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Former Norfolk Probate Court and current Registry of Deeds in Dedham, MA.

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The Norfolk County Registry of Deeds was built in 1903 to house the Registry of Deeds, the Registry of Probate, and the Probate Court. During the Sacco & Vanzetti trial, the jurors walked across the street from the Superior Court and had their lunch in the basement of the Probate Court. In recent years, the Probate Court moved to Canton, but the building continues to serve as the Registry of Deeds.


Norfolk Probate Court and Registry of Deeds

At the time, many people were deeply concerned by the potential implications of Sacco &amp; Vanzetti's trial and conviction. In the years that followed the conviction, lawyers for the two men received money from people all over the world. After numerous attempts to overturn the verdict, Sacco &amp; Vanzetti were executed on August 23, 1927. Governor Michael Dukakis pardoned them posthumously on August 23, 1977.

On April 15, 1920, a guard and a paymaster at the Slater-Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts, were murdered in an armed robbery. Suspicion centered on local anarchists. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian immigrant anarchists, were shortly afterwards accused of the robbery. The trial occurred in June and July, 1921, in Dedham, the county seat of Norfolk County. The trial drew international attention because many people believed that the defendants were unfairly accused because of their politics and ethnicity. Both men were found guilty and sentenced to death.

The Dedham Train Station was built in 1881 and demolished in 1951. It was located where a parking lot, commonly called the Keystone Lot, is now. Judge Webster Thayer who presided over the trial, lawyers, journalists, and spectators would use the train to come to the Norfolk County Superior Court Courthouse for the trial, walking from the station to the courthouse. That makes this site the perfect first stop for the walking tour.

Site of former Dedham Train Station 

The Dedham Historical Society building was built win 1888, with funds given by Hannah Shuttleworth. Judge Thayer, lawyers, journalists, and visitors from out of town would walk past the Historical Society on their way from the train station to the courthouse. The Historical Society collections hold information about the trial, including pictures and documents, such as the full trial transcript.

Dedham Historical Society & Museum Building 

The original portion of the courthouse was built in 1827 by a noted Boston carver and builder, Solomon Willard. At this time the house was a rectangular, Greek Revival edifice of granite, with nearly-identical tetra style pedimented porticos at either end. In 1863 the building was enlarged, and also topped with a dome. This dome was later replaced with the current one (1890’s), and the interior of the building was given a decorative treatment with Greek motifs. Since the famous Sacco Vanzetti trial, the Norfolk County Courthouse remained the same, without any significant changes, both in the exterior and in the interior.In May 1921, one highly charged trial took place in this building, the case of two Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti , both Italians who were convicted of murdering a guard and a paymaster during the armed robbery of a shoe factory in Braintree.The arrest of Sacco and Vanzetti had coincided with the period of the most intense political repression in American history, the "Red Scare" 1919-20. The police trap they had fallen into had been set for a comrade of theirs, suspected primarily because he was a foreign-born radical. While neither Sacco nor Vanzetti had any previous criminal record, they were long recognized by the authorities and their communities as anarchist militants who had been extensively involved in labor strikes, political agitation, and antiwar propaganda.On May 31, 1921, they were brought to trial before Judge Webster Thayer of the Massachusetts Superior Court, and on July 14 both were found guilty by verdict of the jury. Socialists and radicals protested the men’s innocence. Many people felt that the trial had been less than fair and that the defendants had been convicted for their radical, anarchist beliefs rather than for the crime for which they had been tried. Although the arguments brought against them were mostly disproven in court, the fact that the two men were known radicals (and that their trial took place during the height of the Red Scare) prejudiced the judge and jury against them. On April 9, 1927, Sacco and Vanzetti's final appeal was rejected, and the two were sentenced to death.

This Greek Revival courthouse was built in 1827 and expanded over the 19th century. It was site of the controversial Sacco-Vanzetti trial in 1921. The house currently houses the Norfolk County Superior Court. 

Norfolk County Courthouse

The Old Dedham Inn was built in 1791, and once known as the “Old Richards House.” This was where Judge Thayer, many of the lawyers, and the journalists covering the case would have lunch during the trial. Sadly, the Inn burned to the ground in 1939, and there is nothing left on the site today. 









The Old Dedham Inn

During the trial and other court appearances, Sacco and Vanzetti marched in handcuffs with a sheriff’s escort from the jail to the courthouse following this route. There are several contemporary photos of the march down Village Avenue to Court Street and back.

The jail was built in 1816 and renovated in 1850 and 1875. While Sacco and Vanzetti were in Dedham for the trial and afterwards during the appeals period, they were kept in the Norfolk County Jail. They were subsequently taken to Charlestown for their execution. The building was converted to residences in the 1990s.

The Old Dedham Jail

The Brandeis House is the last stop on the trail. The house was originally built about 1800 and renovated many times over the years. Louis D. Brandeis, then a Boston lawyer, bought this home in 1900. He was appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 1916. Realizing that the Sacco family had limited means, Justice Brandeis allowed Sacco’s wife and daughter stay in his house during the trial. This act of kindness shows how many people felt for the plight of Sacco and Vanzetti and their families. After the trial, Justice Brandeis received a last-minute clemency petition from the defendants’ lawyers. He had to recuse himself because of his wife’s support for the defense committee.




Sacco and Vanzetti Trial Walking Tour in Dedham, MA.

Norfolk Probate Court and Registry of Deeds

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