sentences:  When the original Boston and Lowell Railroad was laid out in the 1830s, West Medford was mostly farmland.The route of the new railroad (one of the oldest railroads in North America) was built on land acquired from Peter Chardon Brooks, who sold a strip for the right-of-way plus a parcel for the station on High Street.The initial stop was called "Medford Gates"; it gave birth to West Medford Square and, eventually, the surrounding residential neighborhoods.