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Health & Fitness

On the Corner of North and Main

The story of the evolution of families and businesses on the northeast corner of North and Main Streets in Medfield center since the founding of Medfield in 1651.

Once again, the corner of North and Main Streets is evolving.  The Mobil station building is being repurposed and its underground storage tanks removed to make way for the new Starbucks. Unlike the closing of Lords, there is little nostalgia borne of its passing.  Most of us can't remember what was on the site before the Mobil station, but this corner has long been the merchant corner of town as well as the site of first settlers' homes.

Rev. John Wilson, one of the first 13 settlers of Medfield and its first minister, physician and school teacher, received the original land grant for the lot extending from the northeast corner of North and Main Streets and embracing the land lying between Pleasant and South Streets, extending almost as far south as Oak Street. His house stood, in part, on land now occupied by the town hall. His house was used as a church and in the Indian War his house was a hospital and a retreat for refugees from Mendon and other places. Upon his death, at just one month shy of 70 years, he willed his estate to his daughter Susannah Wilson Rawson and his son-in-law Rev. Grindall Rawson of Mendon.

In 1701, Grindall Rawson sold the Wilson estate to Eleazar Wheelock, the youngest son of Medfield founder Ralph Wheelock, who turned the home into an inn. Eleazar also became owner of the original Wheelock estate on the west corner of North and Main. Captain Wheelock was a selectman in 1720 and figured prominently in town affairs. Upon his death in 1731 his estate passed to his son Ephraim. Ephraim, who was chosen deacon of the church in 1738, was also a prominent man in town affairs. When he died in 1785, his estate passed to his son Ephraim, born of his marriage to Priscilla Plimpton, his third wife.

This Ephraim served four years in the French and Indian War, was a colonel in the Revolutionary War, commanded a regiment in the Continental Army and was at Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Ephraim's son Oliver built a store here in about 1795 and ran it until 1809 when, shortly after his wife's death, Ephraim sold the estate to David Fairbanks of Sharon.

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Around 1818 Fairbanks built a new store, quite plain in appearance, to replace the long, low narrow one that originally stood immediately in front of it facing Main Street. The old store with adjoining shed was split into halves and moved to make dwellings at what are now 13 and 17 South Street. He also started a tavern where the town hall now stands. He was a prominent businessman of the town, keeping the store, manufacturing straw bonnets, running a boarding house for his help and trading real estate to an extent. However, he failed in business and moved to New York around 1822.  

Stage-driver Samuel Johnson, of Ashford, Connecticut, became the keeper of the tavern in 1813 and in 1822 he bought the tavern from Fairbanks and kept it until shortly before his death. James Clark ran the tavern for him from 1835 to 1842 and then moved to Dedham. This parcel was sold to the Trustees of the Town Hall Fund in 1869 for $1760.

In the same 1822 timeframe Francis Dana Ellis bought the Old Corner Store from David Fairbanks. Ellis was a remarkable man. He figured prominently in organizing a military company, the Putnam Greys, and was its first Captain. In those days, there was a hall over the store that housed Medfield's first library and it became a meeting place for the beginning of the first Orthodox Church. Augusta Adams of South Street was the first to be christened there. The hall was also used for dances and lectures, and prominent abolitionists came there to speak. The hall was lit by candles with reflectors and a woman was hired to snuff the candles during entertainment. Twenty years later, in 1842, Ellis sold the store to his brother-in-law, Isaac Fiske, who divided the hall into sleeping rooms on the North Street side of the store.

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A strict adherent of temperance, Fiske removed the large store doors, through which had rolled hogsheads of molasses and Old Medford rum, and made a new, smaller door.

 In 1866 Fiske took Julius Augustus Fitts into the store, later made him partner and in 1884 he sold the store to Fitts. In 1887 Fitts added a third story to the store as living space and made another addition in the form of a one-story building (37 feet by 45 feet) located between the store and Town Hall, cutting down the beautiful 100 year-old elm standing in front of the Old Corner Store to make room. This addition became rental space for other stores fronting Main Street.

Fitts and his son Waldo Augustus continued running the business for over 30 years. In the 1920s they installed a gasoline pump in front of the store. Fitts ran the store for 70 years and at the time of his retirement in 1936, he was the oldest active grocer in New England.

The store was torn down in 1935 to make way for a gas station, at first known as the Socony Gas Station, today's Mobil. The one-story addition remained until the 1960s. The A&P grocery store, Alfred Zullo's Barber Shop and a beauty parlor were the last businesses to be located in the addition before it was torn down. At the same time, the wooden gas station was replaced by the current Mobil building.

With the Mobil gas station now closed, 90 years of pumping gas at that location has come to an end, and the corner of North and Main will soon see Starbucks occupy this prominent intersection at the heart of Medfield Center. This new business will bring with it tree plantings, landscaping, Colonial-style lighting and brick sidewalks to complement the Town Hall and Library areas. The Downtown Study Committee is planning to install a "pocket park" with tables and benches in the area between the new Starbucks and Zebra's Bistro. Thus, this corner, which had become something of an eyesore, will be transformed to an area that will be a more desirable and attractive space for the community to enjoy.

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