The Medford Historical Society, like similar groups in other Boston-area towns, commissioned a building for their meetings and to hold their collections. The museum contains Indian, Civil War, and shipyard artifacts. The unusual choice of the Spanish Colonial style may have been the idea of the designer, Moses G. Mann, a local carpenter-builder. After completing this project in 1916, he listed his profession as “historical writer.” Many of Mann's other buildings in the area are equally distinctive.