- Photo by Andrew Firestone

Update: It is with a heavy heart that we at the Somerville News inform you that Fred Lund, city draftsman since 1953, died last Wednesday night at age 90.  Hired by the City in 1953, Lund had continued to work part-time after 2008, and was the longest tenured employee.

To honor his memory we present this article, originally printed September 8, 2010. We extend our condolences to his family over his loss.

By Andrew Firestone

Fred Lund is a guy who knows Somerville like the back of his hand. The oldest and longest serving city employee travels down every Somerville street in his work as the city cartographer and draftsman, designing maps of the city by hand.

In a city of aspiring artists, the artistry of Lund, 90, is hidden in plain sight.

Opening a show of his art Tuesday at the Armory*, it’s clear that the wizened draftsman has given the city a stroke worth seeing for all these years. Responsible for much of the art in Somerville stores, city pamphlets and fliers for public events, Lund’s maps still serve as base map for all projects in Somerville including the MBTA project and the Assembly Square development.

“Most of this is self-taught,” he said, looking back at the evolution of his form.

Lund faced his first hurdle in 1928 when, at the age of eight his arm was run over by a car as he was drawing pictures on the street with chalk. “I think he was aiming for me,” said Lund. “My arm was hanging off, and my father said to the Cambridge City Hospital, ‘you sew it on, or I’ll kill you right here.’”

Lund’s arm survived to serve in the Pacific theater of World War II, where he fought as a Sergeant in a platoon of combat engineers while searching for land mines. “We fought like infantry, but served like slaves,” he said.  “When I was in the jungles of New Guinea and the Philippines I lived from tree to tree.”

Perhaps it was these experiences that have made Lund’s style so distinctly American and strikingly timeless. His orange art-deco signs, including advertisements for Japanese Sake and orange martinis, would make Andy Warhol envious of his capturing of the modernist essence. “When you’re working two jobs,” said Lund, “you’ve got to have fun on one of them.”

Some artists try to imitate Americana to make a statement, Lund lived it to make a buck and in the process imprinted what city Director of Communications Mike Meehan calls an “indelible mark” upon the culture of Somerville.

“When you think of every emblem that represents the city of Somerville, he’s designed it,” said Meehan. “He has shaped the way the city presents itself.”

Another one of Lund’s civic passions was his involvement in celebrating the history of Somerville. His love of the old story of George Washington’s presence at Prospect Hill in 1776, raising the first Grand Union flag, led him to reinvigorate the yearly commemoration. “I kept it going,” he said. Lund’s presence every January 1 at Flag Raising day dressed in classic colonial garb remains a staple of Somerville’s proud heritage.

Looking forward into the city’s future, the old map-maker sees some form of expansion in Somerville’s future. “We’ll probably end up like Boston,” he said, “with a lot of high rises.”

*NOTE: This is information pertinent to the article’s first publication. The showing is not taking place at this time.