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.
July 1, 2020 The Framingham History Center (FHC) launched a COVID-19 Digital Archive in response to the extreme conditions facing the world in the wake of this fast spreading virus. We are making an effort to collect a digital archive of community members’ experiences of the COVID-19 Pandemic in real
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July 1, 2020 A copy of the 50-page 1964 Medfield Civil Defense Operations Plan recently turned up at the historical society. It was prepared by the CD director, Austin Chilson “Buck” Buchanan, Medfield’s CD director from 1958 to 1975 and a Medfield Renaissance man. Much more on the remarkable Buck
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July 1, 2020 Linda Morse, formerly of Medfield, teaches history at the Foxboro Regional Charter School. This history of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, focusing on its impact in Medfield and Millis, will be serialized in The Portal. Her complete article is being published in the New England Journal of History.
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May 30, 2020 The Coronavirus pandemic is far from the only deadly phenomenon that the town of Medfield has had to deal with throughout the years.Many longtime residents remember Hurricane Carol that hit New England back in the late summer of 1954, some 16 years after the sneak attack Hurricane of
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May 30, 2020 Linda Morse, formerly of Medfield, teaches history at the Foxboro Regional Charter School. This history of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, focusing on its impact in Medfield and Millis, will be serialized in The Portal. Her complete article is being published in the New England Journal of
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Mar 31, 2020 “What’s the buzz, tell me what’s happening?” It feels as if these lines from the musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, apply to the deadly corona virus. We don’t know the origin of this virus. Some have suggested a zoonic process, where the virus may have jumped from an
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Feb 24, 2020 Fast Times at Medfield High School – Part II In 1963 at Medfield High School two distinctive groups of teens showed their separate ideas of our culture as related to education, music, fashion, and legacy – the college-bound Collegiates versus the blue-collar trade-bound Greasers.Some of the culture was
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Feb 24, 2020 Town Historian Richard DeSorgher addressed a packed house Feb. 3 as he explained the causes and events of the deadliest war in New England and Medfield history.The core issues were land disputes resulting in loss of native lands due to what the natives saw as the colonists’ land
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Jan 20, 2020 Fast Times at Medfield High School – Part I In 1963 at Medfield High School two distinctive groups of teens showed their separate ideas of our culture as related to education, music, fashion, and legacy – the college-bound Collegiates versus the blue-collar trade-bound Greasers.A somewhat similar split between the
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Jan 19, 2020 With 20-20 hindsight, these plans from the 1960s seem bizarre… “Urban Renewal” for Medfield?In 1964, when Medfield’s population was around 5,000, a new master plan was developed to prepare for future growth.At that time, urban renewal* in blighted areas was controversial but still considered practical and viable by
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Oct 28, 2019 In the season of Veterans Day, in addition to Ray Lambert, it’s appropriate to pay respect to Medfield men who went to war and paid the ultimate price.There are 12 such men killed in the 20th century who are honored with white on blue plaques in the neighborhoods
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Sep 27, 2019 A direct descendant of Medfield founder Ralph Wheelock – and an activist in all things Wheelock – Ted Wheelock of Pittsburg, California, stopped in at the historical society booth at Medfield Day, September 14. Ted made a generous donation to the society and to the Vine Lake Preservation
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