Eagle Feathers #152 –Foundations

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

The oldest existing house in Somerville is the historic Oliver Tufts Homestead at 78 Sycamore Street. This 304-year-old wooden structure was once the headquarters of Colonial Army Major General Charles Lee during the 1775-1776 siege of Boston. The town of Lee, Massachusetts was named after him.

Somerville’s most unique edifice is the 1847 Enoch Robinson Round House. Built on Spring Hill to the specifications of his inventive mind, it was a masterpiece of its time.

European architecture in Somerville traces back as early as 1623. Thomas Walford’s palisade, which surrounded his English-style thatched roof house, was the first structure built in this area. It was located near the corner of Dane and Washington Streets. Somerville was almost named after him.

The foundation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony took place with the erection of Governor Winthrop’s farmhouse on the shore of the Mystic River in 1630. After standing for 47 years at Ten Hills, it was replaced by the Temple House. Sir Robert Temple’s manor was built and dismantled in England and then brought to America.

During the late 1800’s, Somerville became one of greater Boston’s coveted bedroom communities. Many large business owners chose to live here and built their companies with addresses close to or on the Somerville border. Some were H. P. Hood & Sons, Schrafft’s with its ninety-year old landmark sign, and the Stickney & Poor Spice Company, the country’s oldest.

Somerville’s skyline has had many changes:

• America’s first born and eminent architect, Charles Bullfinch, created the Barrell Mansion on Cobble Hill. He later redesigned the structure into the McLean Asylum that was the forerunner of Massachusetts General Hospital. 
• Edward Lippincott Tilton, developer of the United States Immigration Station at Ellis Island, also designed our Central Library that architecturally mirrors the Ellis Island facility.
• Somerville based Safdie Architects has designed six of Canada’s principal institutions, and over 75 buildings around the world. Some are The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, The United States Institute of Peace in Washington D.C., and the $5 billion Marina Bay Sands Complex in Singapore to name a few.
• The most recent addition to the Somerville skyline is the $465 million Partner’s HealthCare building located at Assembly Row. The Chicago-based architectural firm, Gensler, who also built the 127-floor Shanghai Tower, designed it. It is the tallest building in China and the second tallest in the world.

From past to present, the works of world-renowned architects have touched Somerville.