Eagle Feathers #261 – Our City Seal

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

The most historic objects of interest in Somerville are the Old Powder House at the junction of Broadway and College Avenue and the Prospect Hill Memorial Flag Tower and Observatory on Munroe Street.

The Powder House is the older of the two and was quarried and built as a windmill in 1703 from the bluestone beneath it. It is considered to be the most distinct, antique relic in Massachusetts and its image has been the city’s logo for the last fifty years.

Mallet Street was named after its creator and French Huguenot, John Mallet.   He and his family originally settled in Oxford, Massachusetts.  Because of Indian attacks on their settlement, they were forced to return closer to the safety of Boston.  Mallet’s wind-operated gristmill catered to the needs of local farmers. Upon his passing in 1722, he left the property to his sons who continued to grind corn until 1747. They then sold the mill to the Province of Massachusetts Bay who then converted it into an armory for storage of gunpowder and ordnance. It then became the site of one of the earliest hostile occurrences of the Revolutionary War.

Two hundred and forty-five years ago this week, on September 1, 1774, British troops seized the 250 half-barrels of gunpowder that were stored within it. This incident caused a far-reaching assembly of patriots and mustering of arms. It was a dry-run for Lexington where eight months later their Minuteman training proved their value.   Liberty Avenue abuts the Powder House and reminds us what these patriots fought and won for all of us during the eight-year rebellion.

The Prospect Hill Tower was built and celebrated in 1903, two hundred years after the Old Powder House took shape.  Somerville’s first city seal was a representation of General Washington standing on Prospect Hill with the Union flag unfurled. On its right was a view of the State House in Boston and on its left was a view of Charlestown and its Bunker Hill Monument.  Within a circle around the same is the inscription:   Somerville.  Founded 1842, Established a city 1872. On the outer circle around the above, is the city motto, “Municipal Freedom Gives National Strength.”

Somerville’s first city seal, The General Washington Prospect Hill version, lasted 100 years.  It was replaced in 1972 by today’s Powder House seal which is 50 years old this year.  These historically celebrated seals and their motto still hold true today – Municipal Freedom Gives National Strength!