Imagine Medford at this time. There was the peaceful river, with the tang of the salt tides, and in Medford centre a great barn and a dwelling house erected for Cradock's men. These are indicated on early maps and references made to the great barn for many years probably about opposite Medford theatre. At the edge of the river an occasional boat lay ready for quick ferrying, though the ford which was commonly used at low tide ran across the river west of the bridge and ended behind the Armory. A rude path, following the line of the famous Indian trail, led along what is now the present location of Main street to the square and then westward along the river from High street to the weirs, or the narrows, where the Mystic ponds pour into the narrow river and where the Indians had their rude nets for fishing. The hill behind the Centre school sloped abruptly to the river, leaving a little sandy beach at the margin. Behind were the forests, except where the land had been cleared and where a park had been impaled for ‘Master Cradock's cattle, until he can store it with deer.’ One is reminded that Washington had deer at Mount Vernon, and Cradock must have thought perhaps of the English country parks. Near the center of the present Medford square was a little pond, large enough for ducks to take shelter in passing.
What manner of houses would be built by these first settlers? Our modern historians answer quite conclusively, wood. Bricks were made in the colonies at an early date, and we find Winthrop building himself a stone house, and though it apparently was not built on sand, yet a storm arose, and as the stone was laid with clay, for want of lime, two sides of it were washed down to the ground. Brick houses of the type of the Cradock house are signs of more settled times. It is probable, also, that the men of Cradock would settle directly on the line of travel, near the ford and the Indian trail. Of course, they probably would barter skins with the Indians, as was the custom everywhere, and they might
