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.
Jan 4, 2021 Who can deny the appeal and tradition of a big, beautiful Spanish piñata? They come in mostly all bright colors and sizes, the most popular being a colorful donkey. The idea behind the fun of the piñata is to fill it with chocolate and other candies and popcorn
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Nov 1, 2020 “Medfield is holy ground to me”Nicolai Cikovsky, Curator of American and British Painting, The National Gallery of ArtCikovsky wrote these words in a letter accepting the invitation of Medfield’s library trustees to visit Medfield, and to speak about some of his great enthusiasms: 19th Century American landscape painting and
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Oct 1, 2020 When I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, there was a young kid named Harry who was pretty good at finding ways to make money in Medfield. Grace Roberts was an elderly neighbor of his who lived on the left side of the two-family house at
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Oct 1, 2020 It is perhaps the strangest and most horrifying story in all of Medfield history. The fact that events unfolded on Halloween just adds to the intrigue.This very spooky tale takes place here in Medfield back in the year 1802 and involves both the Mason and Allen families. Asa
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Sept 1, 2020 Medfield began in 1651 as a farming community, although the climate was colder, and the growing season shorter than today. But farms have been extinct in Medfield for decades, with one notable exception: the Medfield Community Gardens, originally on Dale Street and now on Plain Street, with
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Sept 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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August 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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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.
Read more
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
Read more