Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-02-05

I melon vine that had worked it's way
through a crack in the concrete
pavement.
You must recall some of this in
order to understand Hopewell as 1t is
now. About three years ago an en-
terprising trunk manufacturer
bought some of the machinery that
was being carted away and set up a
factory. Other manufacturers fol-
lowed, and today eight plants are
busy making artificial silk, china,
pulp, tools, and other articles. The
city has a population of 10000, one
plant alone employs 2,200, and some
workers come to the factories from
Petersburg. Broadway, HopewelPs
main street, is again a headquarters
for active business.
Making a tour of Hopewell is like
looking at a patchwork quilt con-
tanning bits of silk, torn calico, and
| substantial linen. There are a dozen
different sides to Hopewell, and each
is restricted to its W part of the
town.
In one section are rows of streets
lined with well kept homes such as
you find in any attractive suburb.
This is "A" village where officials of
the guncotton plant once lived. Most
Of the houses built here were of per-
manent construction and were more
pretentious than the homes for the
factory workers.
You leave this quarter and come
to another, entirely different section.
Here you pass hundreds of gray and
black tar paper bungalows. This Is
one of the villages where the work
ers and their families were housed.
Some of the temporary houses are
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scrapped. Whole blocks Of them,
however, have been bought by the
new factories to be rented to their
employees, and these homes are being
remodeled. Red, green, or brown
shingling is laid over the tar paper;
wooden underpinning is replaced by
brick; interiors are sealed. The
bungalows already had electricity
and u~p-to-date sanitation.
Still Resembles War Zone
Beyond the villages another side
of Hopewell comes into view. This
is the industrial section, the city of
Hopewell proper, In 1918 the du
Points thought that a year would
surely see their war plant s~alvaged.
For three years they have been tear
ing down, hauling away, selling, dy-
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the industrial section still look like
a war zone.
Materials in many of the shops
could not be sold because they had
been affected by acids. There was
nothing to do but dynamite these
buildings and fire the ruins. You
ride down roads with grassy fields
on either side and you see in the tall
| grass long rows of charred wooden
stakes and heaps of brick and junk
where for three years stood shops
| costing hundreds of thousands of
dollars.
One of the few acid houses not yet
dynamited stands in a lettering con-
dition as if it had been staggered by
an earthquake. Other abandoned
buildings are in better repair. A
million dollar p~owerhouse that could
be run by two men stands just as 1t
was locked up and left when the
g%uncotton plant closed down.
A number of warehouses and
shops have been taken over by the
new industries, One warehouse is
pointed out as a place where spools
/ for textile mills are being made by a
J young American ce. He had once
, worked in a textile plant n he had
learned that dogwood makes the
most satisfactory spools for such a
plant. When he left the air service
he took this warehouse and began
shipping in carloads of dogwood to
turn his knowledge into money.
Across the way from the a~vtator's
| plant Is another shop belonging to- a
business man. This manufacturer
had invented a d~ishwashing machine
and decided to buy his W plant
and make 1t himself.
In still another corner of this
patchwork city you Sc a row OF
tumbledown and deserted wooden
shacks on the bank of the Appomat-
tox river. This is one of the odd
relics of the war. 1t was a squatters
corner in the boom days. Workers
who could not find cottages were
permitted to build their own shacks
here and pay SO a month ground
rent until they could make better
ARRANGEMENTS. This land still belongs
to the Eppes family, the original
owners of Hopewell.
An Eppes received a grant of the
land from the English king in 1861
and came over on the good ship
Hopewell to take possession. The
Eppes mansion, on a high point :
land where the Appomattox river
Joins the James, is still another dis
tinct side of Hopewell. Here Is an
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