About The Medford Historical Society

Sailing Ship

This local historical society was organized in 1896 by concerned citizens from the city of Medford.

Their purpose was to collect and preserve the history of this historic city, to correct the myths that had grown up over the years, to build a historical library, to collect the artifacts of local history, and to celebrate historical anniversaries.

One of their first projects was to sponsor a historical festival, "On the Banks of the Mystic," in 1896.

Shortly thereafter they started the Medford Historical Register, which appeared quarterly until 1943. This printed original research and other interesting information about the city, thus preserving a great deal of local history that would otherwise have been lost.

Membership Information.

Printable donation form in pdf format.

Confederate Fort

First headquarters

Their first headquarters was in an historic house built in 1800 at 2 Ashland Street, the birthplace of Lydia Maria Child, and where the famous "Medford crackers" were developed. They sold this property in 1915, moving temporarily to rented quarters at 6 Main Street. The next year they built their present headquarters at 10 Governors Avenue in a Spanish Mission style building designed by the president of the Society, Moses W. Mann. It cost them just over $6600.

Historic Tablets

From the early years they furnished tablets which marked historic sites in the city. This practice continues down to the present time. Medford being the town in which the world-famous song "Jingle Bells" was written by James Pierpont, the Society has placed a memorial tablet in his honor in Medford Square where the song was first played in the early 1850s.

 Peter Tuft's House

A list of upcoming events is available on our events page.

To see photos from some of our events, see our event photos page.

Preservation

In recent years, under the leadership of President Jay Griffin, the Society has been active in preserving significant older buildings -- such as the Peter Tufts house; seeing that trees are planted along our city streets; replacing damaged historical markers; protecting the Mystic River and the Middlesex Fells; publishing a modern history of the city in 1980; Medford on the Mystic, as part of the celebration of the city's 350th anniversary, modernizing its headquarters building; giving tours and historical lectures for our school age youth; holding monthly meetings with talks on the city's history; and now in preserving for the city and scholars its magnificent collection of Civil War photographs.

 Ship

Officers of the Society

President

John Anderson

Vice President

Kyna Hamill

Treasurer

Ruth Roper

Assistant Treasurer

Mike Oliver

Recording Secretary

Jay Hurd

Corresponding Secretary

Susan Fedo

Board Members at Large

Stan Eckstein, David Fedo, Luke Pomorski, Joan Quigley

Visit Our Museum Shop

Medford on the Mystic

Historical books and gifts are available from our Museum Shop.