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.
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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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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