Dedham Historical Society

The Dedham Historical Society was founded in 1859 by a group of citizens concerned that the town’s history not be forgotten. The Society was incorporated for the “purposes of collecting and preserving such … records … and traditions as may tend to … perpetuate the history of New England and especially the town of Dedham.” The Society preserves and actively seeks information on all the towns making up the original Dedham Grant, from Bellingham and Plainville in the south, to Natick and Wellesley on the northwest. When the Society began, Norwood and Westwood had not become separate towns, so the collections include many items from the “South Precinct” and the “Clapboardtrees Parish.”

The brick building at 612 High Street, Dedham, was built on the site of Dedham’s first post office, home of Jeremiah Shuttleworth. The property and a bequest for the construction were left to the Society by Hannah Shuttleworth, Jeremiah’s daughter and niece of Fisher and Nathaniel Ames. In 1888 the Shuttleworth house was moved. Architect Edwin J. Lewis designed the present two-story structure containing a lecture-display hall, basement storage area and Society office. In 1965 a second exhibition room to contain important furniture in the Society’s collections was added with more document storage space beneath, and the earlier basement was modernized to contain an extensive historical and genealogical library. Today the Society keeps its documents, maps, and most fragile artifacts in a fireproof climate-controlled vault.