Eagle Feathers #241 – Holland

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

In the late 1860’s the Middlesex County Commissioners authorized the building of Holland Street which connects Davis Square to Teele Square. This opened up West Somerville to post Civil War development.

Holland, correctly acknowledged as the Netherlands, is a low-lying country on the Northwest Atlantic Coast of Europe. It is popularly known for its art, cheese, windmills and its reputation as the flower exporting capital of the world, particularly tulips.

In 1634, after tulips came to Holland from Germany, the world went mad. The tulip market grew, and the cost of the rarest bulb was six times the average person’s annual salary. This tulip mania lasted until 1637 when the bubble finally broke and fortunes were lost by the dramatic drop in prices.

Another export of the Netherlands was its name, Holland. Many of its citizens trace the name of their country to America by way of the British Isles where the name is quite common. Samuel Holland, a sailor by trade, and his wife Martha came to Boston in the early 1800’s from Liverpool, England.

Samuel, a ship captain was lost at sea shortly after the birth of his second child, Silas Harvey Holland, who is the focus of our narrative. Silas spent 18 years working with a Cambridge railroad car establishment before he began his retirement in Somerville. Here, he bought the Thomas Teele Farm on Broadway, which is today’s Teele Square. He began market gardening of fruits, vegetables, and flowers and continued for the next 35 years.

Silas was a busy man. He was on the Board of his Methodist Church on Park Street in Davis Square and its chapel on Broadway in Teele Square. He also held a seat on the Somerville Board of Selectmen for four years. He was a founding member of the Somerville Hospital and a Vice President of the Somerville Savings Bank. During that time, he was also engaged in real estate transactions in Somerville and Cambridge.

In 1867 Somerville honored Silas by naming Holland Street after him. The road ran from Broadway at Holland’s Farm to Elm Street at Davis’s Garden. In 1883, Somerville honored Person Davis by naming the land, gardens and orchards surrounding his house, Davis Square.

Somerville has its own Holland, a street named after a man who raised fruits, plants, vegetables, and flowers. One might imagine that Holland Street and its Dutch flavor would be a perfect place for a spring flower festival. It could feature Holland tulips and have one of New England’s oldest windmills, the Powder House, as its background just one mile away.