Although perceived as a Cambridge institution, almost all of the cemetery is actually in Watertown. Mount Auburn has been recognized as one of the most significant designed landscapes in the country. The landscape of Mount Auburn provided inspiration for the nation's first public parks and picturesque suburbs designed by the early generations of American landscape architects. Mount Auburn Cemetery was founded in 1831, creating the first garden cemetery in the United States. Industrial era įrom 1832 to 1834 Theodore Parker conducted a private school and his name is still preserved in the Parker School, though the building no longer operates as a public school. The tavern was demolished in 1918 to make way for a trolley terminal. Here, Washington was entertained on his New England tour in 1789. The Coolidge Tavern, built in 1742, was frequented by minutemen during the war. John's and Mi'kmaq First Nations of Nova Scotia, was signed in this house. The Treaty of Watertown, the first treaty signed between the newly formed United States of America and a foreign power, the St. It contains a monument to Joseph Coolidge, the only Watertown resident killed during the British retreat from Concord in April 1775. The first burying ground, on Arlington Street, was established in the 1660s.

Here about 1632 was erected the first gristmill in the colony, and in 1662 one of the first woolen mills in America was built here. As early as the close of the 17th century, Watertown was the chief horse and cattle market in New England and was known for its fertile gardens and fine estates. In 1632 the residents of Watertown protested against being compelled to pay a tax for the erection of a stockade fort at Cambridge this was the first protest in America against taxation without representation and led to the establishment of representative democracy in the colony. Thrice portions have been added to Cambridge, and it has contributed territory to form the new towns of Weston (1712), Waltham (1738), Lincoln (1754) and Belmont (1859). Since then its limits have been greatly reduced. For its first quarter century Watertown ranked next to Boston in population and area. The first buildings were upon land now included within the limits of Cambridge known as Gerry's Landing. The alternate spelling 'Waterton' is seen in some early documents. Founded in early 1630 by a group of settlers led by Richard Saltonstall and George Phillips, it was officially incorporated that same year. Watertown, first known to settlers as Saltonstall Plantation, was one of the earliest of the Massachusetts Bay Colony settlements. The annual fish migration, as both alewife and blueback herring swim upstream from their adult home in the sea to spawn in the fresh water where they were hatched, still occurs every spring. In the 1600s, two groups of Massachusett, the Pequossette and the Nonantum, had settlements on the banks of the river later called the Charles, and a contemporary source lists 'Pigsgusset' as the native name of 'Water towne.' The Pequossette built a fishing weir to trap herring at the site of the current Watertown Dam. The city is home to the Perkins School for the Blind, the Armenian Library and Museum of America, and the historic Watertown Arsenal, which produced military armaments from 1816 through World War II.Īrcheological evidence suggests that Watertown was inhabited for thousands of years before colonization. Watertown was one of the first Massachusetts Bay Colony settlements organized by Puritan settlers in 1630.

Its neighborhoods include Bemis, Coolidge Square, East Watertown, Watertown Square, and the West End. The population was 35,329 in the 2020 census. Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, part of Greater Boston.

Little theatre of watertown