Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 8.

[p. 94] his denomination in Boston and Newton, he entered into educational work, and is now the president of Boston University. Some of the church-going residents of the village continued their attendance at the churches in Medford, but the newer arrivals found it inconvenient to do so, and these with the more aged found the village service attractive, while the Mystic Sabbath School which had been organized a few years earlier, and two years later became Congregational, was well attended by the children and youth.

The only social organization of my knowledge was the West Medford Lyceum and Library Association, which was incorporated in 1852. During the winter of ‘70–‘71 it had a course of lectures in Mystic Hall, as also in previous seasons. Since then the society has had but irregular meetings, though still legally existent. What remained of its library was a few years ago placed in the Brooks School Library, where it now remains. George G. Lincoln was its secretary and Herbert Magoun its treasurer.

The only business enterprises in West Medford in 1870 were the granite works of R. K. Carpenter, the building business of John H. Norton and that of John H. Duane, the florist. It could hardly be expected that a little village of less than one hundred dwellings, many of whose occupants were men of leisure, merchants, brokers, retired clergymen, bookkeepers and artisans whose places of employment were in Boston, would abound in factories. In 1872, a mattress factory was built on Auburn street, and operated by A. J. Kittredge for a short time, when it was destroyed by fire. In those days a good way to observe the citizens of the village was to take position near the railway station about train time, which not being as frequent as in later years would assemble the villagers in compact gathering. To the earlier trains would come Mr. Lothrop from his home on Purchase street, the Wilson brothers, whose homes have just been removed to make room for the new church,