Moving to a Somerville Apartment for the best of City Living

In 1630, the area we now know as Somerville was settled as part of the town Charlestown. The area was mainly part of the Massachusetts mainland and not the Charlestown Peninsula and since Charlestown Neck was the name of the narrow strip of land that joined the two places, the area was back then referred to as Charlestown beyond the Neck. While Charlestown was growing and getting urbanized, this area was considered largely rural. So in 1842, it was separated from Charlestown and was officially incorporated as a town Somerville.

Back then, Somerville ma was actually home to many undesirable railway and industrial lands that were squeezed between the Mystic River to the northeast and the Charles River to the southwest. There was a time when Somerville was at times referred to as Slummerville. This was mainly due to the city s large blue-collar population and its reputation for crime, especially in the city's east.

But Somerville ma went through a transition period when its low-cost and physically deteriorated neighborhoods started to experience a physical reformation and even an increase in the property values during the 1990s. As a result, the name Slummerville became less and less prevalent.

The invention of Fluff - the marshmallow crime in the year 1917, just added to the legacy of Summerville s rich industrial background.

Even though Somerville was an ethnically diverse city, there wasn't that much unity. There were signs in real estate windows that stated Irish Catholic need not apply under their Flats for Rent boards. The city s mayor John J. Murphy (1929, hence was the first democratic mayor of the city) tried to unite the Irish, Italians, Greeks and Portuguese people and did a good job. There were even candle parades with thousands of people marching to massive rallies for this.

Somerville boasts of a flourishing arts community. It offers a wide range of opportunities to showcase and enjoy one s art.

The Somerville Arts Council serves as the city's official cultural council. It has developed the Windows Art Project , which is a public art project joining together artists and local businesses. The council even offers programs for youth with it's Art Without Walls program. Not only that, but it also hosts a festival called the ArtBeat festival, which is held every year in the third weekend of July and includes music, dances, performance art, craft vendors, theater and more.

During the first weekend of May, the artists of Somerville open their studios to host one of the largest open studio event in the region. The city also offers a number of small galleries that provide opportunities for local artists, as well the general public to showcase their talents.