The second “outlay” named by Mr. Brooks was in 1852, at the western border of the town, comprising nearly all the territory between the river, the railroad and High street. The tract was referred to in the records of the ‘Proprietors of Middlesex Canal’(which traversed it) as ‘Brooklands.’ Its agent or promoter was Thomas P. Smith, who built Mystic Hall, near his residence, in the same year. Possibly there was some rivalry between this enterprise and the earlier one of Hastings and Teel. Upon theirs the new schoolhouse had been built, and by the private enterprise of citizens another story, containing a village hall, was added. Mr. Smith did not live to realize his hopes, and the new section he planned lay dormant for sixteen years. But the Lyceum and Library Association that found quarters in Mystic Hall was a social force.
Mystic Hall became the social center of West Medford, even before the removal of the Young Ladies' Seminary there housed.
On March 3, 1870, this ‘Smith estate’ passed into the new ownership of several men, Dr. Abram B. Story of Manchester, N. H., holding the record title. The same plan of action mentioned by Mr. Brooks and followed at Wellington was observed. The auctioneer was Samuel A. Walker, who was noted for his grandiloquent style of advertising. A special train of cars brought a crowd of people, with some prospective buyers, from Boston. A bountiful collation of crackers and cheese, ice cream, strawberries and lemonade was served near the railroad, and lithographic plans of the land as surveyed were distributed ere the sale began. Then the crowd moved about, as the auctioneer led the way, and bid the cents and fraction over per foot for choice of lots within
