Medford

About 7 miles northwest of Boston, Medford was settled in the 1630s on the Mystic river. It was named for a meadow where the river could be forded, hence med+ford. “Mystic” is an English adaptation of a Native American word, missituk, meaning “tidal river.” The river and the forests lining it provided a livelihood for residents of Medford for generations: shipbuilding became an important industry and remained so into the nineteenth century.

By the 1880s the railroad made it possible for people who worked in Boston to live elsewhere. This drove a population boom in suburban areas such as Medford, where the population doubled between 1880 and 1896 when Swami Vivekananda graced Medford Square with his presence. 

Grand Army Hall (48 High Street)

March 20, 1896

Swamiji had accepted an invitation from Mrs. Emily Gibson to speak to the members of the Medford Women’s Club in the afternoon of Friday, March 20. Medford not only had a women’s club but also a railway station, a theatre, an opera house, several churches, and public water and sewer facilities. The Medford that Swamiji saw was well-connected and had intellectual links to Boston and Cambridge. 

The Medford Women’s Club was founded in 1892 by a committee that included Swamiji’s host, Mrs. Emily Ruth Gibson, who became its first president. Mrs. Gibson, a Swedenborgian, was a part of Swamiji’s disciple Mrs. Bull’s vast social network. Mrs. Gibson’s mother, Lydia Dickinson, had given a speech at the Chicago Parliament of Religions. We don’t know if she and her daughter met Swamiji there. The Medford Women’s Club is still in existence today, but unfortunately the Victorian era club-related correspondence was not preserved.

The Grand Army Hall, where Swamiji’s lecture was held, was rented by the club every Friday afternoon from the civil war veterans’ association. It was a small wood-frame building in Medford Square located approximately where the Brookline Bank now stands.

Swami Vivekananda spoke on one of his oft-repeated themes of this period, “The Ideal of a Universal Religion.” A reporter from the weekly Medford Mercury was present, and did a creditable job reporting the contents of his talk, which was published in the paper on March 27. Since the report is not included in Swamiji’s Complete Works, we are happy to reproduce it in full at this link.

Mrs. Gibson lived with her family in a stately home at 87 Forest St., just a few minutes walk north of Medford Square. It is still a private residence but has been divided into three condos. We are not certain if Swamiji visited her home. He went back to Cambridge after the lecture.

About a year later, Swami Saradananda would be in the Boston area off and on. He was also invited to Medford by Mrs. Gibson and her mother. Likewise Swamis Abhedananda and Paramananda made the trip to Medford Square to meet the Gibsons.

Sources

Marie Louise Burke, Swami Vivekananda in the West: New Discoveries, The World Teacher, Part Two (Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama, 1996), 52, 103n.52.

Asim Chaudhury, Swami Vivekananda in America: New Findings (Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama, 2008), 91 – 97.

“Swami Vivekananda in Medford,” Global Vedanta, vol. 12, no. 4, Fall 2007, pp. 6 ff.

“Unpublished Letter of Swami Saradananda, ” Vedanta Kesari, March 2008, p. 177. Swami Saradananda requests Mrs. Bull to convey his greetings to Mrs. Gibson and her mother, Mrs. Dickinson.

Research by Joseph Peidle