[p. 13]
Some notes from my Scrapbook.
To those interested in the old landmarks of
Medford it is a matter of importance that, even if those landmarks have been destroyed or removed, some record of their original location should be preserved.
It will be found by an examination of the recent maps of the city that this brook is represented as flowing through the location of the clay pits excavated by the
Massachusetts Brick Company, and from thence through a new channel until it reaches Main street, where it joins the original location of the brook as it flowed through the culvert under Main street and from thence to the river.
It has been previously mentioned in the
Historical Register (Vol.
16, No. 3) that the portion of the brook between Mystic avenue and the river has been straightened, widened and deepened so as to make it navigable.
Without doubt the maps referred to are correct so far as the open brook or ditch is concerned, but the makers of those maps must have drawn upon their imagination when they drew the course of the brook through the clay pits.
However, this article is not written for the purpose of criticising the maps, but to place upon record the true course of the brook so far as it may be ascertained at the present time.
By an examination of
Walling's map of
Medford, it will be found that the brook is thereupon represented as flowing across
Buzzell's lane as it runs in a curved course from the low land near the location of College avenue. The maker of this map failed to complete his work by tracing the course of the brook to the boundary line between
Medford and
Somerville.
Fortunately there is a copy of another map that supplies the necessary link.
This copy is referred to as it is easy of reference for the readers of the
Historical Register.
It may be found in the article entitled ‘The Walnut-tree Hill Division of the
Stinted Pasture,’ in Vol. 15, No. 2.
Join the two plans and we have a fairly
