The picturesque starting place for the BostonMarathon, the town of Hopkinton, Massachusetts,is home to a rich variety of industries and businesses.Residents here have strong ties to the community, asevidenced by the town's wealth of festivals, public parks,and gardens.This exciting new photographic history takes us to thetime when electric streetcars ran in Hopkinton and thecoming of the railroad shaped the growth of the town.We catch glimpses of residents hard at work in the area'sold boot and shoe shops, granite quarries, sawmills, andcranberry bogs. From views of early town government,schools, and church buildings to intimate scenes ofhome and everyday life, the over 150 rare and previouslyunpublished images contained in Hopkinton create adramatic mosaic of the town's past.
Author Gordon E. Hopper is a retired engineering writer, historian, and railroading enthusiast. He has published nearly one thousand historical newspaper features and is now a part-time news reporter for the Milford Daily News. Gathered from the extensive archives of the Hopkinton Historical Society, Boston Edison, and the collections of Ruth Ward, Earl Ctonin, and the author, the images presented here help us to create a link between the quieter days of the past and the fast-moving times of the present.