Where is somerville massachusetts

Older, more working class neighborhoods lie south in Quincy, Braintree, and Dedham, mixed in with commercial areas. From there, living choices lie primarily along three corridors. The I corridor, farthest west and south of the inner beltway, is the fastest growing area, especially out towards Foxboro and beyond. Excellent family communities can be found in and around Westwood, Sharon, and Attleboro. The State Route 24 corridor to the east is more commercial but also has good residential areas: Randolph, Avon and the old mill town of Brockton.

Finally, areas south and west of State Route 3 offer excellent housing and good values — the Hanovers and the Pembrokes are classic with lots of small lakes adding to the scenery. Proximity to the Atlantic Ocean also brings somewhat cooler summer evenings.

Education, at all levels, is excellent in the Boston area. Area public schools are nationally recognized; people move to the area just for the schools. Boston has the largest number of highly ranked universities in the country.

It is hard to draw a single bottom line on the Boston area. Its positives — education, arts, entertainment, historic interest, housing — are unquestionably among the tops in the US.

For those able to deal with these shortcomings, it is hard to do better. It is relatively level with land rising in all directions.

Terrain becomes rolling to hilly to the west and north relatively more level with numerous small lakes south. Most areas are covered with dense, deciduous forest. The climate is complex.

Storm tracks, latitude, and the coastal location work together to guarantee changing weather patterns and significant precipitation. Hot summer afternoons are frequently relieved by locally celebrated sea breezes, particularly close to shore.

Winter cold is moderated by the relatively warm ocean. Summer precipitation comes mainly as intermittent showers and thunderstorms. Snow on the ground is prevalent with occasional thaws. Fog can be expected all times of year. First freeze is early November, last is early April—but add a month to each end in inland suburban locations. Recent job growth is Positive.

By , the area had no churches, few schools, no taverns, and suffered from poor and impassable roads. For many years after the Revolution the two parts of Charlestown styled "within" and "without the neck" were nearly equal in population; the former had by this time completely outstripped the latter.

With this growth of population and trade came the need of city institutions, and consequently greater expenses were involved. Therefore, the rural part of Charlestown found herself contributing to the paving of the streets, the maintenance of a night watch, to the building of engine houses, and various other improvements from which they derived little benefit.

In , a petition was presented to the Legislature asking that a part of Charlestown be set off as a separate town, to be known as Warren.

This petition was subsequently withdrawn. The desire for a separate township continued to spread, and by , becoming impatient at the neglect of the government to adequately provide for their needs, the inhabitants again agitated a division of the town, and a meeting in reference to the matter was held November 22 in the Prospect Hill school house.

A petition was accordingly drawn up and signed by Guy C. Hawkins and others, and a committee deputed to further its passage through the Legislature, then in session. A bill incorporating a new town was signed by the governor on March 3, The original choice for the city's new name, after breaking away from Charlestown, was Walford, after the first settler of Charlestown, Thomas Walford.

However, this name was not adopted by the separation committee. Charles Miller, a member of this committee, proposed the name "Somerville", which was ultimately chosen. It was not derived from any one person's name, and a report commissioned by the Somerville Historical Society found that Somerville was a "purely fanciful name". Before Somerville became a township in the area was primarily populated by British farmers and brick makers who sold their wares in the markets of Boston, Cambridge and Charlestown.

As the markets grew, the population of Somerville increased six-fold between the years of and to 14, With the sharp influx of immigrants to the Somerville area, industry boomed and brick manufacturing became the predominant trade.

Before mechanical presses were invented, Somerville produced 1. Thereafter, production increased rapidly to 5.

In , American Tubes Works opened, followed by meat processing and packaging plants. Other Somerville factories came to produce steam engines, boilers, household appliances, glass, and iron. Shortly thereafter Somerville incorporated as a city in The population growth was due in part to improvements in pre-existing transportation lines, as well as a new rail line, the Lexington and Arlington Railroad, introduced through Davis Square in At its height, Somerville was served by eight passenger rail stations.

Somerville's buoyant economy during this period was tied to industries that tended to locate at the periphery of the residential core, near freight rail corridors. By the mid s meat packing plants were the primary employers and profit centers of the community.

The Late Industrial Period was a time of phenomenal growth for Somerville in all spheres including civic and commercial ventures. Infrastructure such as rail, water lines, telegraph and electricity were established and connected to surrounding towns.

The population exploded from 15, to 90, While brickmaking had taken a hold in the area after the railroads first arrived in the s, Somerville's brickyards boomed through Meatpacking soon displaced brickmaking as the primary industry in the city, dubbed "The Chicago of New England. Between and population growth slowed slightly as Somerville's industries consolidated rather than expanded, and the period's most important enterprises were meat packing, dairy processing, ice and food distribution.

Construction of the McGrath Highway in marked the turning point of Somerville as an industrial city, which accelerated when the Ford Motor Company built a plant in Assembly Square in In the years that followed, Somerville would see itself transformed into a major industrial center as automobile assembly surpassed meat packing as Somerville's most important industry. Although Union Square and Davis Square continued to be the largest commercial areas during the first decades of the 20th century, smaller, less-developed squares grew as well.

Ball Square , Magoun Square and Teele Square were developed with one- or two-story masonry commercial buildings. Retail development and banking facilities also spread. During this time of industrial prosperity, continuing through World War II, the city of Somerville reached its population apex at , residents in The building boom continued until the s, creating the dense residential fabric the "city of homes" is known for.

By mid-century, powerful social and economic forces precipitated a period of industrial and population decline that lasted into the s. The postwar period was characterized by the ascent of the private automobile, which carried significant implications for Somerville. Streetcar lines that had crisscrossed the city since were systematically ripped out and commuter rail service was discontinued at the city's eight railway stations, one by one. Passenger rail service along the Fitchburg and Lowell lines had been declining for some time, and stations such as Gilman Square were removed as early as the late s.

Passenger rail service stopped altogether by The number of cars on Somerville's streets continued to rise, and road construction projects proliferated.

The Alewife Brook Parkway , Mystic Valley Parkway and the Fells Connector Parkways , originally conceived in the s as a means for city residents to reach the metropolitan parks, evolved into congested commuter routes for suburban drivers.

Highway projects were advanced in the wake of the Federal Highway Aid Act , in some instances displacing entire neighborhoods. The Brickbottom neighborhood was razed in to prepare for a proposed Inner Belt Expressway, and construction of Interstate 93 resulted in demolition of homes in The States neighborhood during the late s. Industry slowly moved outward to the metropolitan fringes, encouraged by highway access and cheap, undeveloped land. The Ford Motor Plant in Assembly Square , which had been one of the region's largest employers, closed its doors in with severe consequences for the local economy.

From the late s through the early s, Finast Supermarkets used the building that had earlier housed the Ford assembly plant on Middlesex Avenue, but in it too closed its doors.

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