[p. 22]
History told by names of streets.
At an adjourned meeting of the
Town of Medford, held May 4, 1829, the following report was read:—
The Selectmen being appointed a Committee at April meeting for the purpose of naming the
Streets report the following—that the road leading from the
Town pump west to Charlestown line be called High St. from the
Town pump east to Malden line,
Salem St. from Town pump South to foot of
Winter hill, Main St—from Hotel west to where the road leaves the river, South St & and from there over the
Canal to Charlestown line, Spring St. from Main St. to Charlestown line on the road to Lechmere point ‘Court Street’ from Main St. near Nathan Adams' house to Charlestown line leading to Harvard College, ‘Cambridge St.’
from
Benjamin Tufts corner to Stoneham line ‘Mountain St.’
from Ship
St.
to
Salem St. by the new burying ground—‘Cross St.’
from Furness Corner to Woburn line, ‘Purchase St’—from High St. by
Jona Brooks the old road to Purchase St. ‘Woburn St’—from high St. near Canal bridge by
P. C. Brooks' to
Symmes' Corner, Grove St.
John Howe,
Chairman.
Voted that said report be accepted and recorded & the streets therein mentioned be hereafter known by the names therein written.
The above is the first record of street names, and includes all public roads then in existence in Medford.
Prior to 1829, High street had been known as the road to Woburn or road to Menotomy.
The bridge at the Weirs then connected Medford with Charlestown that section of Arlington not being set off to West Cambridge till 1842.
Charlestown was also Medford's next neighbor on the south, Somerville being a part of that town until March 3, 1842.
The road now called Medford street (the name being adopted because it is an extension of the street of that
