Dedham Tales

There has been quite a favorable response to my last post about the wooden street signposts that remain in Dedham. During my search for more of these, I discovered (with the help of Google maps street view) that one had disappeared from the corner of Mt. Vernon Street and Woodleigh Road some time after April, 2022.

Turns out, rather than an example of some nefarious act of vandalism or theft, the missing signpost is an inspiring story of civic pride. For years, this particular signpost has been maintained (including hand painting the faded street names) by nearby resident Paul Reynolds, Fablevision CEO, Blue Bunny mainstay, and long time supporter of Dedham cultural and charitable organizations. After noticing the tipped over post last fall, Paul discovered the bottom had rotted out and could not be fixed.

Not to worry! Through the generous cooperation of the town DPW, a new post has been crafted, delivered and awaits the addition of street names before being placed in its usual corner.

While these signposts are not very practical (hard to read, in need of constant maintenance) and were eventually replaced for those reasons, they clearly stir strong feelings of nostalgia and stand out as something uniquely Dedham. That’s why they should be preserved, and perhaps restored as Paul Reynolds has done, so they can be appreciated for years to come.

This entry was posted on May 7, 2024 at 6:17 pm and is filed under ...all the old familiar places. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.