Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 22.

[p. 33] the town some printed reproductions (14 1/4 x 15 1/2 inches in size), with six quarter-mile circles around Medford square (showing marshland in yellow, woodland in green, and boundary lines in red) were made for reference at the legislative hearings. Two of these are framed and are in the Society's collection. A later and finer reproduction of this map (17 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches), on fine white paper, shows the new boundary, made by the transfer to Maiden of a strip of Medford of about a fifth of a mile on Salem street. This was issued just as Medford became a city, as it shows no ward divisions. Various maps prepared by the city engineers, showing the water and sewer systems, have been included in the printed city reports.

The latest we notice is that of Engineer Charnock, January I, 1916. This shows the ward and precinct lines, and such streets in Maiden, Somerville and Arlington as cross or are near boundaries. Judge Wait alluded to twenty-two plans of various localities in Medford that were recorded in Middlesex (South) Registry between 1827 and 1855. One of these (August, 1850) in Plan Book 5, p. 8, he styles very interesting. It is called “Land of Brooks,” at West Medford.¹. It shows the entire tract between High street, the B. & L. R. R. and the river, with the Middlesex canal and its lock, aqueduct and tavern. Practically the same layout is shown on the Walling map of 1855, but without the names of streets, though the names of Gorham and Lake parks are given. This plan was made in the last days of the canal's operation, which had ceased when the Walling map was made. In the records of the canal company is an allusion by its agent to a company of gentlemen who had laid out this adjoining territory into house-lots, which they called Brooklands, and a suggestion that the canal's property there might be disposed of to the proprietors of “Brooklands.” In the closing of the canal's affairs this strip with a portion beyond the river, was sold to J. M. Usher