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    Medford
    Medford
    Medford
    Ebook198 pages48 minutes

    Medford

    By Anthony Mitchell Sammarco

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    About this ebook

    Referred to in its beginning as a peculiar town, Medford was originally a town but a plantation owned by Governor Matthew Craddock. Known as Meadford at the time of its settlement in 1630, the area was a flourishing village located along the Mystic River that boasted numerous farms, fisheries, and shipbuilding. A small town for the first two centuries after it was settled, Medford was conveniently located only a few miles from Boston. Its prime location soon attracted thousands of residents, and by the turn of the twentieth century, Medford had become a cultural mecca with over 18,000 residents. The town's strong sense of community and respect for diversity has continued through the years, transforming a small fishing and farming village into one of the finest residential communities in metropolitan Boston. In Medford, author Anthony Mitchell Sammarco invites his readers to join him on a journey back in time to an earlier Medford, when local transportation meant a ride on a horse-drawn streetcar or a train ride on the Boston & Lowell line. Within these pages, learn little-known facts about the founding of renowned institutions such as Tufts University, view candid snapshots of early Medford residents at work and at play, and discover rare photographs of the area's more unusual influences, from the exotic foods and customs introduced by European settlers to the impact of the town's gypsy moth dilemma.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateFeb 18, 1999
    ISBN9781439632567
    Medford
    Author

    Anthony Mitchell Sammarco

    Anthony Mitchell Sammarco is a noted historian and author of over sixty books on Boston, its neighborhoods and surrounding cities and towns. He lectures widely on the history and development of his native city.

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      Book preview

      Medford - Anthony Mitchell Sammarco

      INTRODUCTION

      Settled in 1630, Medford was described in Wood’s New England Prospect nine years later as being three miles from Charlestown by land, and a league and a half by water. It is seated by the water-side very pleasantly . . . [and] at the head of the river are great and spacious ponds, wither the alewives press to spawn. The settlement upon the Mystic River, originally referred to as Meadford, was headed by Governor Matthew Craddock, who ironically never visited Medford, and was a flourishing village with farms, fisheries, and shipbuilding—the Blessing of the Bay was launched in 1631 by Governor John Winthrop. Known as a peculiar town, Medford was not actually a town but a plantation personally owned by Governor Craddock. Though settled in 1630, Medford would have no place of worship until 1690, when Harvard students ministered to the residents, nor a school until 1719 when Henry Davidson was hired as the first school teacher. The population remained low, with only 230 residents living in Medford in 1701.

      A small town for the first two centuries after it was settled, Medford was only a few miles from Boston; the ford across the Mystic River at the rear of what is now the Medford Co-Operative Bank was built in 1637 as a toll road and all who crossed to the north had to pay this levy—which remained in effect until 1787. This transportation through the town was later augmented in the early 19th century with convenient roads such as the Medford Turnpike (now Mystic Avenue) and the Middlesex Canal that connected Boston and Lowell, allowing transportation to thrive. Though the canal, which was laid through Medford in 1803 and connected Charlestown and Lowell, was superseded by the Boston and Lowell Railroad in 1835, it was an important means of transporting goods from Boston and had a desirable effect on the local economy. By 1840, Medford had four places of worship, a Congregational, Unitarian, Universalist, and Methodist church. It would not be until 1855 that Roman Catholics began worshipping in Craddock’s peculiar plantation. The farms had begun to give way to such developments as the Boston and Lowell Railroad in 1835, the Medford Railroad which connected Medford Square with the Boston and Maine Line in 1845, the Lawrence Rum Distillery, shipbuilding establishments, and numerous brick manufactories. The shipbuilding concerns along Ship Street (now Riverside Avenue) in Medford were one of its greatest, and most prolific attractions, with over 500 vessels with a combined tonnage of 230,000 tons being built in the first five decades of the 19th century.

      By the time of the Civil War, Medford’s population had increased to 10,000. A small, but conveniently situated town, it was to attract numerous new residents by the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the ease of travel by both railroad and streetcars. With such natural scenic spots as the Middlesex Fells, Spot and Wright Ponds, and the bucolic Mystic River which flowed through the town and connected Wellington and West Medford, it was just a matter of time before the town would vote to incorporate itself, which it did in 1892, as the city of Medford. After that time, it seemed as if Medford was to become one of the most popular places of residence in the metropolitan Boston area. Serviced by horse-drawn streetcars and the Boston and Lowell Railroad before 1870, these modes of transportation were soon superseded by electric streetcars and later, buses that eased transportation problems from Sullivan Square and Harvard Stations. With the extension of the Orange Line of the T in the 1970s, Wellington Station became a major transit point between Boston and Medford.

      Medford was to share with its neighboring town Somerville the founding in 1852 of Tufts College, established as an Universalist institution and situated on College (formerly Walnut) Hill in the Hillside section of the town. The land for the college was donated by Charles Tufts of Somerville, who when asked what he was going to do with his land said he would put a light on the hill, and the college was eventually to straddle both sides of that hill with its own depot on the Boston and Lowell Railroad Line. Today, Tufts University is a leading school in the country, and an important feature in Medford.

      By the turn of the 20th century, Medford’s population had increased to 18,244 residents. The city form of government had been adopted in 1892 (by a close vote of 382 to 342 votes), and the first mayor was General Samuel Crocker Lawrence, whose estate would eventually be subdivided for the Lawrence Estates. The new city would see tremendous changes over the next century. As these changes were taking place so quickly, residents began to lobby for the protection of the Fells, and much of the open land in north Medford was designated in 1895 the Middlesex Fells Reservation, with scenic vista, ponds, and nature trails. By the time of the Great Depression, Medford had become a city of

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