In 1880 the Mercury began its long career, and two years later acquired the Chronicle's interest by purchase. During the agitation of the town hall proposition, its editor visited Marblehead at request and inspected the municipal building, ‘Abbot Hall,’ which had been but recently erected at a cost of $70,000, wrote an elaborately detailed description of it, and by courtesy of the Marblehead Messenger presented an excellent view of that structure, heading its two-column article. This appeared on March 28, 1884, and is (doubtless) the first illustration to appear in the Medford press, and this because, in the opinion of leading citizens, its like would suitably ‘fill the bill’ in Medford. They certainly had lofty aspirations, as Abbot Hall was surmounted by a tower one hundred and seventy-five feet high. By action of the town which followed, its committee secured a tentative plan for a new structure, but with a less lofty tower, a framed portrayal of which hung in the municipal office of the old city hall until the destruction of the latter, and later in the hired quarters, where recent search fails to reveal it. As it belongs to the city, and especially as all the lofty effort has as yet only resulted in the lowly-sunken expenditure of over $100,000, it, with another tangible model, should not be consigned to the ‘limbo of lost things.’
In 1880 there came into Medford a man who walked through the various streets making measurements, taking notes and securing views, and then ascended the hills in various sections. The result of his work is the bird's eye view of Medford, thirteen by twenty-five inches in size, which he delivered to subscribers for one dollar per copy. How successful as a business enterprise this effort was we know not; or how large an edition or sale it had we cannot say. Of that of West
