MEDFIELD MA

MEDFIELD MA

Medfield Town Common

Built - 1992

The town of Medfield started out, in the 1600s, as an area of farming and the pasturing of animals along its broad meadows and plains and was considered perfect for this since the Indians used to burn off the fields each November to provide grazing for wild game. Then in 1651, the Reverend Ralph Wheelock, along with Thomas Wright and Robert Hinsdale, founded the town. Immediately Reverend Wheelock, the educator that he was, established a school in the town since he was aware it was quite important for the children to have classroom time.

The next 200 years saw Indian uprisings and many residents of the area going off to the wars our country was involved in. The town's population always showed an increase since industry was developing beginning with a women's straw bonnet and hat manufacturing plant and then sawmills, slaughterhouses, tanneries, and quality wagons and carriages produced by J. H. Baker.

Medfield's bandstand, just known as 'The Gazebo," was built in 1992 on the town common by Newport Garden Structures of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, as part of a general improvement of the downtown area and as a place for band concerts and civic events and financed by tax revenues and private donations. It is the first bandstand the town has had.

The structure is handicapped accessible and sports a gold leaf pineapple finial on its curved roof. A special dedication ceremony and concert was held in the summer of 1992 when the bandstand committee turned the structure over to the town selectmen.

INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY:
Michael J. Sullivan, Town Administrator