticut. Poughquag and Stonnville. Ten years later the line from Poughkeepsie also joined at Hopewell Junction.
Hopewell Junction became a thriving railroad center with a roadhouse, a turntable, and two rail yards for sorting cars. storing coal. and watering cattle in transit. Milk was collected ftom dairy fanns along the line and processed in a BonIco’s plant in Hopewell Junction. At the peak. there were six box cars a day of bottled milk shipped to New York City. Hopewell Junction became the base fur huge steam engines used to boost heavy fteight trains eastbound over the mountain through Stormville and Poughquag. As many as 30 engines a day were serviced in the roadhouse. This “pusher” service continued into the 1950′s when diesel engines became powerful enough to climb the mountain without help. Hopewell Junction was a busy, smoky place.
As in many other small towns, the railroad depot became the center of activity. It represented the connection to the outside world for many people who bad never been more than a few miles from the fium.. The depot had the first telegraph in the area which brought news and weather forecasts posed on the depot wall. The depot had the first telephone and newspaper deliveries. If you ordered a new stove. it was delivered by train. A fanner could ride the train into town fur a show and be back home again for the next day’s chores. People ftom the city could take a weekend in the mountains and be back at work Monday morning. The railroads established our commuter life style.
Many hundreds of men worked these lines bringing food, supplies. ammunition, and even slave up to Dutchess County. The railroads played a huge role in those times and even students from Hopewell depended upon them to bring them to Beacon to attend school. lt was a daily happening to hear the train whistle signaling their arrival in Hopewell Junction.
While you are out for a Sunday drive with your fBnuly. head down Railroad Avenue near the Hopewell Inn and park your car nearby as you see the Depot come into focus. Get out and walk: around this historic site and see if there is some way you could help to restore the only remaining building in Hopewell Junction. It would be the greatest prize for the end of the rail trail for one to sit and contemplate the history of our once powerful railroads.
Hi… Reading about the railroad being central to the existence of Hopewell brings back fond memories… I lived on Railroad Ave from 1951 until 1968… My parents owned the house that is next to what was a Gay’s Pizza Parlor… Before that it was Laurel’s Bake Shop and before that it was one of the locations of the Hopewell Inn… There were no numbers..There was no mail delivery…We went to the post office that was where there is an Antique shop now… There was Andersons’ store… I think it’s a private home now… The Beasimers’ family home is next door.. The Case family lived on the corner. Their home is gone now… The Quackenbush garage was on the opposite corner… The Espicopal church was where Frankie Superette is and St. Columba was where there is a furniture store… The funeral parlor up the block was Stevensons’ house… Mr. Stevenson hardware store sold nearly everything…. I think that corner is the only thing in Hopewell that has not changed. The roundhouse had stopped being used but we played in its ruins on our way to the school just past what was Dr. Muzzacato’s office… Dr. White and Dr. Robinson’s office was just down the block…There was a farm where the Cannizzaros’ motors moved into by the railroad station; and where Turners’ restaurant are…Before the hill was made more level up on Oak Street we sledded down; and came to a halt at the tracks…I understand that there is a fence around it now… The Martin family lived in the first house.. then the bake shop..then our house…then the Carusos…then the Whiteleys before you went up the hill..
Card family lived in the last house I think…In the 1920′s my grandparents lived with their seven children up on the hill behind was I guess is Main Street. Their last name was Goebel.. My grandfather Charles C. Goebel was a fireman on the railroad engines.. A job that was soon taken over by modern methods… My dad Charles A. O’Meara worked on the tracks in the 50′s up until probably 1956 or so…..I spent most summers at the recreation park.. Learn to swin at Schallers just the other side of the tracks on Bridge Street.. The church is the same and a few of the houses on the street are the same… .I’m grateful for good memories; and an ability to hold on to the values that still stand me in good stead today…Thanks for the walk down memory lane….