Medford

City and administrative headquarters of Jackson County, southwest Oregon, on the junction of Bear Creek and the Rogue River, 204 km/127 mi south of Eugene; population (2000) 63,200. It is a summer resort, and tourism is important to the economy; other industries include the processing of the area's timber, agricultural crops including pears, and dairy products.

Medford was founded as a railroad depot in 1883, and incorporated in 1885.

Medford

City in Middlesex County, northeastern Massachusetts, on the Mystic River, 8km/5mi northwest of Boston; population (2000 est) 56,800. Now effectively a northern suburb of Boston, its products include printed materials, paper products, mattresses, and processed food. It was incorporated as a town in 1630 and as a city in 1892.

Medford was a centre for ocean-going trade from the 17th to the 19th century and noted for rum-making and shipbuilding. The latter employed around 1,000 people at its peak in 1855. After it declined, industries included manufacturing cloth, carpets, and hats.

Royall House (1637; rebuilt 1732–37) is one of the few houses to include slave quarters, and the city was the birthplace of writer and abolitionist Lydia Maria Child, and of the abolitionist Prince Hall.

Medford was the site of the first radio station in Massachusetts, which began broadcasting in 1920. Tufts University (1852), one of 15 institutions of higher education in the Greater Boston area, is here. There are 28 entries on the national register of historic places.

‘Jingle Bells’ was written in Medford by James Pierpont in 1857.