Articles from the Portal
The Medfield Historical Society publishes a monthly newsletter, The Portal, containing articles about our events, our collections, and people and places of the distant and not-so-distant past. Below are selected articles from past newsletters. Looking for a specific topic? Use the search function below to search by subject, author or date. Click to sign up for our free monthly newsletter, The Portal.
Feb 1, 2023 From February 5 to 7, 1978, the Blizzard of ‘78 hit New England. It started later and was much more powerful than most local meteorologists had anticipated. In the preceding days, weather centers knew something was coming, but they just couldn’t make up their minds about how much.
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Feb 1, 2023 On the issue of slavery in America, one usually thinks right away about the Southern States, but as William Tilden reminds us in his “History of Medfield 1650-1886,” that in Medfield’s early history, “slavery was common with most wealthy citizens.”The earliest slaves in the then Massachusetts Bay Colony
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Jan 1, 2023 My grandfather, Joe Marcionette (1901-1991) gave us memories of the way things used to be! He was an incredible man and larger than life figure. Joe was a town selectman in the 50s and 60s, and he enjoyed the office and position immensely.He also owned the Jenny gas
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Jan 1, 2023 After the news of the Battles of Lexington and Concord reached Connecticut, and after the British had retreated back into Boston, a patriotic wave of enthusiasm swept over thousands of Connecticut minutemen, inspiring them to go and support their fellow patriots in Massachusetts.With the British penned inside Boston,
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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
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Oct 3, 2022 Legacies of Lowell Mason (1792-1872), Medfield’s Master MusicianA Lecture Presented by the Medfield Historical Society at the 1789 Meetinghouse, now First Parish, Unitarian-Universalist October 3, 2022Stephen A. Marini, Wellesley CollegeWith Eva Kendrick, Music Director of First Parish, and singers from Norumbega HarmonyI. Introduction: Why Lowell Mason? If you enjoy attending
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Nov 1, 2022 [Editor’s note: Tim Flaherty wrote about Medfield’s extended Palumbo family in the July/August Portal. This addendum about Bruno Palumbo contains information about his World War II service which was not available when the original story was written.]My uncle Bruno Palumbo was the third from the youngest of the
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Nov 1, 2022 Editor’s note; At this writing, this house is actively on the market, but some prospective buyers are in serious negotiation, according to realtor Dennis J. Folan. As the house that is bursting with history, it literally can’t stop talking. Today it sits majestically on the knoll at 74
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Oct 1, 2022 Ed. note: Paul and Rebecca Harwood, who live in Oregon, visited the Medfield Historical Society August 27 and spent a couple of hours doing research.Most residents of Medfield are likely aware of Baxter Park: a patch of green at the intersection of Routes 109 and 27, directly opposite
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Oct 1, 2022 There was fear in the 1950s – of communist infiltrators, of the H-bomb, of mutations caused by radiation and of science. On the humanistic level of how people treated others, there was sometimes the loss of dignity and sensitivity. More precisely, there was a fair amount of bullying
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Sept 1, 2022 In the last issue of The Portal, I wrote about the Palumbo family of Frairy Street. This month the focus is the Iafolla family on that street that was known as Little Italy.In the 40 years between 1880 and 1920, some 40 million Italians emigrated to the United
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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
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