Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, Wakefield, Mass.

Title

Hopkins House, Hopkins Street circa 1880s

Description

Owned by Ebenezer Sumner Hopkins, the 'old Hopkins place' was featured in the C. F. Richardson stereoscopic view around 1880. A photographer, Richardson was active in photographic circles, both locally and nationally, serving as president of the Boston Photographic Association in 1881, and as a correspondent for The Philadelphia Photographer, 'an illustrated monthly journal devoted to photography.' In addition to stereoscopic pictures of local churches and landmarks, Richardson also photographed private residents. The 1890 List of Taxable Polls and Estates for the Town of Wakefield lists Ebenezer Hopkins' property as a dwelling house, another house and an 'old home' on Hopkins Street, a shed, stable, two carriages, 15 cows and three horses, and nearly 40 acres of land on and west of Hopkins Street, Brook Street and Prospect Street, listed as orchard, meadow, tillage and pasture. The value of this personal property was listed as $900 and his real estate was valued at $7,000 which required him to pay a tax of $128.40. He was one of 84 Wakefield residents who had a Johnson hand force pump on his property which required him to sign a pledge that he would use it to fight any fire within one-quarter mile. Hopkins was born in South Reading (now Wakefield) in 1816 and died in Derry, NH in 1907. He lived most of his 91 years in Wakefield where he worked as a farmer. He and his wife, Mary Louisa Parker, had seven children. Their sons, Herbert and Joseph, were listed as farmers on the property, in the 1917-1918 street listing.

Image from the Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department annual calendar, 2018

Photo courtesy of JC Marketing Associates

Contributor

Institution: Lucius Beebe Memorial Library

Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department (Wakefield, Mass.)

D'Onofrio, Jayne M.

Coverage

Massachusetts--Middlesex (county)--Wakefield

Hopkins Street (Wakefield, Mass.)

Date

1880-1889

Format

image/jpeg

Publisher

Wakefield, Mass. : Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department

Subject

Architecture, Domestic

Fire prevention

Type

still image

Photographs

Original Format

1 picture: b & w

Extent

24 x 24 cm