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 »
Mar 1, 2022 Lowell Mason was Medfield’s most famous and accomplished native son, and it’s somehow fitting that his piano is the biggest artifact in the historical society’s collection. Lowell Mason (1792-1872) was born in Medfield. He is known as the father of public school music education in the United States, and he wrote upwards
The Largest Artifact in Our Collection — Lowell Mason’s Piano Read More »
July 24, 2021 As the Laurentide Ice Sheet gradually receded 15-30,000 years ago, in the American Midwest, the retreating glaciers easily ground up the soft limestone underneath, leaving the farmer-friendly soil of the Great Plains. But in New England, granite, rather than limestone, was underneath the ice sheets. So, when the ice melted, our forebear
Medfield Stone Walls — With a Surprise at the End Read More »
June 1, 2021 As the first town to break away from the Dedham grant, Medfield was founded in 1649 and incorporated in 1651 as the 43rd town in the then Massachusetts Bay Colony. Who were those first pioneers who moved westward into the wilderness to begin our town? A history of our town, state, and
The Plimptons of Medfield Read More »
April 1, 2021 Serendipity is a curious thing. While setting final plans to visit the Berkshires, I received an email telling me of “talk” on Facebook about one Israel Bissell, an American patriot who, like Paul Revere, was a post rider during the American Revolution, but performed a much more impressive, yet lesser known, ride
Discovering Medfield’s Connection to Hinsdale, Massachusetts Read More »
Mar 1, 2021 In these COVID-19 times, we often hear of food shortages. It’s especially troubling when the shortage involves children who haven’t been able to go to school, where in some cases they get their best meal of the day. Unfortunately, there’s nothing new about food shortages for the poor. In the Bible, in
How Medfield Has Tended to Its Poor and Homeless Read More »
Nov 1, 2020 “Medfield is holy ground to me” Nicolai Cikovsky, Curator of American and British Painting, The National Gallery of Art Cikovsky wrote these words in a letter accepting the invitation of Medfield’s library trustees to visit Medfield, and to speak about some of his great enthusiasms: 19th Century American landscape painting and George Inness.
The Artistic Landscape of Medfield Read More »
Oct 1, 2020 It is perhaps the strangest and most horrifying story in all of Medfield history. The fact that events unfolded on Halloween just adds to the intrigue. This very spooky tale takes place here in Medfield back in the year 1802 and involves both the Mason and Allen families. Asa Mason, at the
Medfield Murder, Body Snatchers, and Halloween Read More »