Eagle Feathers #248 – Our Town

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

Happy birthday Somerville … you’re 180 years old!

Our town helps to fill an historic and significant void in the history of our nation. She is 180 years old this week and her roots as part of Charlestown go back to July 4, 1629, the day Charlestown was founded.  With the legislature and governor’s approval, she separated from her maternal town on March 3, 1842. She was the tenth and last town to do so.  Woburn was the first two centuries before in 1642. 
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While one hundred guns were fired among cheers from Prospect Hill, the new town’s citizens reveled in their newfound freedom. In celebration, a grand ball was given with over 300 people in attendance who enjoyed a dinner and dancing at the Porter Hotel in Cambridge.  This was Somerville’s birthday, and its population of 1,013 original townsmen enjoyed it.  In the 1930’s her population was 110,000, or 100 times that of her original count.  In 2020, it was over 80,000.
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Somerville was named after an American hero, Captain Richard Somers, killed during the Tripolitan War.  He is honored on the grounds of the United States Naval Academy in Maryland. 
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Often called the City of Seven Hills, Somerville’s most historic elevation has been Prospect Hill, meaning wide view. What an epoch-making view it has had through the years! Some of the most stirring events of the Revolution occurred on it or directly within its site.
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• Paul Revere was almost captured near her base by the British Cavalry
• The Battle of Lexington and Concord ended along her base
• Bunker Hill’s heroes regrouped here to fight again
• Her colonial troops and cannons helped end the Siege of Boston
• Thousands of captured English and German/Hessian troops were held prisoners on her soil
• Our own town’s Civil War soldiers trained on her slopes before being deployed South.
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A large part of Somerville’s story is that of her hallowed Prospect Hill.  Today, progress is narrowing her Prospect’s wide view, but always remember that General George Washington raised the first American Flag here … you can’t get higher than that! 
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