Ebenezer Draper News Today

For decades, Draper Corp. loomed over Hopedale The Milford Daily News HOPEDALE — With sounds of an excavator in the distance picking up tons of dirt, local historian Dan Malloy recounted growing up in town when the dominant force was Draper Corp. Not only was the business the lifeblood of the town, providing 4,200 jobs at its peak and award-winning housing, the factory was also, at one point, the biggest automatic loom maker in the world, producing more than 2,000 looms a month, according t...

On Aug. 25, 1978, Rockwell International sent a letter to employees at its Hopedale plant, notifying its 600 workers of the company’s plan to consolidate its manufacturing operations elsewhere. Rockwell, which purchased control of Draper Corp. in 1967, cited several reasons for this closure, including what it called the energy crunch of 1973-74, increased foreign competition, and the expenses of maintaining the plant, which was over 60 years old at the time. “By this letter, we wish to assu...