MEDFORD HISTORICAL SOCIETY & MUSEUM WINTER, 2016-2017 President’s Overview Grand entrance by John Anderson to the Holiday greetings from the Marquette Building in Board and volunteers to all Chicago, our members! I hope this built by newsletter finds you enjoy- Medford’s ing the season! Brooks Since this is the 100th anniversary of brothers. the building at 10 Governors Avenue, our theme is “Changing Times.” We often feel that the world is moving at an accelerating, breathtaking pace, but the people in the photograph on page 2 must have felt they were in a period of unprecedented change as well. Between 1910 and 1930, Medford’s population more than doubled from 23,150 to 59,714. Over 80 years later, our popula- tion is actually lower, estimated at 56,173 Medford Brothers Peter Chardon III and Shepherd Brooks I: in 2014. Pressure for social change was The Architectural Revolution in Chicago intense as well. In 1916, movements for both women’s suffrage and temper- by David Fedo ance were in full swing, culminating in The history of Medford is rooted a Unitarian minister and author of nationwide prohibition and women’s in the collective history of its men A History of the Town of Medford right to vote in 1920. “The Great War” and women, some well-known (1855). was raging in Europe. Although we were and others not, who made their Then more recently there still officially neutral, pressure to enter homes in a rough settlement and were Peter Chardon Brooks III the war rose dramatically when the RMS which, over 350 years, grew to (1831-1920) and his younger Lusitania was torpedoed by a German become a thriving and prosper- brother Shepherd Brooks I U-boat on May 7, 1915. Not accustomed ous city. Among the most famous (1837-1922), both of whom built to “foreign entanglements,” we were are members of the Brooks family, magnificent summer estates on horrified that among the 1,100 deaths whose property in what is now the Brooks land in West Medford were 124 Americans, including dozens called West Medford, remained in (they had residences in Boston of prominent citizens – corporation the Brooks family from 1660, the as well). The Medford Brooks’ presidents, well-known performers, a year Thomas Brooks purchased estates—Peter Chardon Brooks’ Vanderbilt, and a 20 year-old niece of 400 acres, well into the 20th cen- 1859 edifice called the Point of Andrew Carnegie. tury. Thomas Brooks himself never Rocks and Shepherd Brooks’ continued page 2 settled in the small hamlet (nor 1880 home called the Manor at Society Officers did Medford’s founder, the English Acorn Hill—were called dazzling th President John Anderson parliamentarian Matthew Cradock, 19 -century showplaces, posi- 30 years earlier), but Thomas’ son tioned amid carefully cultivated Vice President David Fedo Caleb took up residence in 1679. landscapes with vistas that over- Treasurer Ruth Roper Among the many worthy family lu- looked man-made ponds. Only Assistant Treasurer for Recruiting Daniel Menezes minaries that followed were John Shepherd Brooks’ dwelling still Brooks (1752-1823), who fought in stands on a hill not far from the Corresponding Secretary Susan Fedo the militia during the Revolution- Oak Grove Cemetery. It is owned Director of Collections Barbara Kerr ary War and became Governor of by the City of Medford, with a Directors at Large Massachusetts from 1816 to 1823 volunteer organization called Suzanne Ezekiel Mike Oliver (he was famous enough to have the Medford Brooks Estate Land Hallie Lee Jay Stott Gilbert Stuart paint his portrait), Trust (MBELT) charged with the and Charles Brooks (1795-1872), continued page 3 1 http://www.medfordhistorical.org President’s Overview continued In the spirit of changing times, MHSM proudly supported another run of Letters to Medford: A Play About the Past, Ac- cording to the Future, an original play by Kyna Hamill, site-spe- cific to our building. It is complete with the ghosts of Reverend Charles Brooks, Lydia Maria Child, and Lucy Osgood who meet 2016 Medford High School students expressing their hopes and anxieties about the future. In this issue, we have an update on the Our Medford school book project as well as a number of upcoming activities. Please consider responding to our upcoming annual appeal so that we can keep bringing you programs and maintain Medford’s Museum! Looking Forward View of the groundbreaking ceremony for our headquarters at with “Historic Tree” 10 Governors Avenue. Thanks to Aggie Tuden, Tree Warden, and the City of Medford, there’s a new tree on the Governors Avenue Celebrating Completion median strip across from our building. Here’s what it looks like today: of 10 Governors Avenue According to Aggie, Foundation, 1916 “Dawn Redwood is a This poem was written for the dedication of the build- deciduous evergreen. It ing. Medford was in a period of rapid change in 1916. has needles, but sheds It’s easy to sympathize with the feelings expressed, them in winter. It has a even if the style seems old fashioned. gorgeous, upright-pyra- Beside the banks of Mystic stream, midal shape, distinctive, The scene of Winthrop’s toil and dream; coppery fall color, and is And Cradock’s pride in power of State, a very fast grower. One And Royall’s house of beauty great; of the planet’s oldest A home of modern day we raise species, it’s been around With grateful thought of earlier days. for something like 100 million years, and for Could Winthrop stand upon this spot about 15 million years, Well might he say “I know it not,” was native to North And Royall from the stately home, America. Plus, we have very few in Medford, none Whose acres broad he loved to roam, public, to my knowledge.” Would gaze with a bewildered look, Using Wikipedia, I discovered that this tree dates Back to the mansion he forsook. to the Paleocene era when dinosaurs still roamed the And are we in Old Medford still, earth, but mammals were proliferating, and the world Woods, streams and pastures, vale and hill was much warmer. Dawn Redwood fossils have been All changed in form by modern hand? found in Canada’s northern islands at 80 degrees Our forbears could not know this land. north latitude, only about 700 miles from the North We miss the forms by Nature lent, Pole. The tree was We bow to change by centuries sent. thought to be extinct Changed though the land, by Nature given, until it was redis- Old Medford’s spirit works its leaven, covered in China in And memory clings to days of old, 1941. It is now used With reverent thought their good we hold. around the world, Though changed be wood, and field, and hill, including as a street To us it is Old Medford still. tree in London and at “Strawberry Fields” in How best to show the love we bear New York City. And others lead, our work to share, The photo to the To safely guard through fleeting time, right is what we, or at The treasures that deserve a shrine, least our children, can This building to such work we give, expect: Historic Medford long shall live. 2 http://www.medfordhistorical.org Architectural Revolution continued burgeoning frontier city of Chicago. They bought land, planned and paid for office buildings, and property’s oversight. As many Medford citizens know, collected rent. Peter, especially, attended to leaders of M-BELT have proposed to the city a major details. Nothing was too minute for his scru- development plan for the property which they say will tiny: paint color, faucets, urinals, plumbing, and pay back the cost of the plan in 20 years. But the City elevators invited his long distance comments has not approved the plan, and the Acorn Hill house, and commands. He is said to have in his study and the surrounding landscape and roadway, remain a grid-map of downtown Chicago, dotted with in danger of further deterioration. colored pins on which he studied the patterns of But this report is not about the Point of Rocks and speculative office space. Like a chess master, he the Manor at Acorn Hill in Medford, jewels though they anticipated his competitors’ moves and plotted may have been. It’s about the extraordinary impact his own. He knew each block, each corner lot and that Peter Chardon and Shepherd Brooks had on a its potential by heart. Although he seldom visited vastly different urban landscape, the city of Chicago, Chicago [history tells us he only visited once, and hugging the shores of Lake Michigan, and still reeling apparently Shepherd never saw Chicago], ac- after the disastrous 1871 fire. The Brooks brothers had cording to realtor and historian Niles Berger, he a huge impact on the re-building of Chicago, especially cannot be considered an “indifferent outsider nor as they helped develop a series of very large build- an absentee landlord, for he contributed signifi- ings which prompted change in the footprint of what cantly to the architecture of the City.” crooner Frank Sinatra would call that “toddling town.” The brothers were also fortunate in engaging an Some months ago my wife Susan and I had the onsite real estate agent and amateur historian, Owen good fortune to visit Chicago, hosted by my brother Aldis, to provide on–the-ground oversight and expert Stephen Fedo, a lawyer, and his wife Ann Speltz Fedo, advice back to Medford and Boston. He was an in- a teacher and artist. Both are longtime residents. One valuable resource. major goal of the trip was to tour the buildings which The Montauk Peter Chardon and Shepherd Brooks had financed Building: Monroe and developed, without much fanfare, many years Street.