Medford is a city 6.7 miles (10.8 km) northwest of downtown Boston on the Mystic River in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, Medford's population was 59,659. It is home to Tufts University, which has its campus on both sides of the Medford and Somerville border.
The Middlesex Canal was a 27-mile (44-kilometer) barge canal connecting the Merrimack River with the port of Boston. When operational it was 30 feet wide, and 3 feet deep, with 20 locks, each 80 feet long and between 10 and 11 feet wide. It also had eight aqueducts.
The Peter Tufts House is a Colonial American house located in Medford, Massachusetts. It is thought to have been built between 1677 and 1678. Past historians considered it to be the oldest brick house in the United States, although that distinction belongs to Bacon's Castle, the 1665 plantation home of Virginian Arthur Allen. It is also believed to be, possibly, the oldest surviving house in the U.S. with a gambrel roof.
The Isaac Royall House and Slave Quarters is a historic house located in Medford, Massachusetts, near Tufts University. The historic estate was founded by Bay Colony native Isaac Royall and is recognized as giving a face and life to the history and existence of slave quarters and slavery in Massachusetts. It is a National Historic Landmark, operated as a non-profit museum, and open for public visits between June 1 and the last weekend in October.
Grandfather's House, also known as the Paul Curtis House, is a historic house in Medford, Massachusetts. It is claimed to be the original house named in the American poem "Over the River and through the Wood" by Lydia Maria Child.
The National Register of Historic Places is a United States federal official list of places and sites considered worthy of preservation. In the state of Massachusetts, there are over 4,300 listings, representing about 5% of all NRHP listings nationwide and the second-most of any U.S. state, behind only New York. Listings appear in all 14 Massachusetts counties.
Alewife Brook Parkway is a short parkway in Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It begins at Fresh Pond in Cambridge, and heads north on the east bank of Alewife Brook, crossing into West Somerville and ending at the Mystic River on the Medford town line, where it becomes Mystic Valley Parkway. The entire length of Alewife Brook Parkway is designated as part of Massachusetts Route 16 (Route 16), while the southernmost sections are also designated as part of Route 2 and U.S. Route 3 (US 3). It is managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation responsible for bridge maintenance.
The Albree-Hall-Lawrence House is a historic house located at 353 Lawrence Road in Medford, Massachusetts.
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Medford and The Osgood House are a historic Unitarian Universalist church building and parsonage house at 141 and 147 High Street in Medford, Massachusetts.
The First Parish Unitarian Church, now the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church of Medfield, is a historic church on North Street in Medfield, Massachusetts. The white clapboarded church was built in 1789, as the third for a congregation established c. 1652. In 1839 it was rotated on its site ninety degrees. It lost its steeple in the New England Hurricane of 1938. The steeple was replaced in 1988, and the building's many layers of paint were stripped off in 2007.
The Fells Connector Parkways are a group of historic parkways in the cities of Malden and Medford, Massachusetts, suburbs north of the city of Boston. The three parkways, The Fellsway, Fellsway West, and Fellsway East serve to provide access from the lower portion of the Mystic River Reservation to the Middlesex Fells Reservation. The latter two parkways continue northward, providing access to the interior of the Fells and providing a further connection to Lynn Fells Parkway. Significant portions of these parkways south of the Fells, which were among the first connecting parkways designed to be part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston by Charles Eliot, were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
The Middlesex Fells Reservation Parkways are the roadways within and bordering on the Middlesex Fells Reservation, a state park in the northern suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The park includes portions of the towns of Malden, Medford, Melrose, Stoneham, and Winchester. The roads inside the park and around its perimeter have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Other portions of some of the roads are covered by more than one listing in the national register; see Fellsway Connector Parkways and Middlesex Fells Reservoirs Historic District.
The Jonathan Brooks House is a historic house at 2 Woburn Street in Medford, Massachusetts, United States. The house is estimated to have been built in the 1780s, although it may incorporate elements of an older structure. Jonathan Brooks, its owner in 1791, was a tanner and a member of the locally prominent Brooks family which owned much of West Medford at the time. The house is one of a small number of 18th century gambrel-roofed houses to survive in the city.
The Shepherd Brooks Estate is a historic property at 275 Grove Street in Medford, Massachusetts, United States. The 82-acre (33 ha) property is owned by the city of Medford, and managed by a trust established to preserve the property. Its principal feature is the manor house constructed in 1880 by Shepherd Brooks, a member of a prominent Medford family, and is the only major 19th-century estate to survive relatively undeveloped in the city. The grounds are open to the public daily from dawn to dusk, and tours of the house are available during the summer.
The Jonathan Fletcher House is a historic house in Medford, Massachusetts. The 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house was built c. 1835; its builder clearly drew inspiration from designs published by Asher Benjamin, and is an excellent example of transitional Federal-Greek Revival architecture. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
The Isaac Hall House is a historic house located at 43 High Street in Medford, Massachusetts.
The Middlesex Fells Reservoirs Historic District is a historic district roughly bounded by Pond St., Woodland Rd., I-93, and MA 28 in Stoneham and Medford, Massachusetts. It encompasses a portion of the Middlesex Fells Reservation, a state park managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). The principal features of the district are three reservoirs and their associated gate houses and pumping stations, which were developed by the Metropolitan District Commission starting in the late 19th century. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The Richard Pinkham House is a historic house at 24 Brooks Park in Medford, Massachusetts. The unusually shaped Italianate wood-frame house was built c. 1850 by Richard Pinkham, a housewright who then lived in the property. The house is unique in Medford in the presence of a 2+1⁄2-story octagon section, which rises above the rest of the roughly cruciform house. It was built on a portion of the route of the Middlesex Canal, portions of which were at that time being sold off by its owners.
The Metropolitan District Commission Pumping House is a historic water pumping station, adjacent to Spot Pond in the Middlesex Fells Reservation, on Woodland Road in Stoneham, Massachusetts. Built in 1901 by the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), it is one of Stoneham's finest examples of Renaissance Revival architecture. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, and included in the Middlesex Fells Reservoirs Historic District in 1990.
The T.U. Lyon House is a historic house at 9 Warren Street in Stoneham, Massachusetts. The modest 1+1⁄2-story Greek Revival house was built c. 1850 for T.U. Lyon, a shoe cutter. At the time of its construction Warren Street had been supplanted as the major north–south road through Stoneham by the Medford-Andover Turnpike. Most of its distinctive Greek Revival features, including corner pilasters and a larger-than-typical frieze, have been lost due to recent residing of the exterior.
