East Somerville

East Somerville is a neighborhood in the eastern part of the city of Somerville, Massachusetts. The community stretches east along Broadway from Massachusetts Route 28 to Sullivan Square and Interstate 93 on the city line with the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown.

Originally part of Charlestown, East Somerville is one of the oldest and most densely settled areas of Somerville. Initially a farming community where Charlestown residents pastured their cows, East Somerville later provided respite from the stresses of Boston and city life when roads, bridges and the arrival of the railroad made it an accessible and convenient location.

One of the most significant historic events featuring East Somerville was Paul Revere's "Midnight Ride" in 1775. On his journey, he rode his horse starting from Charlestown down Washington Street and up Crescent Street near the present-day Holiday Inn. Revere then rode directly onto Broadway, which brought him through Winter Hill to Medford, Massachusetts. Every year on Patriots' Day, Somerville celebrates the historical ride through the town.

In the 19th century, East Somerville was distinguished by a drumlin, a long, oval mound of clay formed by glacial movement, called Mt. Benedict. Led by a group Roman Catholic Ursuline nuns, the primarily Italian-American Mt. Benedict community founded a convent and school in 1824 overlooking the Mystic River. The school began to enroll primarily the daughters of the Protestant (primarily liberal Unitarian) upper classes of Boston; by 1834 there were 47 students, only six of whom were Catholic. The lower classes of Boston, predominantly conservative Protestants, came to see the perceived union between two classes of people they distrusted as a threat. This inflamed religious tensions in the area, and anti-Catholic protestors in Boston began agitating and crossed into what was then part of Charlestown. During the ensuing conflict, a Protestant mob burned the convent to the ground on August 11, 1834. The land was later sold off and used to fill the nearby marshes. Today, some people still refer to the area north of Broadway as the ‘Nunnery Grounds’ alluding to this incident.

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