Once mandated for completion by December 2014, little progress has been made to date, aside from Union Square station opening in early 2022. In 2006 the MBTA promised to extend the Green Line into Somerville, connecting several underserved areas. Buildings you couldn't pay people to take off your hands in the 1980s now trade for millions of dollars. Now in the 21st century, Somerville's biggest challenges have become gentrification and public transit. By the 1990s, higher-paying technology and biotech jobs started to appear, and crime rates began to drop. During the mid 1980s the MBTA re-opened the Davis Square train station on the Red line. The blight continued for decades, until the first seeds of life began to return. Factories had closed, the trains stopped running, and anyone who could afford it fled for the suburbs. Just like Boston (and many other American cities), Somerville was on the downswing after WWII. Bricks, railroads, and meatpacking industries were all booming, and the new Ford assembly plant built in 1926 kept businesses in the black well into the 20th century. Its population exploded as its economy changed from mostly agrarian to a diverse industrial base.

Many consider this to be the first official raising of any American flag.Īfter the revolution Somerville continued to grow, separating from Charlestown in 1842 before incorporating as a city in 1872. To celebrate the new year, the Grand Union flag (a pre-cursor to the modern American flag) flew here for the first time January 1st, 1776. Thanks mainly to its height and views of the area, it was fortified with Continental Army troops late in 1775 and became known as 'The Citadel'. This event is considered by many historians to be the point where public sentiment within the colonies turned in favor of war with England.ĭuring wartime, the geography of Somerville's Prospect Hill made it a fitting place to command an army. These hostilities caused great outrage among the colonial population, and led to a popular uprising. Vast amounts of Massachusetts gunpowder were stored at the Old Powder House, which the British successfully raided in 1774. Prior to the Revolutionary War, Somerville was no stranger to tyranny. The intersection of these roads created Union Square, a new and (relatively) bustling nexus for early settlers. These convenient roads were used by dairy farmers to transport wares into local Boston markets. During the 18th century, Washington Street and Somerville Avenue came to be known as 'Milk Row'. Originally a part of Charlestown, Somerville was used mostly as farmland and grazing pastures for hundreds of years.

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