Somerville ( SUM-ər-vil) is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the city had a total population of 81,045 people. With an area of 4.12 square miles (10.7 km2), the city has a density of 19,671/sq mi (7,595/km2), making it the most densely populated municipality in New England and the 19th most densely populated incorporated municipality in the country. Somerville was established as a town in 1842, when it was separated from Charlestown. In 2006, the city was named the best-run city in Massachusetts by The Boston Globe. In 1972, 2009, and 2015, the city received the All-America City Award. It is home to Tufts University, which has its campus along the Somerville and Medford border. Tufts, alongside Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, makes up one corner of the Brain Power Triangle, which thus includes the city of Somerville.
The Adams-Magoun House is a historic house at 438 Broadway in Somerville, Massachusetts. Built about 1783, it is one of the city's few surviving 18th-century buildings and its best-preserved. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The Alexander Foster House is a historic house in Somerville, Massachusetts. Built c. 1860, it is one of the city's earliest examples of Italianate architecture, and one of its best-preserved. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The Amos Keyes House is a historic house in Somerville, Massachusetts. This 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house was built c. 1860 by Amos Keyes, a produce dealer. It was originally located on Central Street, but was moved to this location c. 1870 when Keyes sought to build a larger house on the other site. This house exhibits both Greek Revival and Italianate features: the round arch window in the gable is a typical Italianate detail, but the side-hall three-bay layout of the house is Greek Revival, as is the Doric porch.
Davis station is an underground Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Red Line rapid transit station located at Davis Square in Somerville, Massachusetts. The accessible station has a single island platform for the Red Line, as well as a dedicated busway on the surface. It opened in 1984 as part of the Red Line Northwest Extension project.
The Broadway Winter Hill Congregational Church is a historic church building at 404 Broadway in Somerville, Massachusetts. Built in 1890–91 to a design by Hartwell and Richardson for a Congregationalist congregation founded in 1865, it is one of the city's only examples of Shingle style architecture, and one of its finer architect-designed buildings from the 19th century. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. It is now home to the Vida Real Church.
The Central Library is the main branch of the Somerville, Massachusetts, public library system. It is an architecturally distinguished Renaissance Revival brick building designed by Edward Lippincott Tilton and was built in 1914 with funding assistance from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The M. Clinton Bacon House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Clifton Bacon House, is a historic house in Somerville, Massachusetts. Built in 1887, it is one of the city's finest examples of high-style Queen Anne Victorian architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Davis Square is a major intersection in the northwestern section of Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, where several streets meet: Holland Street, Dover Street, Day Street, Elm Street, Highland Avenue, and College Avenue. The name is often used to refer to the West Somerville neighborhood surrounding the square as well.
The former First Unitarian Church is a historic church building at 130 Highland Avenue in Somerville, Massachusetts. The stone church was built in 1894 for a Unitarian congregation. It was designed by Hartwell & Richardson and is a good example of Richardsonian Romanesque design. The building presently (2022) houses the Mission Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The First Universalist Church is a historic Universalist Church building at 125 Highland Avenue in Somerville, Massachusetts. The Romanesque church building was built between 1916 and 1923 to a design by Ralph Adams Cram, and is the only example of his work in Somerville. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. It is currently owned by the Highland Masonic Building Association, and is the home of King Solomon's Lodge AF & AM, the builders of the Bunker Hill Monument.
The George Loring House is a historic house at 76 Highland Avenue in Somerville, Massachusetts. The 2+1⁄2-story Shingle style wood-frame house was built c. 1895 for George F. Loring, the architect who designed it. The house has roughly rectangular massing, with brick facing on the first floor and wood shingles on the upper levels. The front facade has a central projecting section that includes a window bay on the second floor and a polygonally hipped roof dormer above. The windows in this section have diamond mullions. Combined with the wood shingling, this gives the house a medieval English manor appearance.
Gilman Square station is a light rail station on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Green Line located at Gilman Square in Somerville, Massachusetts. The accessible station has a single island platform serving the two tracks of the Medford Branch. It opened on December 12, 2022, as part of the Green Line Extension (GLX), which added two northern branches to the Green Line, and is served by the E branch.
The Walter J. Squire House in Somerville, Massachusetts is a well-preserved transitional Italianate/Queen Anne house. The basic 2+1⁄2-story, front-gable, three-bay side entrance layout was fairly typical for Italianate houses in the city, as are the paired cornice brackets and hoods over the windows. The porch, however, has Queen Anne elements, including turned posts and the rising sun motif on its gable.
The house at 197 Morrison Avenue in Somerville, Massachusetts is the city's finest example of vernacular Gothic Revival architecture. The two story brick building was built c. 1860, and is now set well back from the street behind a later house. Its notable features include bargeboard decoration in the front gable, which also has a Gothic lancet window, and its elaborate front porch decorations. The house is unusual for its position set well back from the street, since it predates the major development that took place on Morrison Avenue in the 1870s.
The House at 25 Clyde Street in Somerville, Massachusetts is an example of a vernacular brickworker's house in the area. It is estimated to have been built about 1850, when the area was near one of the city's many brickyards. One characteristic common to these houses was the high brick basement wall, which is visible in this house.
The house at 343 Highland Avenue is a historic two-family house in Somerville, Massachusetts. The 2.5-story wood-frame Queen Anne style house was built c. 1880 as commuter housing. The house features jigsaw-cut bargeboard decoration on the porches, and paired brackets in the eaves and gables. It was built on land that had been part of a brickyard, which was subdivided for development in the 1870s.
The House at 35 Temple Street in Somerville, Massachusetts was one of the few 18th-century houses in the city. The 2.5-story wood-frame house was probably built between 1750 and 1780, and had retained most of its Georgian features, including a steeply pitched gambrel roof. The house was probably moved to this location from Broadway or Mystic Avenue in the 19th century.
The house at 42 Vinal Avenue in Somerville, Massachusetts is a well-preserved Shingle style house. It is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, roughly square in shape, with a cross-gable roof. The roof line of the front-facing gable extends downward to the first floor on the right, sheltering a porch on the building's right front. It is stylistically a very pure execution of the Shingle style, with most of the building clad in shingles, except very simple trim elements. It was built about 1895, when the Prospect Hill area was a fashionable residential area with ready access to streetcars providing access to Boston for commuters.
The house at 6 Kent Court is a historic colonial-era house in Somerville, Massachusetts. The Georgian style house was built in 1750, and is one of the oldest buildings in the city. It is known that there were a number of houses in this area, but it is likely that this house was moved, possible from Somerville Avenue, around the turn of the 20th century. The house's age is in part recognizable by its steeply pitched gambrel roof; it also has a typical colonial-era leanto addition on the rear.
The house at 81 Pearl Street in Somerville, Massachusetts is a well-preserved Italianate house. The 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house was built c. 1860, and features a deep front gable with paired decorative brackets, and a front porch supported by square columns, with an unusual scalloped-arch cornice trim. It is among the best-preserved of the period worker housing built in East Somerville at that time. An early occupant was Benjamin Gage, a machinist.
The Inner Belt District is a 126-acre (0.51 km2) industrial district located in the southeastern portion of Somerville, Massachusetts, United States. Along with nearby Brickbottom, the Inner Belt is a historically industrial zone of Somerville, with factories, warehouses, distribution centers, railroad connections, regional maintenance facilities, MBTA and Amtrak offices, retail stores and a hotel.
The James H. Brooks House is a historic house in Somerville, Massachusetts. Built about 1880, it is one of the finer examples of Second Empire architecture in the city. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Langmaid Terrace is a historic apartment complex at 359—365 Broadway in the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts. The architecturally eclectic brick building was built in 1891 by the heirs of Samuel P. Langmaid, a local landowner. The Langmaid family was also responsible for the Langmaid Building on Highland Avenue. The architect was J. Pickering Putnam of Boston. The building is Queen Anne in inspiration with multiple roof lines, gables, and towers of varying heights and styles. Dormers project from the mansard roof, faced with stepped brick.
The Lemuel Snow Jr. House is a historic house at 81 Benton Road in Somerville, Massachusetts. The 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame Queen Anne style house was built c. 1890. Although its main roof line is side-gable, there is a front cross gable projecting over the front facade which is supported by decoratively cut knee brackets. The front entry porch is supported by heavy turned pillars, and has an openwork frieze. The house was built by Lemuel Snow, a local carpenter, for his son.
Magoun Square station is a light rail station on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Green Line located at Lowell Street south of Magoun Square in Somerville, Massachusetts. The accessible station has a single island platform serving the two tracks of the Medford Branch. It opened on December 12, 2022, as part of the Green Line Extension (GLX), which added two northern branches to the Green Line, and is served by the E branch.
Lyndell's Bakery is a bakery in Ball Square in Somerville, Massachusetts. In December 2007, it celebrated 120 years of operation. Lyndell's is a classic, full-service American bakery, a rare holdout in New England communities.
Magoun Square is a neighborhood centered on the intersection of Broadway and Medford Streets on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States. It is located between the neighborhoods of Ball Square and Winter Hill. It is a mixed-use urban business district, with commercial sites in the square and residential areas surrounding it. Trum Field, a park featuring baseball diamonds and basketball courts, is near Magoun Square, as is the headquarters of the Somerville Department of Public Works. Notable residents include playwright John Shea.
The Martin W. Carr School is a historic school building located at 25 Atherton Street, in the Spring Hill area of Somerville, Massachusetts. Built in 1898, it is a prominent local example of Colonial and Renaissance Revival architecture, and the only known surviving work of local architect Aaron H. Gould. It served the local neighborhood as a school until 1980, and was subsequently converted into condominiums. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The Cambridge Matignon School (originally Father Matignon High School) was a private, co-educational Roman Catholic college-preparatory school in Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States. The school was under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.
The Mount Vernon Street Historic District is a historic district consisting of the even-numbered houses at 8–24 Mount Vernon Street in Somerville, Massachusetts. The district includes four modest Greek Revival houses built c. 1850, an earlier Federal period house, and a late 19th century Second Empire house, representing a progression of housing styles through the 19th century. The houses at 8, 12, 16, and 20 Mount Vernon are all well conserved Greek Revival 1+1⁄2-story buildings with side hall layout, although #12 has had synthetic siding applied. The house at #16 has preserved more of its exterior detailing than the others, while #20 is distinctive for its use of flushboard siding, giving the house the appearance of ashlar masonry work. Behind the house at #12 is a second house that is some external Greek Revival styling, but has a five bay center entrance layout more typical of the Federal period; it is known to predate the house in front of it. The duplex at 22-24 Mount Vernon has a mansard roof characteristic of the Second Empire style; its construction date is estimated to be c. 1880.
The Old Cemetery, also known as the Milk Row Cemetery, is a historic cemetery on Somerville Avenue and School Street in Somerville, Massachusetts. Established in 1804 on land donated by Samuel Tufts, it is the city's oldest cemetery. The cemetery was established when Somerville was still a part of Charlestown, and many Somerville residents used that city's Phipps Street Burying Ground, and later the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge instead of this one. As a result, this cemetery remained small, and was the only one established within the city limits in the 19th century.
The Otis-Wyman House is a historic house at 67 Thurston Street in Somerville, Massachusetts. This 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house, built c. 1883, is a well-preserved example of Queen Anne styling. It has projecting gable sections, bays, and porches typical of the style, as well as decorative trim elements such as bargeboard, bracketed eaves, and gabled window hoods. It was originally owned by William R. Otis, a cabinetmaker, and later the residence of Charles B. Wyman, a restaurant owner.
The Somerville City Hall (which formerly served as Somerville High School) is a historic municipal building at 93 Highland Avenue in Somerville, Massachusetts. Built in 1852 and enlarged several times, it has served as the city's first high school, first public library, and only city hall. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Somerville High School is a public, four-year high school in Somerville, Massachusetts, United States. The school offers a wide selection of classes and vocational programs.
This is about the hospital, for the mental hospital see Somerville Asylum.
The Somerville Theatre is an independent movie theater and concert venue in the Davis Square neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, United States. Over one hundred years old, the Somerville Theatre started off as a vaudeville house and movie theater. The theater has since transitioned and now operates as a live music venue and first-run movie theater. As a music venue, the theater has played host to many historic concerts, including the first of the two Last Dispatch concerts, two shows by Bruce Springsteen in 2003, and a performance by U2 in 2009. Recent live performances have included Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Cursive, Norah Jones, The Jonas Brothers, Joan Baez, and the John Butler Trio.
Spring Hill is a ridge in the central part of the city of Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, and the residential neighborhood that sits atop it. It runs northwest to southeast, roughly bounded by Highland Avenue, Somerville Avenue, Elm Street, and Willow Avenue. Summer Street runs along the hill's crest.
The Spring Hill Historic District is a historic district roughly bounded by Summer, Central, Atherton, and Spring Streets in the Spring Hill area of Somerville, Massachusetts. The district encompasses the city's best-preserved residential subdivision from the mid-19th century, with later infill construction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Teele Square is at the intersection of Broadway, Holland Street, and Curtis Street in Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, a half-mile from Davis Square and the Davis Square stop on the MBTA Red Line, as well as a half-mile from Alewife Brook Parkway (Route 16) and Powder House Square. The square sits on Clarendon Hill, one of the seven hills in Somerville. The square is named after Jonathan W. Teele, who resided in an early portion of Charlestown that eventually became Somerville in 1842.
Ten Hills is a neighborhood in the northeastern part of the city of Somerville, Massachusetts. The area is roughly wedge-shaped, about 50 acres (200,000 m2) in size, and is bounded by the Mystic River to the north, McGrath Highway to the east, and is largely separated from the rest of Somerville by Interstate 93 to the southwest. Ten Hills is next to Assembly Square in the east, and Winter Hill in the southwest. The neighborhood landscape is predominated by a single hill (not ten, as the name suggests, although the original farm encompassed 550 more acres of Somerville which had the other 9), the peak of which is roughly at the intersection of Temple and Putnam Roads. The Ten Hills neighborhood is located in Ward 4, Precinct 1 of the City of Somerville, which is in the 34th district of Middlesex County.
The Grandview is a historic apartment hotel at 82 Munroe Street in Somerville, Massachusetts. This type of building was not uncommon in the city at the time of its 1896 construction. This building affords commanding views of the Boston area from its site near the top of Prospect Hill, and has well-preserved Colonial Revival styling. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The Highland is a historic multiunit residence at 66 Highland Avenue in Somerville, Massachusetts. The three-story brick building was built in 1892 to a design by architect Samuel D. Kelley. It is one of the city's more elegant late 19th-century apartment houses, built during its rapid expansion in the late 19th century. The building listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Rosebud is a historic diner building at 381 Summer Street in Somerville, Massachusetts, near Davis Square.
The following is a timeline of the history of Somerville, Massachusetts, US.
Union Square station is a light rail station on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Green Line located in the Union Square neighborhood of southeastern Somerville, Massachusetts. The accessible terminal station has a single island platform serving the two tracks of the Union Square Branch, which parallels the Fitchburg Line. It opened on March 21, 2022, as part of the Green Line Extension (GLX), which added two northern branches to the Green Line.
The Walter S. and Melissa E. Barnes House is a historic house at 140 Highland Avenue in Somerville, Massachusetts. Built about 1890, it is one of the city's least-altered examples of Queen/Stick style Victorian architecture. It was for many years home to Robert Luce, a one-term Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The West Somerville Branch Library is an active library in a historic building at 40 College Avenue in Somerville, Massachusetts, just outside Davis Square. It is an example of Classical Revival architecture, built in 1909 with funding support from Andrew Carnegie, and was the city's first branch library. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Winter Hill is a neighborhood in Somerville, Massachusetts, United States. It takes its name from the 120-foot hill that occupies its landscape, the name of which dates back to the 18th century. Winter Hill is located roughly north of Medford Street, west of McGrath Highway, and east of Magoun Square.
The Round House is a cylindrical, wood-frame residential building at 36 Atherton Street in the Spring Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, United States. It was built in 1856 by hardware manufacturer Enoch Robinson, and is considered an offshoot of the octagon house-style popularized by phrenologist Orson Fowler.
East Somerville station is a light rail station on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Green Line located in southeastern Somerville, Massachusetts. The accessible station has a single island platform serving the two tracks of the Medford Branch. It opened on December 12, 2022, as part of the Green Line Extension (GLX), which added two northern branches to the Green Line, and is served by the E branch.
The Charles Williams Jr. House, built in 1858, is a historic house in Somerville, Massachusetts. Charles Williams Jr. was a manufacturer of electrical telegraph instruments at 109 Court Street in Boston. Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson experimented with the telephone in Williams' shop, and it was there that they first heard indistinct sounds transmitted on June 2, 1875. The first permanent residential telephone service in the world was installed at this house in 1877, connecting Williams' home with his shop on Court Street in Boston. Williams had telephone Numbers 1 and 2 of the Bell Telephone Company.
The house at 21 Dartmouth Street in Somerville, Massachusetts is a well preserved Queen Anne style house. The 2.5-story wood-frame house was built c. 1890, possibly for Rufus Stickney, one of the developers of the area during that time. Its most distinctive feature is the front gable end, which contains a projecting box with a pair of windows, supported by brackets and topped by an entablature. The upper floors also include bands of decoratively cut shingles.
The house at 49 Vinal Avenue in Somerville, Massachusetts is a stylish combination of Colonial Revival and Shingle styling. The 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house was built c. 1894. It has a wide gambrel roof with cross gables that are also gambreled. The front cross gable is flanked by two hip roof dormers whose windows are flanked by pilasters and topped by an entablature with wooden garlands and dentil molding. The house is clad in wavy cut shingles, and its windows are topped by tall entablatures. It has a porch running the width of the front facade that is uncovered except for a portico sheltering the front door.
The MBTA Commuter Rail Maintenance Facility (signed as, and often known by, its former name of Boston Engine Terminal) is the primary train maintenance repair facility for the MBTA Commuter Rail system. It is located in the Inner Belt area of Somerville, Massachusetts, near North Station in Boston. The present Commuter Rail Maintenance Facility was built from 1995 to 1998, replacing the Boston Engine Terminal which was built by the former Boston and Maine Railroad. The present facility opened on March 25, 1998.
East Somerville is a neighborhood in the eastern part of the city of Somerville, United States. The community stretches east along Broadway, from Massachusetts Route 28 to Sullivan Square and Interstate 93 on the city line with the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown.
Brickbottom is an industrial district located in southeastern Somerville, Massachusetts, United States. Along with the nearby Inner Belt District, Brickbottom is a historically industrial zone of Somerville, with factories, warehouses, distribution centers, railroad connections, regional maintenance facilities, MBTA and Amtrak offices, retail stores and a hotel.
The Amelia Earhart Dam is an earth-fill dam spanning the Mystic River near its mouth between Somerville and Everett, Massachusetts. It was built in 1966 to regulate tidal effects and the incursion of salt water in the upstream river basin. The dam is named after the aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart whose plane disappeared in 1937. Earhart lived in nearby Medford, Massachusetts in the 1920s. There is no public access to the dam.
The library system of Tufts University (Tufts Libraries) supports all academic departments comprising the university, located in Greater Boston in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The main library is Tisch Library, which holds about 2.5 million volumes, with other holdings dispersed at subject libraries.