Oct 1, 2023 October is National Roller Skating Month, according to the Roller Skating Association International of Indianapolis, Indiana. – news item Roller blades, skateboards and roller skates are popular forms of entertainment that are seen on the streets, sidewalks, skate parks, and rinks all over the world. All trace their roots to Medfield and […]
The Medfield Inventor of the Roller Skate Read More »
Sep 1, 2023 Christina “Tinah” Levant, the daughter of Frank LeVant and his wife who were brought over on a slave ship from the east coast of Africa1, was born into slavery in 18422 on a plantation in Marion, South Carolina. Tinah’s first work as a slave began at the age of 13, when she
Christina “Tinah” LeVant Platt Read More »
Jul 30, 2023 It’s 5:00 pm on a Friday in June and you are in Medfield Center, standing at the corner of North and Main Streets. It’s eerily quiet. There are no cars, no trucks, no cement mixers clogging the intersection. One or two people saunter across the street without looking! You hear the wind
Medfield 1723 to 2023 Read More »
April 1, 2023 Portal readers of a certain vintage will recall 20 or 30 years ago a delightful annual fall fundraiser called the “Emperor Onion Fair” at the venerable Unitarian Universalist church. It begs the question, what or who was the Emperor Onion? It was not a vegetable of the genus Allium. Charles “Emperor” Onion
Mar 1, 2023 Longtime Medfield resident Tom Connors sat as a judge in three Norfolk Country district courts and then moved up to spend over 16 years in the Dedham Superior Court. Dedham courthouse has been the site of many famous trials -and it will be the site of the trial of Brian Walshe, who
The Bizarre Jason Fairbanks Murder Case of 1801 Read More »
Jan 1, 2023 Longtime Medfield resident Tom Connors sat as a judge in three Norfolk Country district courts and then moved up to spend over 16 years in the Dedham Superior Court. At the November 7 meeting of the historical society, he spoke about little-known aspects of the evolution of our court system. Much of
The Curious, Convoluted Story of Norfolk County and Its Courts Read More »
Sept 1, 2022 If you Google “railroad enthusiasts” you get 39 million hits! Organizations for railroad enthusiasts, 8.6 million! Marc Pizzuto is one such enthusiast. He has a room full of railroad memorabilia in his Norwood home. He recently came to visit the Medfield Historical Society to conduct some research and share stories and pictures
When Trains, Not Automobiles, Ruled Read More »
Sept, 2022 This trophy awarded 100 years ago begs the question – what else happened in Medfield 100 years ago? 200 years ago? 300 years ago? 1722 Three hundred years ago, Medfield was a very different place than we see around us today, with acres of undeveloped land, free-flowing streams and rivers, paths that led
Medfield Happenings in ’22 Read More »
May 1, 2022 The National Register of Historic Places includes at least six structures designed by William Pitt Wentworth in the late 19th century, including, of course, what we know as Medfield State Hospital. Although there are thousands of photos of the hospital buildings, there appears to be no photo of Wentworth anywhere. What
Willliam Pitt Wentworth, Elusive Architect of the Former Medfield State Hospital Read More »
May 1, 2022 Listed on the National Register of Historic Places* in 1976, First Parish Church on North Street is of course a familiar Medfield landmark. It is the third building erected on the site by colonists who settled on what was the ancestral land of the Wampanoags. The first was put up
Common Practice in 1839; Seems Quaint in 2022 Read More »