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Union Square (Somerville)
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Union Square (Somerville)
42°22′47″N 71°05′47″W / 42.3797°N 71.0964°W
Union Square is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of Somerville, Massachusetts, United States. It is centered on Union Square proper, which is located at the intersection of Washington Street, Webster Avenue, and Somerville Avenue.
The name "Union Square" comes from the square having been used as a recruitment and mustering site for the Union Army in the Civil War. A plaque commemorating the mustering site sits at the southwestern corner of the square between Somerville Avenue and Washington Street, and the Prospect Hill Monument is located several blocks away atop Prospect Hill. Union Square is now the commercial center of a primarily residential neighborhood with many restaurants, bars and neighborhood stores.
As the oldest and largest commercial area in the city, Union Square is home to a number of community institutions, including the Somerville Police headquarters, Somerville Community Access Television (SCATV), and Boston Free Radio.
Union Square was Somerville's earliest commercial district to develop when it was still a part of Charlestown. Early trade routes passed through the square and a tavern was built there as early as 1770. Originally called "Sand Pit Square," the area's sandy, clay pit-dotted pastures yielded a fine grade of silica used in glass and brick-making.
It was during the American Revolution that Union Square took center stage. Because of its location and height providing panoramic views and control of Charlestown, Somerville, and Cambridge, Prospect Hill had great strategic importance in the Revolutionary War and became known as the "Citadel". The castle, dedicated in 1903, is a monument commemorating the fortifications atop the hill during that war. A tablet inside reads: "This tablet is erected in memory of the soldiers of the Revolution and of the Civil War who encamped on Prospect Hill and of the banners under which they valiantly fought."
Somerville is one of several municipalities claiming to have hosted the first raising of the Continental Union Flag (the flag of the United Colonies from 1775 to 1776 and de facto flag of the United States until 1777, when the 13 star flag was adopted). Tradition claims George Washington raised it on Prospect Hill on January 1, 1776, and a plaque there indicates such. However, some scholars dispute these traditional accounts, concluding the flag raised at Prospect Hill was probably a British Union Flag. Since a favorable pardon was then being offered to the rebelling colonists, the raising of a flag similar or identical to the Union Flag was briefly mistaken for a gesture of allegiance to the Crown.
In its early years, Somerville was an agricultural suburb, supplying the growing urban area surrounding Boston. For a time the Union Square area was known as Milk Row after the small farms surrounding it.
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Union Square (Somerville)
42°22′47″N 71°05′47″W / 42.3797°N 71.0964°W
Union Square is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of Somerville, Massachusetts, United States. It is centered on Union Square proper, which is located at the intersection of Washington Street, Webster Avenue, and Somerville Avenue.
The name "Union Square" comes from the square having been used as a recruitment and mustering site for the Union Army in the Civil War. A plaque commemorating the mustering site sits at the southwestern corner of the square between Somerville Avenue and Washington Street, and the Prospect Hill Monument is located several blocks away atop Prospect Hill. Union Square is now the commercial center of a primarily residential neighborhood with many restaurants, bars and neighborhood stores.
As the oldest and largest commercial area in the city, Union Square is home to a number of community institutions, including the Somerville Police headquarters, Somerville Community Access Television (SCATV), and Boston Free Radio.
Union Square was Somerville's earliest commercial district to develop when it was still a part of Charlestown. Early trade routes passed through the square and a tavern was built there as early as 1770. Originally called "Sand Pit Square," the area's sandy, clay pit-dotted pastures yielded a fine grade of silica used in glass and brick-making.
It was during the American Revolution that Union Square took center stage. Because of its location and height providing panoramic views and control of Charlestown, Somerville, and Cambridge, Prospect Hill had great strategic importance in the Revolutionary War and became known as the "Citadel". The castle, dedicated in 1903, is a monument commemorating the fortifications atop the hill during that war. A tablet inside reads: "This tablet is erected in memory of the soldiers of the Revolution and of the Civil War who encamped on Prospect Hill and of the banners under which they valiantly fought."
Somerville is one of several municipalities claiming to have hosted the first raising of the Continental Union Flag (the flag of the United Colonies from 1775 to 1776 and de facto flag of the United States until 1777, when the 13 star flag was adopted). Tradition claims George Washington raised it on Prospect Hill on January 1, 1776, and a plaque there indicates such. However, some scholars dispute these traditional accounts, concluding the flag raised at Prospect Hill was probably a British Union Flag. Since a favorable pardon was then being offered to the rebelling colonists, the raising of a flag similar or identical to the Union Flag was briefly mistaken for a gesture of allegiance to the Crown.
In its early years, Somerville was an agricultural suburb, supplying the growing urban area surrounding Boston. For a time the Union Square area was known as Milk Row after the small farms surrounding it.
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