Somerville, city, Middlesex County, northeastern Massachusetts, on the Mystic River, a residential and industrial community near Boston; settled 1630, incorporated as a city 1872. Manufactures include processed food, fabricated metal, paper goods, printed materials, and clothing. The city's many historic sites include the Old Powder House (1703), from which the British seized gunpowder in 1774, and Prospect Hill, where the first flag of the United Colonies was raised on January 1, 1776. The first ship built in Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Blessing of the Bay, was launched here in 1631. The name of the community, part of Charlestown until 1842, is thought to honor Captain Richard Somers, a U.S. naval hero killed in the war with Tripoli. Population 77,372 (1980); 76,210 (1990); 77,478 (2000).
