Historic Preservation Award given to Ancelin Wolfe

Ancelin Wolfe receives Historic Preservation Award

At the January 15, 2019 Board of Selectmen meeting, David Temple, Co-chair of the Medfield Historical Commission presented the Historic Preservation Award to Ancelin Wolfe for her many years of dedication and work since 1997.

David Temple's presentation reads as follows:

"As you know, but perhaps some of the people out there in television land don’t, the Historical Commission is appointed by the Board of Selectmen. Our monthly meetings in Town Hall are posted and open to the public. Medfield was first settled 370 years ago, and the Commission’s job is to help assure that historic preservation gets appropriate consideration when town development decisions are made.

For example, if someone wants to tear down an historic house, the demolition delay bylaw gives us a chance to hit the pause button, so alternatives to demolition can be considered.

Here’s another example. We don’t know what the final outcome will be, but we worked hard last spring with LCB developers and the Massachusetts Historical Commission. We were trying to work out an agreement to mitigate the impact that the proposed big assisted living center would have on the adjacent 1740 Clark Tavern and the Peak House and on other neighbors on Main Street.

So why are we here today? It pains me to say it, but one of our longest-serving members, Ancelin Wolfe, is moving out of town.

Ancelin joined the board in 1997. She was perhaps the best qualified applicant we’d ever seen. She had previously worked with the Rhode Island Historical Commission for a decade, and she wrote a lot of nominations for buildings that were up for the National Register of Historic Places. She also helped train people in how to restore old houses.

We all learned a lot from Ancelin, and without her, we probably wouldn’t have gotten our town-wide preservation plan in 1999. And she’s been doing a lot of the heavy lifting ever since.

So here’s the moment you’ve been waiting for... we’d like to present the Historical Commission’s 2019 Preservation Award to Ancelin Wolfe in appreciation for the good work she’s done for us and the town for over 20 years."