Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 8.

[p. 90] the seminary's transfer to Washington it was occupied by various parties, but vacant at the time of our visit. A long greenhouse, in a ruinous state, occupied the corner of the lot, where once stood the district schoolhouse; while giant elm and willow trees stood on either side of the driveway, and shaded grounds and street alike.

The various outbuildings gave abundant evidence of neglect, and the glamour of romantic association was dispelled on entering the classic halls of the mansion. A hasty survey of its interior was followed by a walk across the field to the old ‘Canal Tavern,’ which with three dwellings on Canal street and the seminary building, made up the eighteen houses I have named. A few days later (May 26), as the result of an interview with all the proprietors, the ‘Smith estate’ came under my superintendence, and soon after, taking up my abode in one of their houses, I became a resident and citizen of Medford.

In the seminary building, in what was once known as Everett Hall, Ellis Pitcher kept a grocery; selling out that spring to Sawyer & Parmenter, and they, soon after, to J. E. Ober, who then had a milk route there. No other store of any kind was kept in the West End, but a Mr. Reed, who resided on Allston street (in the house recently burned), sold dry goods from a wagon and supplied such as came to his house for them.

The postoffice (established in 1852) was, in ‘69, kept by Mr. Pitcher, who was in June of ‘70 succeeded by Mr. Willey; and for ten years the railroad station housed it. Six houses on Woburn street and six more on Purchase street formed the outlying district called Brierville. This name must have flown also, as I haven't heard it so called for thirty years. Through this section, some eighteen years before, was begun the Stoneham Branch Railroad. The iron rails were never laid, nor did the ‘iron horse’ come; and there were those that said that Medford people knew not ‘a good thing’ etc., and that, fearing the loss of the depot in Medford Square as a terminal, they gave little support to the enterprise.