Eagle Feathers #187 – Historic Elm Street

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

Cambridge has its celebrated Washington Elm Tree under which General George Washington drew his sword and took command of the Continental Army on July 3, 1775. Somerville also has its historic Elm.

It is Elm Street at Willow Avenue where one of the last severe encounters of Patriot’s Day, April 19, 1775, took place. At this location, cannon fire helped protect retreating British troops from Lexington. The Redcoats were repulsed by the Minutemen and sustained heavy losses of men and arms. Today, a memorial stone marks the site of the British graves.

Elm Street is one of the city’s oldest roads. It originally ran from Somerville Avenue at Wilson Square, where today’s Somerville Car Wash is located, to Davis Square, and then doglegged north to Boston Avenue at Tufts University. Today’s College Avenue was part of the original Elm Street. It honors the academics living on Professors Row and Tufts University, the school of learning that is named after Somerville’s Charles Tufts.

Viewable scenes past and present on Elm Street would include:

• Battle marker at the site of the old Timothy Tufts house at Elm and Willow Streets.
• Porter Square shopping mall and gallery.
• The jewel of Elm Street, the Person Davis’ orchard, which grew into today’s Davis Square, including the Somerville Theatre to the Rosebud Diner and the Red Line subway beneath it.
• Horse-drawn wagons went into service on Elm Street in 1858.
• The square received its name in 1883 by vote of the city council. At one time, names considered for the square were Middlesex and Tufts.
• The area was paved with brick in 1900.
• College Avenue and Elm Street played host to what was the well-known Woodbridge Hotel. Many popular entertainers stayed there when acting at the theatre. As a young girl, Bette Davis lived across the street. She became a famous actress and the wealthiest working female in America during the 1940’s. Betty gave the acting award “Oscar” its name.
• Many churches and societies carpeted the street up to Nathan Tufts Park, the Powder House and Powder House circle.
• Continuing on the other side of the traffic circle, the street bisected a mid-1900, nine-hole Municipal Tufts golf course. A century earlier, the same spot was used to train army cavalry horses for the Civil War; and yet a century before that, Revolutionary prisoner-of-war captives stripped the area foraging for wood.

Historic Elm Street has experienced many changes. Her chameleon-like veneer went from dirt road, to cobblestone, to tar pavement, to bike trails painted on her surface. She has felt horses, cars, trucks, and buses rolling over her to steam trains rolling across her and subway trains rumbling underneath her. One of her former residents was iRobot … maybe giant Roombas are up next to test the historic Elm Street surface.