Albion Park was originally low marshland, near the source of the former Winter Brook. Although most residential development in this neighborhood did not occur until the 1890s, some early houses were sited on the large tract known as Polly Swamp in . . . — — Map (db m258064) HM
To the Memory of
Anne Adams-Tufts
Born 1729 Died 1812
A heroine of the Revolution who did active patriotic service after the Battle of Bunker Hill. This was the door-stone of her home which stood about 100 feet South-West of this spot. . . . — — Map (db m248718) HM WM
Tony Lavelli's love of basketball began when his father, a contractor, put an orange crate on a pole for him in the back yard of their house at 37 Spring Street where he lived for most of his life. By 1944, when he was a senior at Somerville High, . . . — — Map (db m255132) HM
In the late 1800s, this site was owned by Somerville residents Rev. Charles Lowe and Martha Perry Lowe. The Lowes cherished Somerville's rural and farming roots and chose to keep a large portion of their land as open pasture for grazing and as a . . . — — Map (db m252719) HM
Central Hill Park is Somerville's first and oldest public park. Established in 1870, Central Hill Playground was constructed within the park to serve children and families citywide. Renovated in 2021 with funding from the Community Preservation Act . . . — — Map (db m243056) HM
"When my family and I immigrated to the United States in 1968—directly to Somerville—I was astounded by the number of opportunities that were available for people, and inspired by an active and vibrant community that warmly welcomed my family and . . . — — Map (db m255290) HM
(West Side) S.L.I.
Incorporated A.D. 1853.
Erected by the Somerville Light Infantry with the balance of a fund generously contributed by their fellow citizens in and of the company on entering the U.S. service for three months . . . — — Map (db m257149) WM
Colors of Defiance.
January 1, 1776. Under General George Washington's command, General Israel Putnam committed a bod act of defiance against the British: flying from the tope of Prospect Hill the first flag of the united colonies, know as . . . — — Map (db m255184) HM
Conway Park is named after George Frederick Conway, Somerville resident and Seaman Second Class in the U.S. Navy. Conway, age 21, was lost at sea in 1918 while serving in WWI. The site that honors his memory also reflects the city's industrial . . . — — Map (db m255064) HM WM
There are pioneer's souls
that blaze their paths
Where highways never ran —
But let me live by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
— Sam Walter Foss (1858-1911), Somerville poet — — Map (db m255433) HM
Country Town or Gritty City?
By 1845, Somerville managed to combine the energy and promise of a burgeoning industrial center with a delightful country atmosphere. Fed up with the dust, noise and congestion of "big city" Boston, many . . . — — Map (db m255289) HM
The locals called it Duck Village but not because of any quacking. A tiny mishmash of streets was used during prohibition by bootleggers as a hideout for speakeasy and their patrons to duck authorities. — — Map (db m250131) HM
Edward L. Leathers. Private First Class, United States Army, Reconnaissance Company, 67th Armored Regiment, Word War II.
Edward L. Leathers was born on November 13, 1924, and lived at 7 Jasper Street in Somerville. He left high school to join . . . — — Map (db m243060) WM
Somerville was once an open rural area. Since the American Revolution, the area has experienced steady growth. In 1895, Charles E. Gilman, a major landowner in the area, established his estate at the location of this park.
In 1971 the Kemp . . . — — Map (db m243059) HM
Early 1880s. Imagine Somerville Avenue so crowded with dairies, it was called "Milk Row." Now picture today's Conway Park as the site of Somerville's first major factory, the Middlesex Bleachery and Die Works. The firm dyed cotton and woolen yarn, . . . — — Map (db m255230) HM
Gen. Putnam set up the French Redoubt after retreating from Bunker Hill. Along with others, the French Redoubt successfully held out against British advances and became a strategic fortification extended from what is not the back of the high . . . — — Map (db m243057) HM
From Golden Glass to Silver Screen. Union Square, 1854. Brothers Amory and Francis Houghton founded Union Glass Works. For 20 years the biggest industrial employer in town, it produced exquisite ornamental glass, sometimes blended with gold. . . . — — Map (db m255304) HM
Died 15 May, 1918, of wounds received in action 14 May, Toul-Boucq sector.
Enl. 21 May, 1917; reported for duty 25 July; mustered 20 July, Co. M, 9th In., 26th Div.
Overseas 27 Sept., 1917.
Born 29 Jan., 1897, at Somerville, son of . . . — — Map (db m248721) WM
George Dilboy, Private First Class, United States Army, Recipient of Congressional Medal of Honor-Born 1896, of Greek Parentage, in Alatsata, Asia Minor, near the city of Smyrna. Enlisted 19 June 1916, Company H, 103rd Infantry, 26th Infantry . . . — — Map (db m108941) WM
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 & Lowell (later Boston & Maine) Railroad, Gilman Square is at the nexus of . . . — — Map (db m250772) HM
This bench is dedicated to all the professionals - planners, engineers, construction managers, and tradespeople - who worked tirelessly to make the Green Line Extension (GLX) a reality from its conceptional stages in the 1980s to the completion of . . . — — Map (db m248724) HM
A Handful, A Pinch and a Dash of Perfection. 1911. Minnie Simpson Turner perfects the recipe for lemon pie filling. In a time when cooking skills passed from mother to daughter and recipes called for a "handful of flour" and "pinch of salt," . . . — — Map (db m315780) HM
How Do You Say "Gutter Ball" In German?
Bowling arrived in this country in 1777 thanks to the Hessians - German soldiers England hired to fight in the American Revolution, hundreds of whom were housed in Somerville as prisoners of war. . . . — — Map (db m255255) HM
Somerville's first community-built playground bears the names of two local WWII veterans, Edward S. Sullivan and SSgt. Charles H. Hoyt. The Somerville Junction Station is located diagonally across the railroad tracks from the park, while the . . . — — Map (db m248727) HM WM
In Memoriam
Members Who made the Supreme Sacrifice in World War Two
Arthur Destefano · Frederick A. Fairbanks · Stanley G. Jankun · Dominic J. Langone · John J. McCarthy · Harold D. Metzger · George S. Pando · Victor S. Pando · Frank W. . . . — — Map (db m248745) WM
On snowy days up through the 1930s, Prospect Hill and Stone Avenue were swarming - with sleds. Making the most of its steeply sloping hillsides, the city closed off traffic on selected streets, and residents of every age took to their toboggans. . . . — — Map (db m255180) HM
James A. Logan
First Lieutenant, Air Corps
Army of the United States
Born 22 April 1921
Killed in action over Bellay-sur-Somme, France
8 July 1944
Citations
Distinguished Flying Cross Air Medal Purple Heart
Excerpt from . . . — — Map (db m244383) HM WM
John Nunziato was one of the greatest all-around athletes ever to graduate from Somerville High School. He earned nine letters in football, baseball, and basketball in his three years at SHS. He was chosen for the All-Star Football Squad, named . . . — — Map (db m252715) HM
A Lasting Memory, a Growing Park: George Frederick Conway
1918. Troopship gun-pointer George Frederick Conway, a Somerville native, was lost at sea while serving active duty. In 1934, World War I veterans, town officials and several . . . — — Map (db m255260) WM
1897. As America began to outgrow its restless, rugged frontier days, Samuel Walter Foss, director of the Somerville Public Library, published a poem celebrating the virtues of warmth, friendship, and staying put. Expressing the spirt of a whole . . . — — Map (db m255303) HM
This park is named after Lou Ann David (1931-2011) in recognition of her outstanding service to our community. As a longtime resident of Somerville, David served on the Somerville Community Corporation, Community Action Agency of Somerville, and . . . — — Map (db m251069) HM
The Agar Manufacturing Company of Whippany, New Jersey, developed the Maxwell's Green site in 1927 as the northeast location for its corrugated box production business. This Somerville parcel was valued for its proximity to the Lexington & . . . — — Map (db m248730) HM
This is the oldest burial site in Somerville, established on privately owned land in 1804. It was taken over by the City in 1892. The grounds contain a significant Civil War Soldiers Monument (1863), and tombs and graves of prominent citizens of . . . — — Map (db m257147) HM
Near this spot on April 17th, 1832, Jonathan W. Niles unearthed the first complete Anchisaurus skeleton. Niles, an employee of the Milk Row Bleachery, found the discovery while working to fill the Miller's River marsh (which now is the stretch of . . . — — Map (db m243066) HM
1877. The first telephone line in the world was installed in Somerville, at the corner of Lincoln and Arlington Streets. It connected the residence of Charles Williams, Jr. with his electrical shop in Boston - where inventor Alexander Graham Bell . . . — — Map (db m255150) HM
This site, part of a bigger parcel of land including the current Somerville Growing Center on Vinal Avenue, housed the Prospect Hill Grammar School (1842), which was renamed the Dr. Luther V. Bell elementary school (1874) after the Civil War hero . . . — — Map (db m248731) HM
Paul Revere passed over this road in his midnight ride to Lexington and Concord. April 19, 1775. Site of the Winter Hill Fort stronghold built by the American forces while besieging Boston 1775-6. — — Map (db m248733) HM WM
Picture Perfect
1904. Somerville gained its first motion picture theater when confectioner Arthur Pearson opened Pearson's Perfect Pictures at 318 Broadway, Winter Hill. In his words, early shows were "every crude. The two [motion] pictures . . . — — Map (db m255307) HM WM
"Ploughed Hill"
Fortified and bombarded in 1775-76
Site of Ursuline Convent
Founded 1820 and opened 1826
Burned 1834. Hill dug down 1875 to 1897
Erected by Mt. Benedict Council No. 75 — — Map (db m243062) HM
This stone windmill built by John Mallet about 1703 was sold to the Province for a gun powder magazine in 1747. Rifled by General Gage of the Colony's powder on I September 1774, it became a magazine of the American Army in 1775-76. — — Map (db m48827) HM
While attending Harvard Law School (c-1988-1991) our future President lived at 365 Broadway, Apt. 1B. He went on to save us from another great depression, won the Nobel Peace Prize (2009), brought Osama Bin Laden to justice, and brought integrity . . . — — Map (db m248732) HM
The Quietman Makes Some Noise. 1979. Washington Street. To help local kids get in shape and stay out of trouble, six friends start the Somerville Boxing Club, among them Norman "Stoney" Stone. Nine years later, he notices - and nurtures - the . . . — — Map (db m255147) HM
This public park space derives its name from Quincy Aldersey Vinal, a prominent member of the Vinal family. The family originally owned much of the surrounding land until it was subdivided by real estate investors, beginning in 1850, fueled by the . . . — — Map (db m248734) HM
April 18, 1775. Nightfall. Riding west to warn fellow patriots that British forces are on the march, Paul Revere crosses "The Neck" from Charlestown to what is now Sullivan Square. Ahead: two British soldiers, also mounted. Reading his horse, . . . — — Map (db m255288) HM
The Richmond
33 Bow Street/3 Wesley Park
has been placed on the
National Register of Historic Places
by the United States Department of the Interior
Dedicated to the memory of Paul Duhamel. 1892. — — Map (db m252707) HM
A River Runs Through It. No, Really?
Once, rivers were America's highway. Today, real highways often cut people off from the serene natural beauty of local rivers. to find Somerville's hidden riverside park on the Mystic River, you have to . . . — — Map (db m255228) HM
Before the arrival of Riverside Community Care in 2019, the building at 117 Summer Street was once The Somerville Home, a private, nonprofit organization offering long-term residential care to seniors from Somerville and surrounding towns. . . . — — Map (db m243069) HM
Some spectacular October morning, as the Tour de Somerville bicycle race flashes past the corner of Central Street and Somerville Avenue in a swirl of spokes and spandex, consider this: just over a century ago, Somerville boasted exactly one bike. . . . — — Map (db m255183) HM
1863. Caleb Chase and Somerville's James Sanborn launch "Chase and Sanborn" brand coffee, which would be the first to be sold from coast to coast, and by 1879, to be packaged in sealed cans. Their success bought Sanborn a Winter Hill mansion. In . . . — — Map (db m255311) HM
When Trolleys Ran On Hay
Somerville was home to the nation's first horse-drawn passenger rail line, running from Harvard College to Union Square Station circa 1850. Later the city was crisscrossed by individual horse-drawn trolleys. . . . — — Map (db m255300) HM
Some say it was just a "fanciful name." Others believe it was named to honor a daring naval hero, Captain Richard Somers. In 1804, he packed his ship, Intrepid, with gunpowder, hoping to use it as a floating bomb to destroy the fleet of the . . . — — Map (db m255149) HM
The Boston & Lowell, Fitchburg Railroad, and Boston & Maine played formative roles in the evolution of Somerville and Medford into Boston suburbs. In 1845, the B&M was the first railroad serving Boston to offer a viable commuter fare - one that was . . . — — Map (db m250789) HM
Dedicated to the
memory of our
youth who served
in World War II
Christos Dafnoulelis •
Donald A. Matsas •
George A. Spinos •
James G. Stringos •
Ralph Stratis — — Map (db m248725) WM
