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.
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?1722Three 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
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July 11, 2022 Editor’s note: William Partridge (1622-92) came from Dedham to Medfield about 1650 and was granted six acres of land on North Street between Pine and School Streets. His son William (1669-1750) lived on Green Street, near a street laid out in the 20th century called Partridge Road. Most
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July 11, 2022 Welcome to Frairy Street, running from North Street, past Baker’s (Meetinghouse) Pond, underneath a small railroad bridge, through the first Italian-American neighborhood in the town of Medfield, and ending at Dale Street.Walking there a century ago you might well have seen men from the old country gathered on
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June 1, 2022 As I thought about the June issue of the Medfield Historical Society e-newsletter, dads immediately popped into my mind. Sure, it’s also the season for grads, weddings and the beginning of summer, but dads are so important—they mold their children into adults and each one does this in
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June 1, 2022 E.V. Mitchell and his wife Blanche had three sons – Granville, Edwin, and Emlyn, and a daughter Helena, who was my grandmother.Here are a few things you may not have known about E.V. and his family.E.V. was very proud of the fact that he could walk to
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June 1, 2022 Edwin Vinald (E.V.) Mitchell (1850-1917) was the grandfather of my mother, Suzanne Mitchell Bryce, better known by everyone as “Sue.” No Mrs. anything, just “Sue.” In her youth, she was also known as “Sue the Swimmer” for her trophies; once she received a congratulatory note addressed simply to
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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
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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
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Apr 1, 2022 It might be hard for some people to imagine, with all the attention on social media, that going fishing in the waters of Medfield is still a fun adventure for the young and the young at heart. So, for a while, forget about the pandemic and let your
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Mar 1, 2022 March is National Women’s History Month—a time when we recognize the contributions and accomplishments of women through the ages. We thought it only fitting that we should recognize some of Medfield’s extraordinary women.Hannah Adams (1755-1831) is undoubtedly Medfield’s most famous woman. An early American historian and pioneer
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Mar 1, 2022 Rail trails were the subject at the Feb. 7 historical society Zoom presentation by noted expert Craig Della Penna, with about 30 people participating. Christian Donner, who has been active in Medfield’s rail trail development from the beginning, summed up Medfield’s rail trail project in this article.In the
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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
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