Before Norwood, Massachusetts became a town in 1872, hardy settlers from Dedham left security and comfort behind and began building homes along the Neponset River and Hawes Brook. Living in an area still known as the South Parish, these hard-working citizens fought for their values in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. The town encouraged industry and diversity, expanding its primarily agricultural base until the community could boast a stable, if ever changing, economy. Wealthy industrialists and working-class immigrants united to build this New England town and to foster its growth into the Norwood of today: a vital community that residents are proud to call home. Norwood: A History recounts stories of the visionaries produced here, such as Captain Aaron Guild, who "left plough in furrow and oxen standing" to join the April 19, 1775, battle at Lexington. The formation and success of the Civic Association and the hospital were due to the perseverance of the public-spirited population, guided by the charismatic and driven George Willett. Readers will discover how athletics helped put Norwood on the map, from the polo fields of W. Cameron Forbes to the reign of Roll-Land as one of the country's premiere roller-skating arenas. As tales of years gone by give way to progress, Norwood: A History also looks ahead to new enterprises, which have followed in the footsteps of companies such as Winslow Brothers and Smith and the Norwood Press.

New England colonists, Wood argues, brought with them a cultural predisposition toward dispersed settlements within agricultural spaces called "towns" and "villages." Rarely compact in form, these communities did, however, encourage individual landholding. By the early nineteenth century, town centers, where meetinghouses stood, began to develop into the center villages we recognize today. Just as rural New England began its economic decline, Wood shows, romantics associated these proto-urban places with idealized colonial village communities as the source of both village form and commercial success.

Beginning in 1924, Proceedings are incorporated into the Apr. number.