Somerville
Massachusetts, United States
Also known as: Cow Commons
Somerville, city, Middlesex county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies along the Mystic River and is surrounded by Cambridge, Arlington, Medford, and the Boston neighbourhood of Charlestown. Settled in 1630, it was originally known as the Cow Commons and was entirely fenced in until 1685. In the city stands the Old Powder House (c. 1704), from which the British general Thomas Gage seized gunpowder in 1774. Somerville was the last of the Mystic valley towns to...