Sights and landmarks in Somerville
159 sights worth seeing in Somerville: landmarks, galleries, monuments and viewpoints.
Ranked with the travel guide's picks and well-known places first. Showing the top 40 of 159.
Sights and landmarks in Somerville
SeeMonumentProspect Hill Monument
Climb this tower for great views of Boston. Check out the slightly unfamiliar flag flying atop the structure. This was a Betsy Ross original; and on January 1, 1776 the tower was the location of the first American flag flown.
Open now · open 24 hoursBuilt 1904
SeeHistoric siteThe Old Powder House
This is the oldest stone building in Massachusetts, dating from around 1704. Once used to store colonial powder that would propel the muskets fired during the Revolutionary War.
Open now · open 24 hoursFree
- SeeArt museum
Museum of Modern Renaissance
Not really a museum, but sort of. Picture a gorgeous old building (once a Unitarian church) lived in by a Yoga-practicing artist couple, who often look inward for inspiration. Much of the work is influenced by Russian mythological and religious icons. No one's really sure exactly when it's open, so go poke your head in if you happen to be walking by. Truly one of a kind, and only in Somerville.
SeeNature museumHarvard Museum of Natural History
The Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH) is a natural history museum housed in the University Museum Building, located on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It features 16 galleries with 12,000 specimens drawn from the collections of the university's three natural history research museums: the Harvard University Herbaria, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and the Harvard Mineralogical Museum. The museum is physically connected to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at 26 Oxford Street.
Closed · opens 9 am tomorrowWheelchair accessible
- SeeMuseum
Somerville Museum
Volunteer run, visits are by appointment only.
Closed · opens noon tomorrow
- SeeArt gallery
Brickbottom Artists Association
1 Fitchburg St
Gallery: Thu-Sat noon-5PM
SeeAttractionHarvard Square
Harvard Square is a triangular plaza at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street, and John F. Kennedy Street near the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The term "Harvard Square" is also used to delineate the business district and Harvard University surrounding that intersection, which is the historic center of Cambridge. Adjacent to Harvard Yard, the historic heart of Harvard University, the Square (as it is sometimes called, locally) functions as a commercial center for Harvard students, as well as residents of western Cambridge, the western and northern neighborhoods and the inner suburbs of Boston.
SeeMuseumPeabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, with particular focus on the ethnography and archaeology of the Americas. The museum is caretaker to over 1.2 million objects, some 900 feet (270 m) of documents, 2,000 maps and site plans, and about 500,000 photographs.
SeeMuseumFogg Museum
The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research centers: the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis (founded in 1958), the Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art (founded in 2002), the Harvard Art Museums Archives, and the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies (founded in 1928). The three museums that constitute the Harvard Art Museums were initially integrated into a single institution under the name Harvard University Art Museums in 1983. The word "University" was dropped…
- SeeMuseum
Harvard Art Museums
32 Quincy St
SeeMuseumSemitic Museum
The Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East (HMANE, previously the Harvard Semitic Museum) is a museum founded in 1889. It moved into its present location at 6 Divinity Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1903.
Free entry · Wheelchair accessible
SeeLibraryHoughton Library
Houghton Library, on the south side of Harvard Yard adjacent to Widener Library, Lamont Library, and Loeb House, is Harvard University's primary repository for rare books and manuscripts. It is part of the Harvard College Library, the library system of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The collections of Houghton Library include the Harvard Theatre Collection and the Woodberry Poetry Room, as well as the personal papers and archives of major American and English writers.
Built 1942
_-_Anne_Whitney_sculptor.JPG?width=240 "Photo: Anne Whitney, CC BY-SA 3.0")
SeeMemorialStatue of Charles Sumner
A bronze statue of Charles Sumner, by sculptor Anne Whitney, is installed in General MacArthur Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The plaster model for the statue is on display indoors at the Watertown public library. The sculpture of Sumner, a popular local statesman, was commissioned by the Boston Art Committee shortly after his death in 1874.
Built 1902
SeePublic artHarvard Bixi
The Harvard Bixi is a 17-foot high, 27 ton Chinese marble stele with a turtle pedestal located at Harvard University, north of Boylston Hall and west of Widener Library in Harvard Yard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The stele was presented to the university by the Chinese Harvard Alumni for its Tercentenary in September 1936.
Built 1936
SeeHistoric siteMount Vernon Street Historic District
The Mount Vernon Street Historic District is a historic district consisting of the even-numbered houses at 8–24 Mount Vernon Street in Somerville, Massachusetts. The district includes four modest Greek Revival houses built c. 1850, an earlier Federal period house, and a late 19th century Second Empire house, representing a progression of housing styles through the 19th century.
SeeLibrarySchlesinger Library
The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America is a research library at Harvard Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. According to Nancy F. Cott, the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director, it is "the largest and most significant repository of documents covering women's lives and activities in the United States".
SeeHistoric siteBertram Hall
Bertram Hall at Radcliffe College is an historic dormitory building on the Radcliffe Quadrangle of Harvard University at 53 Shepard Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Built in 1901, it was the first dormitory building constructed for Radcliffe College. The building is now one of the dormitories of Harvard's Cabot House.
Heritage listed · Built 1901
SeeLibraryHarvard-Yenching Library
The Harvard–Yenching Library is the primary location for East Asia-related collections at Harvard Library at Harvard University. In addition to East Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, Manchu, and Mongolian), it houses collections in European languages and Southeast Asian language (Vietnamese). Totaling more than 1.5 million volumes, the Harvard–Yenching Library has one of the largest collections in East Asian studies outside of Asia.
Closed · opens noon tomorrow
SeePublic artJohn Harvard Statue
John Harvard is an 1884 sculpture in bronze by Daniel Chester French at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It honors clergyman John Harvard (1607–1638), whose substantial deathbed bequest to the "schoale or Colledge" recently undertaken by the Massachusetts Bay Colony was so gratefully received that the Colony resolved "that the Colledge agreed upon formerly to bee built at Cambridg shalbee called Harvard Colledge." There being nothing to indicate what John Harvard had looked like, French took inspiration from a Harvard student collaterally descended from an early Harvard president. The statue's inscription—JOHN HARVARD • FOUNDER • 1638—is the subject of an arch polemic…
SeeHistoric siteEliot Hall
Grace Hopkinson Eliot Hall, often called Eliot Hall, is a historic dormitory building on the Radcliffe Quadrangle of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The four story neo-Georgian brick building was built in 1907 to a design by Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow Jr. It is a duplicate of Bertram Hall, which is adjacent, except some of its architectural details were simplified to reduce costs.
Heritage listed
SeeMuseumCooper-Frost-Austin House
The Cooper–Frost–Austin House is a historic Colonial American house, built in 1681. It is located at 21 Linnaean Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is the oldest extant home in Cambridge and is owned and operated as a non-profit museum by Historic New England.
SeeHistoric siteCharles Williams Jr. House
The Charles Williams Jr. House, built in 1858, is a historic house in Somerville, Massachusetts. Charles Williams Jr.
SeeMuseumArthur M. Sackler Gallery
The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research centers: the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis (founded in 1958), the Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art (founded in 2002), the Harvard Art Museums Archives, and the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies (founded in 1928). The three museums that constitute the Harvard Art Museums were initially integrated into a single institution under the name Harvard University Art Museums in 1983. The word "University" was dropped…
- SeeMemorial
Irish Famine Memorial
The Irish Famine Memorial, or An Gorta Mor 'Irish Famine and Emigration,' also known as the Irish Famine Monument, is a memorial in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
SeeHistoric siteSwedenborg Chapel
The Church of the New Jerusalem (also known as Swedenborg Chapel) is a historic Swedenborgian church at 50 Quincy Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Harvard University. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
Built 1901 · Heritage listed
SeeMemorialCivil War Monument
The Civil War Monument, also known as the Civil War Memorial and Lincoln-Soldier Monument, is installed in Cambridge Common, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The monument was completed in 1870 and was designed by artists Cyrus Cobb and Darius Cobb with supervising architect Thomas W. Silloway. McDonald & Mann were the contractors.
SeeLibraryCambridge Public Library
The Cambridge Public Library (CPL) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a public library that consists of a unified city-wide system maintaining: a main branch, of notable aesthetic architectural value, plus a further six localized branches sited throughout the city. Having evolved from the Cambridge Athenaeum, the main library branch was built at its present site in 1888. The main library most recently underwent renovation, and a modern building addition significantly expanded the overall branch in 2009, which greatly increased the branch's area, more than tripling its square footage.
Closed · opens 9 am tomorrowWheelchair accessible · Wi-Fi
SeeLibraryLamont Library
Lamont Library, in the southeast corner of Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, houses the Harvard Library's primary undergraduate collection in humanities and social sciences. It was the first library in the United States specifically planned to serve undergraduates. Women (that is, Radcliffe College students) were admitted beginning in 1967.
Open now · open 24 hoursWi-Fi · Built 1948
SeeMuseumHarvard Geological and Mineral Museum
The Mineralogical and Geological Museum at Harvard (MGMH), or the Harvard Mineralogical Museum, is located on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is one of the three research museums which collectively comprise the collection of the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
_-_east_facade.JPG?width=240 "Photo: Daderot., CC BY-SA 3.0")
SeeHistoric siteUniversity Hall
University Hall is a white granite building designed by the great early American architect Charles Bulfinch and built by the noted early engineer Loammi Baldwin Jr. It is located in Harvard Yard on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970 for its architectural significance.
Built 1815 · Heritage listed
SeeHistoric siteCenter for Middle Eastern Studies
The Joseph Lovering House is an historic house located at 38 Kirkland Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Closed · opens 9 am MondayHeritage listed
SeeLibrarySomerville Central Library
The Central Library is the main branch of the Somerville, Massachusetts, public library system. It is an architecturally distinguished Renaissance Revival brick building designed by Edward Lippincott Tilton and was built in 1914 with funding assistance from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Closed · opens 9 am tomorrowWi-Fi
SeeLibrarySomerville Library West Branch
The West Somerville Branch Library is an active library in a historic building at 40 College Avenue in Somerville, Massachusetts, just outside Davis Square. It is an example of Classical Revival architecture, built in 1909 with funding support from Andrew Carnegie, and was the city's first branch library. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Closed · opens 9 am tomorrowWi-Fi
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Cabot Science Library
The Godfrey Lowell Cabot Science Library is a library at Harvard University. The library opened in 1973 as part of the Harvard Science Center and was named after Godfrey Lowell Cabot, a Harvard graduate and chemist. The library was redesigned in 2016 and reopened in 2017, with more flexible spaces and updated media resources.
SeeHistoric siteHarvard Ukrainian Research Institute
The Luther Brooks House is a historic house located at 34 Kirkland Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Heritage listed
SeeLibraryTisch Library
The library system of Tufts University (Tufts Libraries) supports all academic departments comprising the university, located in Greater Boston in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The main library is Tisch Library, which holds about 2.5 million volumes, with other holdings dispersed at subject libraries.
SeeHistoric siteBrattle Hall
Brattle Hall is a historic building along Brattle Street near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was constructed in 1889 for the Cambridge Social Union – established in 1871 – when that organization moved into the adjacent William Brattle House that year. Brattle Hall was built to house the organization's library, and to provide a space for larger meetings and social functions.
Heritage listed
SeeLibraryTozzer Library
Tozzer Library is Harvard Library's primary source for all subfields of anthropology and archaeology. With over 250,000 volumes, Tozzer is home to one of the largest and most comprehensive anthropology and archaeology collections worldwide. The anthropology collections cover a wide span of regions across the globe, while the archaeology collections also range worldwide but focus heavily on archaeology of the Americas.
Wheelchair accessible
SeeHistoric buildingEdwin Abbot House
The Edwin Abbot House, also known as the Zabriskie House, is an historic house at 27 Garden Street (originally 1 Follen Street) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Built in 1889 to a design by Longfellow, Alden & Harlow, it is a prominent local example of residential Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. It has served as the principal building of the Longy School (now the Longy School of Music of Bard College) since 1937.
- SeePublic art
Gift of the Wind
Gift of the Wind is a large-scale public kinetic sculpture, by Susumu Shingu, located in Porter Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the Porter subway and commuter rail station. The artwork consists of a tall white pole with three red "wings" attached to the top that are "designed to shift in response to the movement of the wind, not only turning clockwise and counterclockwise, but tumbling over and over in various sequences". It is considered by some to be "Cambridge's most visible landmark".
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Listings from the Wikivoyage guide to Somerville (CC BY-SA 4.0). Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Place data from Overture Maps. Some descriptions from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).