Gilman Square

Gilman Square. . , Gilman Square developed in the late nineteenth century, along with Union Square, as the two competing commercial centers in Somerville. Located along the former Boston and Lowell (later Boston and Maine) Railroad, Gilman Square is at the nexus of Medford, Marshall, and Pearl Streets. Multi-story brick commercial building that surround the square were constructed between approximately 1887 and 1930. The mixture of industrial, commercial, and social functions led to a vibrant center of activity. , Examples of these building types include the Malta Temple/Signet Commandry No. 188, a Classical Revival-Style building built in 1896. It became hoe to the Winter Hill Business College and later Fisher College during the early twentieth century. The building is an unusual surviving example of a commercial building with a meeting hall for social and charitable organizations, common in the nineteenth century. , The Litchfield Block, at the corner of Marshall and Pearl Streets, was built in 1891, and designed to contain commercial use at ground level, with three floors of apartments above. It is a surviving representation of late nineteenth-century commercial architecture in Somerville. , Until 2018, the Gilman Square Station site was the location of a grocery warehouse owned by Reid Murdoch and Company of Chicago. The three-story, Art Deco-style, brick building was built in 1929 and expanded circa 1935. It had loading bays along the tracks for railroad cars and at one end for trucks. , ( photo captions ) , , A bronze raised plaque of a knight on horseback. In the roof gable is a notable feature of the facade. The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. , , A cast concrete sculpture of the brand’s trademark lion’s head was above the main entrance on Medford Street. Reid Murdoch and Company distributed Monarch food products. , , Looking down Medford Street at Gilman Square, circa 1935. Historic New England.