Hopedale

The former home of Hopedale’s Green Mountain Chocolate Co., which closed in June, was sold for $1.7 million to a corporation registered to Uxbridge cannabis entrepreneurs Timothy Phillips and Kevin MacConnell, according to the Worcester County Registry of Deeds.

Grafton & Upton Railroad Co., a rail company in Hopedale which has met controversy with a local developer, received a $500,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s Industrial Rail Access Program, according to a MassDOT announcement on Friday.

A Worcester-based developer who owns almost 80 acres of Hopedale's downtown, including the old Draper Mill property, is suing the Grafton & Upton Railroad Co. for allegedly blocking access between his properties, according to a filing with the Worcester Superior Court. 

The Gov. Charlie Baker Administration announced on Friday it was allocating $433,381 to three Central Massachusetts towns newly designated as Green Communities under the state’s program.

It is impossible to extricate the history of Hopedale, a town which is home to just shy of 6,000 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, from the Draper Corp., which most locals refer to as the “Draper mill,” or, simply, “Drapers.”

After announcing in August that a quarter of the 1.8-million-square-foot Draper Mill in Hopedale would be demolished to make the site more amenable to new development, the owner of the historic centerpiece of the town said Tuesday the facility now will be entirely torn down.

Former WBJ Editorial Intern Devina Bhalla and News Editor Grant Welker discuss Bhalla's two-month deep-dive into slavery's history and legacy into the Central Massachusetts economy in this episode of the WBJ Podcast.

The modern Massachusetts economy has been growing for 400 years, since settlers first landed in Plymouth in 1620. And for 245 of those 400 years – more than 60% – the Massachusetts economy was tied to the legal institution of slavery.

Plans are still in place to revitalize Hopedale's roughly 1-million-square-foot Draper mill. But first, about a quarter of it needs to be demolished, according to the owner.

Hopedale marijuana accessory company Green Goddess Supply has launched an enclosed marijuana home grow system.