Timeline of Somerville, Massachusetts

The following is a timeline of the history of Somerville, Massachusetts, USA.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Prior to 19th century

• 1630 - Charlestown settled.
• 1631 - Colonial Governor John Winthrop granted 600 acres of land known as Ten Hills Farm.[1][2]
• 1703 - Windmill built (approximate date).[3]
• 1756 - Powder House in use.[3]
• 1776 - Grand Union Flag raised at Continental Army fortifications atop Prospect Hill.[4]

19th century

1800s–1860s

• 1803 - Middlesex Canal in operation.
• 1804 - Old Cemetery established.
• 1821 - Middlesex Bleachery and Dye Works established.[5]
• 1834 - Ursuline Convent Riots.
• 1835 - Boston & Lowell Railroad begins operating.[3]
• 1842
  • Town of Somerville separates from Charlestown.[6]
  • Population: 1,013.[6]
• 1844 - First Congregational Society formed.[7]
• 1851 - American Tube Works established.[5]
• 1852
  • Somerville City Hall built.
  • High School opens.[8]
• 1853
  • First Orthodox Congregational Church organized.[7]
  • First Universalist Society organized.[7][9]
• 1854
  • Tufts College opens.
  • Union Glass Company established.[5]
• 1856
  • First Methodist Episcopal Church organized.[7]
  • Round House built.
• 1863 - Broadway Orthodox Congregational Church organized.[7]
• 1864 - Circulating Library in business at Tufts' apothecary (approximate date).[10]
• 1866
  • Emmanuel Episcopal Church built.[7]
  • Somerville Carriage Repository and Manufactory established.[11]
• 1867 - Perkins Street Baptist Church dedicated.[7]
• 1869 - Morse Grammar School built.[7]

1870s–1890s

• 1870
  • Somerville Journal newspaper begins publication.[5]
  • St. Thomas Episcopal Church built.[7]
  • Boston and Lowell Railroad connected through West Somerville to the Lexington Branch.
• 1871
  • City incorporated.[6]
  • Somerville Samaritan Society organized.[7]
• 1872
  • Somerville city government inaugurated.[6]
  • City seal design adopted.
  • Population: 16,000 (approximate).[6]
• 1873
  • Public Library established.[12]
  • Luther V. Bell School built.[7]
  • Broadway Methodist Episcopal Church organized.[7]
• 1874
  • West Somerville Baptist Church organized.[7]
  • West Somerville Congregational Church organized.[7]
  • Sprague & Hathaway Portrait Copying House established.[5]
• 1876 - Somerville Citizen newspaper begins publication.[13]
• 1886 - Third Universalist Church established.[14]
• 1890
  • Broadway Winter Hill Congregational Church built.
  • North Packing Company established.
  • Population: 40,152.[3]
• 1891 - Somerville Hospital founded.
• 1892 - McLean Hospital relocates to Belmont.
• 1898
  • Somerville Historical Society incorporated.[15]
  • Historic Festival.[16]
• 1899
  • Forthian Club for women organized.[17][18]
  • First Unitarian Church built.

20th century

• 1901 - Lyndell's Bakery relocates to Somerville.
• 1903 - Prospect Hill Monument built.
• 1909 - West Somerville Branch Public Library opens.
• 1910 - Population: 77,236.[3]
• 1914
  • Somerville Theatre built.
  • Public Library central building constructed.
  • Economy Grocery Store opens.
• 1915 - Pageant of World Peace.[19]
• 1916 - First Universalist Church built.
• 1922
  • 50th anniversary as city.[6]
  • Population: 95,000 (approximate).[6]
• 1928 - Northern Artery constructed.
• 1935 - United States Post Office–Somerville Main built.
• 1936 - Mystic Valley Parkway constructed.
• 1941 - The Rosebud (diner) built.
• 1968 - Havurat Shalom founded.[20]
• 1972 - City seal redesigned.
• 1973 - Steve's Ice Cream opens.
• 1980 - Assembly Square Mall opens.
• 1981
  • Sister city relationship established with Trincomalee, Sri Lanka.
  • Bertucci's pizzeria opens.
• 1983 - Somerville Community Access Television founded.[21][22]
• 1984 - Davis (MBTA station) opens.
• 1985 - Alewife Linear Park established.
• 1987
  • Brickbottom Artists Association active.[23]
  • Mixit Print Studio established.[24]
  • Joseph P. Kennedy II becomes U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 8th congressional district.
• 1988 - Somerville Museum opens.[25]
• 1990 - Mike Capuano becomes mayor.
• 1991 - Candlewick Press established.
• 1998 - City website online (approximate date).[26]
• 1999
  • Dorothy Kelly Gay becomes mayor.
  • Leverett Circle Connector Bridge opens.
  • Somerville Open Studios begins.[27]
  • Mike Capuano becomes U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 8th congressional district.

21st century

• 2002 - P.A.'s Lounge opens.
• 2003
  • Won-Buddhist temple opens.[20]
  • GreenGoat in business.[28]
• 2004 - Joseph Curtatone becomes mayor.[29]
• 2005
  • Union Square Main Streets organized.
  • Union Square farmers' market begins.
  • Sikh Sangat Society Boston[20] and Harry Potter Alliance headquartered in Somerville.
• 2006 - Honk! music festival begins.[30]
• 2007 - Highland Kitchen restaurant in business.[31]
• 2009 - Sister city relationship established with Tiznit, Morocco.
• 2010
  • Population: 75,754.
  • Sister city relationship established with Nordeste, Portugal.[32]
• 2012 - Daddy Jones Bar opens in Magoun Square, owned by Somerville native, Dimitra Murphy
• 2014 - Legoland in business.

See also

• History of Somerville
• List of mayors of Somerville, Massachusetts
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Somerville, Massachusetts
• Charlestown, Massachusetts (from which Somerville sprang in 1842)
• Timelines of other municipalities in Middlesex County, Massachusetts: Cambridge, Lowell, Waltham

References

1. Francis J. Bremer, John Winthrop: America's Forgotten Founding Father (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 248.
2. Robert C. Winthrop, Life And Letters Of John Winthrop: Governor Of The Massachusetts Bay Company At Their Emigration To New England 1630, (Kessinger Publishing, LLC), p. 64.
3. Britannica 1910.
4. The History of Prospect Hill, part 2 Retrieved 2014-10-11
5. Haley 1903.
6. Fiftieth Anniversary 1922.
7. Greenough 1875.
8. Ueda 1984.
9. Harvard University. First Universalist Church (Somerville, Mass.). Records, 1861-1984: A Finding Aid
10. Catalogue of Books in the Somerville Circulating Library, Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, 1864, OCLC 704271104, OL 24617840M
11. Greenough 1883.
12. Finding list of the Public Library of the City of Somerville, Mass., Somerville, Mass.: Somerville Journal Print, 1895, OL 22094495M
13. "US Newspaper Directory". Chronicling America. Washington DC: Library of Congress. Retrieved August 28, 2012.
14. Harvard University. West Somerville Universalist Church (Somerville, Mass.). Records, 1884-1950: A Finding Aid
15. Galpin 1901.
16. Somerville Historical Society (1898), Ye olden times at the foot of Prospect Hill: handbook of the historic festival in Somerville Massachusetts, November 28, 29, 30, December 1, 2, and 3 MDCCCXCVIII; Margaret MacLaren Eager, director, Somerville Journal, OCLC 11271884, OL 6940324M
17. Harvard University. Forthian Club of Somerville (Mass.) Records, 1889-1979: A Finding Aid
18. Boston Evening Transcript - Nov 11, 1899
19. Frederick A. Wilmot (1915), Somerville Pageant of World Peace: to foster and prophesy world peace; Tufts Oval, Somerville, Mass., July 3 and 5, 1915, West Somerville, Mass, OL 7194701M
20. Pluralism Project. "Somerville, Massachusetts". Directory of Religious Centers. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
21. "Timeline". Massachusetts: Somerville Community Access Television. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
22. "Community Media Archive". Internet Archive. Missing or empty |url= (help)
23. "Brickbottom Artists Association". Retrieved August 28, 2012.
24. "reThink INK: 25 Years at Mixit Print Studio", Exhibitions, Boston Public Library, 2012
25. "Somerville Museum". Retrieved August 28, 2012.
26. "City of Somerville". Archived from the original on November 1998 – via Internet Archive, Wayback Machine.
27. "History". Somerville Open Studios. Retrieved October 26, 2013.
28. Mike Tigas and Sisi Wei (ed.). "Somerville, Massachusetts". Nonprofit Explorer. New York: ProPublica. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
29. "Meet the Mayors". Washington, DC: United States Conference of Mayors. Archived from the original on June 27, 2008. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
30. "Photos: Honk! Marching Band Festival In Somerville". The Artery. WBUR. October 13, 2013.
31. "Munch Madness 2015", Boston Globe, retrieved 26 March 2015
32. "Somerville Nordeste Finalize Sister City Agreement". City of Somerville. 2010.

Bibliography

• Somerville, Arlington and Belmont Directory: 1869-70. Boston, Mass.: Dudley & Greenough. 1869.
• Somerville City Directory for 1873. Boston: Greenough, Jones & Co. 1873.
• Somerville City Directory for 1875-6. Boston: Greenough & Co. 1875.
• Somerville City Directory for 1883. Boston: Greenough & Co. 1883.
• Somerville City Directory. Boston: Greenough & Co. 1884.
• Edward A. Samuels, ed.; Henry H. Kimball, ed. (1897), Somerville, past and present: an illustrated historical souvenir commemorative of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the city government of Somerville, Massachusetts, Boston: Samuels and Kimball, OL 13439695MCS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
• Barbara Galpin (1901), Publication, no. 1: History of Somerville Journalism; with a list of members, officers, and committees of the Somerville Historical Society, Somerville, Mass: Somerville Historical Society, OL 14036554M
• M. A. Haley (1903), Story of Somerville, Boston: Writer Publishing Co., OL 23342477M
• "Somerville", Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.), New York: New York : Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910, OCLC 14782424 – via Internet Archive
• Fiftieth Anniversary of the City of Somerville, Somerville: Somerville Journal Print, 1922, OL 14007850M
• Federal Writers' Project (1937), "Somerville", Massachusetts: a Guide to its Places and People, American Guide Series, Boston: Houghton Mifflin
• Reed Ueda (1984). "The High School and Social Mobility in a Streetcar Suburb: Somerville, Massachusetts, 1870-1910". Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 14.
• "Out of the Shadow of Boston and Cambridge", New York Times, October 2, 2014

Further reading

• Anthony Mitchell Sammarco (2003). Somerville (Images of America: Massachusetts). Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0738512907.
• Somerville Board of Trade (1913). Somerville, Mass.: The Beautiful City of Seven Hills, Its History and Opportunities. A. Martin and Sons.
• Dee Morris; Dora St. Martin (2008). Somerville, Massachusetts: A Brief History. The History Press. ISBN 978-1596294240.

External links

• "Somerville and New England History Collection". Somerville Public Library.
• Items related to Somerville, various dates (via Digital Public Library of America).
• View of Charlestown, Mass., as seen from Somerville. Gleason's Pictorial, c. 1850s.
• Somerville's Civil War monuments at Massachusetts Civil War Monuments Project

Images

• 
  Somerville Circulating Library, Milk Street, 1860s
• 
  Somerville Carriage Repository, est. 1866 (advertisement from 1883)
• 
  Map of Somerville, 1884
• 
  Union Glass Co., est. 1854 (cover of catalog, c. 1911)
• 
  Somerville Pageant of World Peace, July 1915