Old stone Somerville boundary posts

[ron_newman]

A century or more ago, Somerville and Medford installed stone pillars at various locations to mark the boundary between the two cities. While planning the Somerville Bicycle Committee's upcoming Edge of the City Tour on October 13, I looked around for these markers -- both on the Web and on foot around the Tufts University campus.

So far, I've found seven of them, which I've plotted on a Google map. The map includes links to a photo of each marker -- one by Georgy Cohen (georgy), two by David Maze (dzm), one by Elizabeth Bolton, and three by me. Typically, the markers have S etched on one side, M on another side, and the marker number on a third side (or sometimes the same side as S or M). ETA 10/5/12: Thanks to your comments here, the map now has 10 markers, with more coming soon.

If you've seen one that isn't on my map, please comment here so that I can add it! I'd especially like to know if any markers remain for the Somerville-Cambridge or Somerville-Boston (Charlestown) borders.

Here's my photo of one on the west side of Packard Avenue, next to the Tufts tennis courts. (Click on the photo to see a larger version.)

Comments

[thespian.livejournal.com]

neat!

[dmaze]

At one point I visited all of the places where they should be, though I don't think I have more pictures than the two you already have. I remember finding a couple more in the neighborhood west of Tufts (and also assuming that the two markers that should, by rights, be inside Tisch Library were gone), and not finding the one inside the 38/93 interchange. The map I see up in places that deliver food actually has the boundary marker locations and numbers marked on it in tiny print.

The only Cambridge/Somerville marker I know of is #17, at White Street and Elm Street, but it's embedded in the sidewalk. I've looked for more in the Davis area, and while it's straightforward to use the parking permit signs to find the city line I haven't found more markers. The markers are also all over on the canonical biking routes through the western suburbs.

[enveri.livejournal.com]

This seems like a dumb question, but... what differentiates between the parking permit signs?

The reason I ask is the house we just moved into is apparently in Medford, while our front steps (and address) is Somerville. It's... caused some issues with parking.

[dmaze]

I think the Cambridge ones say "CITY OF CAMBRIDGE" on the bottom of them, and they're rectangular, where the Somerville ones are square. I don't remember what Medford ones look like, and when I did this exercise I was mostly wandering through residential neighborhoods before Somerville instituted the "all permit parking all the time" rule.

[ron_newman]

As dzm says above, Somerville signs are square, while Cambridge's are rectangular (higher than they are wide). I took this photo of a Somerville and a Cambridge permit parking sign, side by side on Seven Pines Avenue. These two signs have the city names printed on them, but most of them don't.

Cambridge and Somerville street cleaning signs are also subtly different. Cambridge cleans each side of the street once a month. Somerville does it twice a month. Again, most of these signs don't have the city name printed on them.

I've only seen a few Medford permit parking signs, but the ones I've seen are rectangular, like Cambridge's.

[ron_newman]

A number of Cambridge houses front on Elm and Russell Streets. The houses and (most of?) the yards are in Cambridge, but the sidewalk and street are in Somerville. Congressman Tip O'Neill lived in one of these houses, and he had to pay some property tax to both cities.

I think residents of these houses have special arrangements to put both Cambridge and Somerville parking permits on their cars, with one city's permits restricted to just that one street. There are similar issues on Line Street, and I think also on Harris Street and White Street.

The city line runs for a few blocks along several streets west of Tufts University -- Curtis Street, Hillsdale Road, and North Streets. Houses on one side are in Somerville , houses on the other in Medford, and I'm not sure which city controls the street itself.

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

The "split by the border" problem is pretty common. I looked at a house on Beacon with the driveway in Cambridge. I think the Globe did an article about these places with a special emphasis on school districts. Where the kids actually slept determined what school they could go to.

There are also some houses on Boston Ave in Medford that have Somerville mailing addresses, but they are 100% in Medford. And they have 781 area codes as well.

[ron_newman]

This Boston Globe article, from 1998? It is about a townhouse duplex condo building which is split, one unit on Shea Road on Cambridge, the other on Kingston Street in Somerville. (You will need a Minuteman Library Network card number to read the full text.)

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

I have a good memory, but I don't think the article was 14 years ago. I'm thinking in the last 3 to 4 years.

[ron_newman]

I found it here in the Globe archives, published December 26, 2004. That's behind the Globe paywall, but fortunately someone reposted it to a Usenet group, which anyone can read for free.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

If you have a house that in some way is on both sides of the border, you may be able to get both sets of parking permits - talk to the parking offices in both towns.

[ron_newman]

Hi, dzm! I assume that you are the David Maze whose two photos (of markers #8 and #19H on Boston Ave.) I included on my map.

I found and photographed four other markers on the Tufts campus: #11 and #12 on the west side of Packard Ave, and #13 and #14 on the east side of Curtis Street. Marker #12 is cleverly disguised as one of two 'gate posts' flanking a pedestrian path overlooking the Tufts tennis courts.

I did not find any of the markers west of Tufts. If you know where any of these are, can you reply here? I'd like to add them to my map.

This official City of Somerville map, or something similar to it, is probably what you are seeing on the walls of those pizza delivery joints. If you zoom in far enough, you can see all of the 'CITY BOUND NO. XX" notations. Most, but not quite all, of these are at places where the city boundary turns a corner. The official map does not show the location of marker #3H, which Georgy Cohen found on Albion Street just off Broadway. I'm curious if there are more like that one.

[dmaze]

Yes, that's me, and yes, that's the map. I did this quite a while ago (the photos you found were from 2008, but I thought I did this more like 2002ish) but at that point I thought I had found at least #15 and #16. I definitely remember looking for #20 behind the U-Haul but don't remember finding it. I also haven't found Cambridge marker #1, though I've looked around the Gore St./Medford St./Grand Junction grade crossing a bit.

[ron_newman]

I looked today for #15, #16, and #18, but did not find them. I did find #19 on Gordon Street, and what I think is a sad little remnant of #17 on North Street opposite Fairfax. I've added both of these to the Google map.

[ron_newman]

The Tufts University alumni association in 1959 commissioned a history of Tufts called High on the Hill: Tufts Then and Now, by Linda J. Dixon. This book has been updated a few times, most recently in 1979.

The page about the library says: "You will remember we mentioned that the Medford-Somerville line bisects the campus; there are two granite markers here to show where it angles across this library!".

I don't know if that means the markers were inside the library, or just outside it. Back then it was called Wessell Library. Since then, it has been expanded into the current Tisch Library. I wonder if the markers were lost during that construction.

[ron_newman]

Wow, I've passed the corner of Elm and White hundreds, if not thousands, of times, on foot and on bicycle. And I'd never before noticed that boundary curbstone. Thanks for telling me about it! I'll try to put a photo up soon.

ETA: And here it is. I also added it to the Google map.

[ron_newman]

I found Cambridge-Somerville markers #18 and #20 today. They are tiny! One is barely visible in the Elm Street crosswalk across Russell Street. The other is set into the middle of a private residential driveway on Chester Street, close to the sidewalk. I've added both of these to the Google map.

(Perhaps we should meet up some time in person?)

ETA 10/11: On closer inspection, what I thought was marker #18, in the Russell Street crosswalk, is probably just a small square gas company manhole. So I'm taking it out of the map and photo albums.

[ronhaha108.livejournal.com]

There's one on College Ave and William Street cut into the white fence unless that is a different type of marker... http://goo.gl/maps/aKJ4U

[ron_newman]

I'll take a look today. That would be a strange place for a boundary marker, since it's nowhere near any city boundary.

[ron_newman]

That sure does look like a boundary marker, but I have no idea why it's there. As you look at it from the sidewalk, the side facing you has the letter 'C' engraved on it. Unlike the Somerville-Medford markers, this one has two different numbers engraved on it: 20 on the left side, 21 on the right. Without trespassing, I could not clearly read the back side of the stone, but it appears to be a letter S strangely tilted at a 45-degree angle.

Maybe it's an old Somerville-Cambridge marker, far from its proper home?

[ron_newman]

And this evening, I talked to the sculptor who owns that house. He told me that he scavenged the marker from a back yard elsewhere in West Somerville (also nowhere near the city line), where it was being used to prop something else up.

He liked the way it looked, so he erected it where you see it now. He doesn't have any more clue than I do where it actually belongs. For all we know, it could belong to Concord and Sudbury, or Canton and Sharon, or some other pair of adjoining C and S towns we haven't thought of yet.

ETA 10/14: I added it to the Google map, and also took five photos which you can see starting here.

[nonelvis]

I seem to recall there was one on Warner Street, near the intersection with Pearson, just outside Powderhouse Square. Google Maps is showing something like that in front of 38 Warner.

[dmaze]

In front of #37, at the left-hand side of the hedge, is a marker of roughly the right shape with the number "6" on the side. Good catch!

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

Yeah I was coming to report that that one has a number "6", and an "M" and "S" on the correct sides, between #37 and #39 Warner St sort of obscured by a hedge.

[ron_newman]

Thanks, all of you. I've added this one to the map.

[smammy]

There is one in the back yard of 11 Pearson Road, just beyond the head of the driveway. It definitely has the "S" and "M" marking, but I don't remember ever seeing a marker number.

[smammy]

Placemark (Turn on satellite, turn off 45° view, and zoom all the way in.)

[ron_newman]

If there is a marker number, it should be #5. It might be too worn away to read anymore.

ETA 10/11/12: Yes, it has the number 5 clearly etched on it. I took a photo this afternoon, and also added it to the Google map.

[smammy]

Weird, either that's a photo of a different marker, or it's been damaged significantly and sunk a foot or so into the ground since I lived there.

[ron_newman]

Or it might just be an illusion caused by the angle I took the photo from, or the poor quality of the camera phone. I took photos of the marker's two other etched sides here and here.

[smammy]

I was over there the other night, and checked, and sure enough!

[ron_newman]

Sure enough it sunk into the ground?

(I deleted your duplicate comment, by the way)

[toporopi.livejournal.com]

There's a marker in the backyard of my old house, 11 Pearson Rd. Message me if you'd like me to connect you with current residents :)

[ron_newman]

Oh, it's down in the Goondocks! Yes, I'd love to visit and photograph it, with permission. (I don't want to trespass.) I wonder how many others of these are hidden away on private property.

The official Somerville city map says this is marker #5.

[smammy]

Hassle grimlocke for permission. Don't trespass, you might be mistaken for a masturbating derelict and shot on sight.

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

(http://pearlythebunny.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/501/718)

Marker #2 at Main Street (across from Bow Street near the city line).

[ron_newman]

Thank you! I have added this location, and your photo, to my map. Let me know if I put the pushpin in the right place, since I haven't visited the location myself yet.

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

The pushpin is very close. The marker is at the edge of the driveway near the telephone pole without any wires.

[rachelmello.livejournal.com]

Okay, wow. This is genuinely cool, Ron.

Just a heads up: the photo on 19H and 8 are the same photo.

Also, this says to me we need to start *now* a petition to the City to insist that they protect marker 3H when they build the T stop there. We should insist that it get protected *in its current location,* that they can build something around it a la Plymouth Rock if they have to. This is the kind of history you can never get back.

[ron_newman]

Oops. Thanks for letting me know. I think I've fixed the #8 photo now.

Marker #3H is a whole block away from the railroad right-of-way. I don't think the Ball Square station construction will affect it at all.

[rachelmello.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. Yes, it is a block away.

Still, you've seen construction sites. You know that there's a huge margin of bulldozing, trenching, and generally ripping stuff up to get access, utilities, etc.

Not like it's going to happen any time soon, but at some point when it looks like ground-breaking is within a year or two, it's worth us [or our grandkids] saying to... whom?... "Oh, hey, while you're planning your construction, please take note of this."

[pbockelman.livejournal.com]

In Massachusetts (and other New England) towns, State Law requires that the Board of Selectmen "perambulate the bounds" of the town. Usually, this was done with the selectmen from the neighboring towns. Specifically, Mass. General Laws, Chapter 42, Section 1 states that "the Selectmen shall perambulate, run and mark the boundary lines of towns every five years or appoint substitutes and erect monuments at angles on boundary lines, also where a highway crosses lines". I don't believe cities are required to do this. For many towns, this requires traipsing through woods to find the historic markers. I used to work for a town and the selectmen used to send out a runner in advance who would place certain libations on each bound to keep the selectmen going from bound to bound. We were always careful, though, to avoid deer hunting season...

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

That sounds awesome! It aught to be a whole city invited event. Can you imagine 1,000 people perambulating the city line? It could be done in colonial dress.

[ron_newman]

The next best thing would be to come on my October 13 bike tour, which will follow the border closely and pass by many of these stone markers.

[thewriterkate.livejournal.com]

My house's marker is on the map! We are on Broadway and Albion, and our backyard is in Medford though we're officially Somervillains. This is a great collection; thanks for posting!

[ron_newman]

Thank georgy, whose photo of your marker helped lead me to this project. I found her photo by Googling phrases like Somerville boundary marker.

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

(http://pearlythebunny.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/501/1146)

Marker #23 near the southern end of Victoria Street.

[ron_newman]

Thank you. I added this to my map, with a notation that it is on private residential property, unlike most of the other markers.