Somerville, Massachusetts
A Short History of Somerville
From a corner of colonial Charlestown, to the hilltop where the first flag of the united colonies flew, to one of the densest cities in the country and a brand-new subway line.
Part of Charlestown
The land that is now Somerville was settled in 1630 as part of Charlestown, and for two centuries it stayed farms and outlying neighborhoods on the far side of the river from Boston. It set off on its own and incorporated as the Town of Somerville in 1842, then grew fast enough to become a city in 1872.
The First Flag on Prospect Hill
On January 1, 1776, the Grand Union Flag, the first flag of the united colonies, was raised on Prospect Hill in what is now Somerville. The stone Prospect Hill Tower still marks the spot, a reminder that the early Revolution was fought in these hills and not only in downtown Boston.
The Powder Alarm
Two years earlier, in 1774, British troops marched to the Old Powder House, a stone tower that still stands in Nathan Tufts Park, and seized the colonists’ gunpowder stored inside. The “Powder Alarm” that followed sent thousands of militia into the streets and helped push the colonies toward open war.
Brick, Meat, and Cars
As Boston grew, Somerville became its workshop. Brickyards, meatpacking houses, and factories filled the city, and from 1926 to 1958 a Ford Motor Company plant assembled cars on the site that is now Assembly Row. The work drew waves of immigrant families who built the dense neighborhoods that still define the city.
The Densest Streetcar Suburb
Streetcars turned Somerville into a tightly packed bedroom city for workers commuting into Boston. For much of the twentieth century it ranked among the most densely populated cities in the country, fitting tens of thousands of people onto roughly four square miles of triple-deckers and narrow streets.
The Green Line and Today
In 2022 the MBTA Green Line Extension opened across the city, adding stations and reshaping Union Square and the squares around it. Tufts University sits on the line between Somerville and Medford, and Davis Square, Union Square, and Assembly Row are the centers where the city now works, eats, and gathers.
Sources: City of Somerville; U.S. Census Bureau.