I lived in Cumberland my entire childhold. I used to ride my bike from Angel Road all the way to Ann & Hope to browse the sports stuff, the electronics and video games, and they eat in the cafe and play the arcade machines. My parents and I used to go there all the time, (especially my dad, with the garden shop). That store was a major part of my childhood.

My husband work at the Cumberland store. He use to put bikes together. I love to watch the carriages go,up and down. I’m 56 know , I remember going at Christmas.

Interesting documentary of a place I used to go shopping at in the 1960s with my parents! I still remember the store inside, the pizza, the escalators to move our shopping carts upstairs and downstairs, even the restrooms. As a kid it was a whole different world from the town I grew up in over the state line in Massachusetts. As a kid I always wondered why we went shopping in Cumberland Rhode Island, but in doing genealogy I realized that my dad and his parents and grandparents all lived in Pawtucket RI, just up the road! While the opening video was nice, I do not think it really has anything to do with the rest of this documentary. A more appropriate opening of introduction would be to show images of Cumberland RI, parks, scenery, and the Blackstone River and Blackstone Canal transitioning into what would become the the Ann & Hope Mill complex.

My grandmother was born in 1883. As a teenager and young woman around the turn of the century, she worked in the textile factory there. As a teenager in the late 60s, I also worked there in various positions during the Ann & Hope retail “heyday”. A great documentary and I remember the stories of the flood, Sam Walton, and the ribbon selling.

My Mother was a Hostess at Ledgemont Country Club in Seekonk Mass......1961-1966....so I would have been 5-10 years old.....Mr Chase the owner of the Ann and Hope store was a member....and I knew him well....He got my mother fired in 1966. because he made her go sing with the band on New Years Eve......and she got fired for it ....because the club Manager I remember his name was Mr Jardine....was jealous of my Mom because the members liked her so much............Mr Chase was a super nice guy he even picked me up a few times and took me to the swimming pool at the club when the club had guest days...It was a strickly Jewish members only place...... .............All my Xmas presents came from Ann and Hope from about the age of 6 till I was in high school years later..........so from 1966 till 1974 even after he got my Mom fired she used to have employee privileges at the Store.....one of which was on Xmas Eve....His employees and special friends i guess like my Mom could shop for everything that was in the store that hadn't sold...for pennies on the dollar there was even big piles of stuff you could have for free...My Mom told me all this years later.......I always wondered why lots of my presents were missing pieces....and why Santa brought me so so many clothes... ..............I can remember when my Mom got remarried when I was about 8 and bought her first house. she told me Mr Chase furnished most of the house... all the mattresses and bedroom sets and odds and ends....all because he was always upset that he had got her fired...she later told me....that In about 1968 or so.. When. the suede jackets with the Fringe were all the hippie rock band fashion rage...and I wanted one.....and my Mom got me one for Xmas but the fringe was short...I wanted one with Long Fringe.....My mother always got a Xmas card from him every year reminding her of the Xmas eve sale every year and then she would always write him a thank you letter after Xmas ..Well that year just being funny she mentioned how thankful we all were but she wrote just to be funny that she made one mistake the Jacket she got for me had short fringe...about a week later a package came with a Jacket that had long fringe...from Mr Chase...... .............this was all because of her getting fired.........and it was because of the song by the Andrews Sisters...Drinking Rum and CocaCola.....because he ordered it once at the bar at the Country Club and my Mother sang the Order...then when ever he would come in the club she would sing his order to the bartender...So on that New tears eve in 1966 he made her get up with the band and sing the song and then Mr Jardine fired her the next day and she was a single Mom....Mr Chase never forgot and like I said for years and years after always wrote and checked up on her every Xmas...... and every time I here the song Rum and Coca Cola..I remember it all............ .......

Wonderful. My late friend was the head of security for many years. It was a really tough time when they decided to shut it down.

Oh my gaaaaahd, if this is still in production, Im a rhode island resident born and raised…I would easily volunteer to help film this 🎬🎥😃

So many memories as a kid of going to Ann & Hope with my family at the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers. Very cool to hear the whole story of the company.

wow! brought back memories of my youth! great video & pictures! going to ann and hope was a weekly event in my house!

Grew up in SE Mass and used to go there a couple of times a year with my mother…usually for back-to-school stuff. Always loved the store, but didn’t really know the history. Makes sense though, that area was the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. Got a great Elvis t-shirt there right after he died with his d.o.b and d.o.d on it.

That was great. I’d love to see what was on the walls of that office behind the couch back in the day.

I was a kid in West Warwick and have tons of Ann & Hope memories! The trifecta included Zayre and KMart.

This was great, thanks so much for putting this together. I grew up a few streets away on East Earle and we shopped at Ann & Hope. Ill never forget the shopping cart escalator, we always wanted ride the cart up it. Love learning new bits of RI history and this had a lot. It's meaningful to learn, having lived right there. My sister and I also went to daycare in the house right behind where the Blackstone Monument ended up.

Very well done

What an opening sequence - worth the wait. Awesome job, Dave. Next one when??

Wow!!! Thanks for sharing!! The quality of the video and information is A+. Looking forward to what’s next. Congrats.

Great documentary. My family shopped at the original Cumberland, RI store. A lot of memories. I still have some of the items that I purchased there. (Luggage, cameras, telephoto lenses). Every so often, I find something that belonged to my Mom that I hung onto after she passed - and the item has the Ann&Hope price tag on it!

I’m reading this exact article in the North Providence Breeze Paper in the front pace for the week of 10/18/23 - 10/24/23.

I loved going to Ann n hope I lived on oakwood and it was best! Sad that it’s closed down

Thank you!! Fascinating history!

This is great. I lived on Main street in Cumberland for a short time around 1994-1995. The A&H outlet across the way was still open then. Amazing building. Never did get into the mill building behind the village homes though.

Good job 👍

Wonderful job. This is very interesting and I hope the vision of the new owners is as good as David's vision for this project. Bravo.

Cool documentary, i aswell grew up in Cumberland and truley miss the old days. Mid 2000s i would get a Christmas tree and shop at building 19. You should do a documentary on the monastery next?

Grew up in the 70s and 80s. Use to go to the A&H in Seekonk and Warwick all the time.

Excellent documentary! I saw the link for this on Facebook. I subscribed and I'm glad I did. Thank you for documenting this wonderful state.

Wonderfully done. I was more familiar with Ann & Hope in Warwick but I really enjoyed learning about the history and the people who made that history. Thank you.

Thanks for using some of my footage! This project was very well researched, and I love the cinematic drone shots! Going to miss that place.

Well done!

Awesome job Dave ❤

Just read about you in the ProJo. Thanks for documenting this historical part of a special state.

Awesome work!

We used to shop there all the time in the 70s & 80s. Bought a lot of stuff there including our first home computer in 1981. We in particular enjoyed their "Scratch & Dent" sales in the 80s, and seeing the "roller coaster" shopping cart system to get to the 2nd level. Prices were reasonable, and my parents were bargain hunters. This was a place they could trust in getting great prices on stuff. Although there were some good video clips & pictures, I was disappointed this video spent so much time talking about the industrial revolution and the founder of Cumberland/Blackstone River. I just wanted to hear more about......the store Ann & Hope. I would have enjoyed this a lot more if it had just focused on the store, and not...... what led up to the store. It's well put together, but not the content I was hoping for with the title.

I used to work in Ann & Hope's security department we're we wore these tacky brown uniforms for a couple of years in there North Dartmouth store before I started my career in law enforcement oh how I really miss that store and the beautiful memories 😢

Good document. The one one thing that contributed its closing is that Ann&Hope didn't compete with all these on other new stores, example: it didn't open up early or stay open later and they expanded too much, should have stayed as the one store. I for one wasn't going to wait until 9:00 to go to the garden center will Home Depot and Lowe's much earlier.

I’m about to be the bad guy here. But Ann & Hope took a major hit in the late 90s when they pared down EVERYTHING they did. They were on their last gasp by the time Covid happened Why no mention of the cart escalators?

These mills filled the Blackstone River with toxic waste that probably can never be cleaned. All the liquid waste from the textile factories went into the water. We have hardly ay fish. The homeless population next to my building now and then pulls out the contaminated fish out to eat.

Not really a fan of this one. I get that you/your channel is focused on mills and such, but it felt like only 5 minutes of this was about their retail operations.

Great doc but majorly disappointed in the retail store portion of the doc. Learning the history of the building/company was fascinating but I (and I'd bet good money most of us) was interested in this doc to see more footage of the retail days. 3 min?

Just saw this creative Man's documentary featured in the Providence Journal, article.