Mar 1, 2024 Women’s History Month, 2024: At the coffee shop, I see women with beverages, children, friends, notebooks and folders, and I can’t help but imagine them in a billboard-sized group photo of all the Medfield women who have kept this town going for over 300 years. As a volunteer in Medfield’s archives, I […]
The Medfield Lyceum Gazette Read More »
Mar 1, 2024 “Enslaved Girl”“To her private life Only a few were privy.A life lost and found.” The next time you pass by or visit a CVS, think of Nanny. Her feet trod upon the Reverend Joseph Baxter’s land as she went about her work as his enslaved servant. Almost two centuries later the minister’s
Nanny “Baxter” of Medfield Read More »
Mar 1, 2024 Medfield native Nathaniel T. Allen established a cutting-edge progressive school in Newton in 1854, and in the next half century he educated some 5,000 boys and girls, rich and poor, from every state in the U.S. and dozens of foreign countries, white and black, including former slaves. Allen’s remarkable achievements were presented
Nathaniel T. Allen, Trailblazing Educator from Medfield Read More »
Mar 1, 2024 On a 70-degree, late-summer day, under fair skies in 1875, Medfield hosted a “Woman Suffragists’ Picnic” in Curtis Grove, which was once a popular day resort located at the north end of Adams Street and current West Mill Street. The picnic served as a convening of suffragettes from towns in the
Medfield “Suffragists’ Picnic” Bolstered Women’s Movement Read More »
Feb 1, 2024 When they came back from their service in the Revolutionary War, you might have found Warwick Green and Newport Green in their own nailer shop along the Dedham road in Medfield, Massachusetts just south of the eastern end of today’s Vine Lake Cemetery (Callendar). They had finally been paid for their six
Busy As a “Green” Nailer Read More »
Dec 1, 2023 There used to be a sign at the shack at the old Medfield town dump listing a few rules and regulations. At the bottom it said, “Per Order of Honey Bear Babcock, Dump Commissioner.” Fifty years ago, Medfield’s town dump was located off Grove Street. The site of that dump is the
The Life and Times of Honey Bear Babcock Read More »
Oct 1, 2023 While most Americans today can’t fathom the thought of hitchhiking, many people at an earlier time would routinely stick out their thumbs on the side of the road. There were many different reasons that led people to hitchhike and why hitchhiking became acceptable. Hitchhiking was once a common form of getting
Hitchhiking to Medfield and Beyond Read More »
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 »