SOMERVILLE, Mass., city in Middlesex County, on the Mystic River and on the Fitch burg and the Boston and Maine railroads. The Mystic separates the city from Chelsea on the east, Boston is on the southeast boundary and Cambridge on the southwest and west. Several steam railroads and electric lines con nect the city with Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Newton and all the nearby towns and cities. It is largely a residential suburb of Boston and has many fine private and public dwellings. Somerville was settled in 1629 and was a part of Charleston until 1842 when it was set off as an independent town. In 1872 it was in corporated as a city. It is built on seven hills, all of which .exist, although street grading has lowered some of them. In 1631 the first vessel built in Massachusetts was launched from Gov ernor Winthrop's Hill)" farm on the Mystic. On Quarry Hill, in the centre of one of the public parks, is an old building, once a powder-house, which was built in 1703. Dur ing the Revolutionary period several fortifica tions were built on the hills of Somerville. On Cobble Hill was General Putnam's fortress, another fortification was on Winter Hill, and the acitadel," on Prospect Hill, was where, on 1 Jan. 1776, Washington raised the first colonial
union flag. The city has a large amount of manufacturing interests, including slaughtering and meatpacking, cloth bleaching and dyeing, distilling and the manufacture of desks, pic tures and frames and metal tubing. There are three public parks, a hospital,, a home for the aged, in charge of the Little Sisters of the Poor, an insane asylum and a number of other charitable organizations. There are 31 churches and 28 Schaal buildings. The educational in stitutions are English and Latin high schools, public and parish schools, several private busi ness schools and a public library. In educa tional and industrial life Somerville is identi fied with Boston in many ways. The govern ment of Somerville is vested in a mayor elected annually and a unicameral council. Pop. 77,236. Consult Samuels, 'Somerville, Past and Pres ent' (Boston 1897), and Hurd, 'History of Middlesex County) (Philadelphia 1890).