Photographs from the nomination case file, National Park Service records.
Old Medford High School
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1983. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“Medford owes its first settlement to the influence of Governor Cradock and Governor Winthrop. The first gentleman was the richest individual attached to the New England Company; and he gave his money with the freedom of an enthusiast.”
History of the Town of Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts : from Its First Settlement, in 1630, to the Present Time, 1855 (1855). Machine-read text.
one of 1100 National Register listings in Middlesex County · listed in 1983 · category: Building · one of 3 National Historic Landmarks in Middlesex County.
National Register reference number.83004068- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
In writing this History, it has been my -wish to secure Medford such territory in time as its acres are territory in space. The gathering of these annals has been too long delayed. Time, moth, and rust have done thenfatal work on many valuable materials ; and some gentlemen, who felt a deep interest in their native town, have died without leaving any manuscript testimonies. When the history of New England shall be written, the true data will be drawn from the records of its towns. Now, therefore, in humble imitation of those States in our Union which have contributed each its block of granite, marble, or copper to the National Monument at Washington, I ask leave to offer Medford's historical contribution to the undecaying pyramidic monument which justice and genius will hereafter raise to the character and institutions of New England.
The records of the first forty years are lost. I have reproduced them, as far as I could, from documents in the General Court relating to our earliest history ; from several monuments of the first settlers, which are yet standing among us ; from authentic traditions which were early recorded ; and from collateral histories of the neighboring towns. To find the lost, and remember the forgotten, seems to be the province of the local annalist. From the moment I reached the first town-records of Medford (1674), I implicitly followed those excellent guides. Where I could save space by abbreviations, without altering the sense, I have occasionally done so in my quotations, and have used our modern orthography. The spirit of antiquarian research, now beginning to show itself, will lead to the discovery of many facts concerning the early history of Medford which are beyond my reach. These may soon render necessary a new history of the town ; and I hope it may be undertaken by a person whose ability and leisure will enable him to do far greater justice to the subject than has been within my power.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 81 fires within 5 miles of Old Medford High School between
2015 and 2020, burning about 107 acres in total. None started naturally. 30 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Arson/incendiarism
30
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
22
Debris and open burning
13
Recreation and ceremony
10
Smoking
3
Misuse of fire by a minor
2
Equipment and vehicle use
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 1,778 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Old Medford High School between 1898 and
1975: 791 Animalia, 537 Plantae, 384 Fungi, 28 Protozoa, 17 Bacteria, 12 Chromista, 9 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by ?, A B Seymour, A B. Proper and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
18 workings within 5 miles of Old Medford High School: 10 plants, 5 past producers, 2 producers, 1 unknown.
12 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Lead, Gypsum-Anhydrite. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Medford, the town this property stands in, in 20 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 14 thunderstorm wind, 3 flood, 1 flash flood, 1 hail.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Trees were downed on Corey Street and Riverside Avenue. A telephone pole was downed onto Massachusetts Avenue and wires on Lawrence Street were downed, all by thunderstorm winds.
At 12:52 AM EST, a large tree was down on a car and laying across Auburn Street in Medford. At the same time, a tree was reported down on Summer Street and a large tree was down on George Street.
In Winchester, a large tree was down on a house, which took the chimney off the house on Alden Lane. A tree was down on Cambridge Street by the boat club. A tree was down on wires on wires on the 30 block of Allen Road. Trees and wires were down on Ledyard Road. A tree was down on the 70 block of Lawson Road.
In Medford, multiple trees were reported downed. In Somerville, a tree was down on a house on Vernon Street and a large branch was down on power lines on Walker Street.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
2,358 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
Medford High School, 22-24 Forest Street, Medford, Mass. Check one unaltered xX altered Check one XX original site N/A _moved date The Old Medford High School stands north of Medford Square at the southwest corner of Forest Street and Hall Avenue. Surrounded primarily by mid-19th and early 20th century frame houses, its facade (east elevation) overlooks a semi-circular driveway and lawn with a bronze and concrete World War I Memorial. At the rear (west) elevation facing Bradlee Road, is the former Vocational School (1929) which has previously been converted to elderly housing and is not included in this nomination. The Old Medford High School is composed of a central building (1895) that is flanked by two L-plan wings (1929, 1939) that form an open court facing Forest Street.
Sharing many elements of design, proportions and materials, these three units are all three-stories high, constructed of red brick and trimmed with brown sandstone and cast-stone cornices, pilasters and belt courses. The original high school building (now the central block of the present structure) has a symmetrical facade of seven bays flanked by projecting and pavilions of three bays each. Resting on a rock-faced granite foundation, the first storey of the facade has rusticated brickwork and a central entry that is framed by Ionic columns standing in antis. Brown sandstone beltcourses divide the basement, firs t and second stories. Central bays of the second and third are framed by Ionic pilasters that rise to the main cornice of the building.
Between these pilasters are two rectangular window openings (end bays) and five wide, arched windows with moulded surrounds and keystones. Above the third floor, the entabla- ture's frieze is inscribed with five names: Homer, Raphael, Shakespeare, Franklin and Agassiz (obscured by vines).
(in one paragraph) Builder/Architect Hartwell & Richardson (1895) Michael Dyer (1929, 1939) The Medford High School possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials, and workmanship. Architecturally significant as an excellent local example of late 19th century institutional buildings in the Renaissance Revival style and designed by the prominent Boston firm of Hartwell and Richardson, it further derives historical significance through associations with the development of public education in Medford. The Medford High School thus meets criteria A, and C of the National Register of Historic Places.
Begun in 1895 and dedicated in 1896, the original high school building (central section of the present structure) is an outstanding local example of the Renaissance Revival style architecture, one which is noteworthy for the scale of its design, the high quality of its materials, and its association with the Boston architectural office of Hartwell & Richardson. Particularly noteworthy details are the building's rusticated and pilastered main facade with its Ionic entrance, arcaded windows, Ionic pilasters and finely carved courses of decorative details.
Built at a cost of $150,000 in 1895, the original building was designed by the noted Boston firm of Hartwell & Richardson which specialized in school architecture and public buildings during the late 19th century: Other notable buildings designed by the firm include the Belmont Town Hall and the First Spiritualist Temple (now Exeter Street Theatre), Boston. Sandstone trimmings of the original building were given by General Samuel Crocker Lawrence, Civil War Officer, rum distiller and first mayor of Medford (early 1890s). Medford's leading citizen at the turn of the century, Lawrence was known locally both as the owner of extensive real estate in Medford and as a philanthropist who donated the building of the Medford Armory to the local volunteer militia (National Guard).
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 83004068, 10 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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