Charles Martin Loeffler: 'The Farmer of Medfield'

Medfield has seen a number of sport celebrities move here to town. Coach Raymond Berry, Hall of Famer John Hannah, coach Pete Carrol, linebacker Ted Johnson, quarterback Drew Bledsoe and today, former Red Sox star Curt Schilling is very much the town celebrity. 

But for the beginning of the 20th century, another celebrity called Medfield home, noted as much in the music world as Schilling is in the sports world.  He was Professor Charles Martin Loeffler.

Loeffler sought seclusion away from the hustle and bustle of Boston society as he retreated into the hinterlands of South Street under the gaze of the Planting Field and above the winding vista of Stop River. Here the famous Loeffler, who hobnobbed with the cream of Boston Society and was considered one of the music world’s greatest composers and concert masters, wanted the privacy of a simpler life.

Here the great Loeffler, the prominent figure in Boston, the distinguished man of aristocratic bearing and cosmopolitan culture, who was esteemed an eminent intellectual as well as artist; who counted among his friends, John Singer Sargent, who painted his portrait, Amy Lowell, Mrs. Jack Gardner and other artists and intellectuals, as well as Boston’s most notable patrons; here the great Loeffler instead wanted only to be known as Charles Martin Loeffler, the Farmer of Medfield.

In Medfield Loeffler led the life of a gentleman farmer with his wife Elise Fay, who he married in 1910. Loeffler shared his time between his working farm and thoroughbred horses and his musical activities. He continued to teach and to coach chamber ensembles and in 1908 founded the all-woman American String Quartette.

Loeffler first came out to Medfield in the late 1880’s where he stayed first at the Mason Estate on 190 North Street and then at the Sewell Estate known as Tannery Farm and located on West Main Street. In 1903 Loeffler retired from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and devoted himself to composition. Loeffler fell in love with Medfield and purchased a decaying old farm house in the 273 South Street area which was remodeled and enlarged under his direction. He named the house “Meadowmere.”

The house no longer stands today, burning to the ground in May of 1940. He also purchased the house across the street at 274 South Street and which he remodeled into a music studio. On the property adjoining the studio were two small houses built in 1796, one of which he used as a guest studio. In that guest studio the artist John Singer Sargent stayed and painted. 

Loeffler received a steady stream of famous guests and students at Meadowmere. The Medfield community was well aware of Loeffler’s presence. While Loeffler enjoyed his privacy and was not the most visible member of the community, he could still be met at the railroad station, at St. Edward’s Church, passing on his hay wagon or taking a ride with his wife in her motorcar. The town knew it had a famous musician in its midst who sometimes brought the cream of Boston society to his home and studio.

Guests to Meadowmere included John Singer Sargent, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, Frank Benson, Heinrich Gebhard, Amy Lowell, Carl Engel and cellist Pablo Casals.  Many students also came to his studio on South Street. Each summer about a half dozen would board here and others commuted, either by motorcar or by train. The students who arrived by train would walk down South Street to the studio. The sight of his students, walking from the railroad station to his home, became familiar to the residents.

Many of Loeffler’s students went on to become noted orchestral violinists.  In 1908 Loeffler formed the American String Quartet, made up from his many women students. The group was coached by Loeffler and the quartet rehearsed on Mondays at the South Street studio. Loeffler also coached other chamber groups, including the National String Quartet, which stayed here in Medfield during the summer of 1925. He held Sacred Concerts at St. Edward’s to help pay off the churches’ mortgage. Each concert brought out a who’s-who of Boston society.

He formed a boy’s choir at St. Edward’s church and practiced with them on a regular basis. One time he took his boys’ choir to sing for his patron, Mrs. Jack Gardner in at her palace. (today the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum) There Mrs. Gardner declared “They sang like angles,” and was so delighted with the boys’ singing that she ordered baseball uniforms for their team to be made by the Spaulding Company of Boston at her expense.

The small town Medfield players were not used to such luxury and were quite excited to show off their new uniforms when they played Dedham in the next game.  During and after WWI, Loeffler also gave concerts in the Unitarian Church for the benefit of the Red Cross and for the benefit of devastated France.

Charles Martin Loeffler died in 1935.