Editing Watertown, Massachusetts (section)

== History ==

Archeological evidence suggests that Watertown was inhabited for thousands of years before [[European colonization of the Americas|colonization]]. In the 1600s, two groups of [[Massachusett]], the Pequossette and the Nonantum, had settlements on the banks of the river later called the Charles,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ci.watertown.ma.us/199/History-Tourism|title=History & Tourism – Watertown, MA – Official Website|website=www.ci.watertown.ma.us}}</ref> and a contemporary source lists "Pigsgusset" as the native name of "Water towne."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wood|first=William|title=Wood's Vocabulary of Massachusett|publisher=Evolution Publishing: American Language Reprints|year=2002|isbn=978-1-889758-97-8|location=Merchantsville, NJ|pages=14}}</ref> The Pequossette built a [[fishing weir]] to trap herring at the site of the current [[Watertown Dam]]. The annual fish migration, as both [[alewife (fish)|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wickedlocal.com/watertown/news/x986605647/Zubrowski-The-herring-run-through-Watertown-from-Mother-s-Day-to-Father-s-Day|title=Watertown Tab "Zubrowski: The herring run through Watertown from Mother's Day to Father's Day" (June 10, 2009)|work=Wicked Local|access-date=October 7, 2014}}</ref>

Watertown, first known to settlers as Saltonstall Plantation, was one of the earliest of the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] settlements. Founded in early 1630 by a group of settlers led by [[Richard Saltonstall]] and [[George Phillips (Watertown)|George Phillips]], it was officially incorporated that same year. The alternate spelling "Waterton" is seen in some early documents.<ref>Young, Alexander (1846). ''Chronicles of the First Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1623–1636'', pp. 313–14. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown.</ref>

The first buildings were upon land now included within the limits of [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]] known as Gerry's Landing. For its first quarter century Watertown ranked next to [[Boston]] in population and area. Since then its limits have been greatly reduced. Thrice portions have been added to Cambridge, and it has contributed territory to form the new towns of [[Weston, Massachusetts|Weston]] (1712), [[Waltham, Massachusetts|Waltham]] (1738), [[Lincoln, Massachusetts|Lincoln]] (1754) and [[Belmont, Massachusetts|Belmont]] (1859). 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 [[No taxation without representation|taxation without representation]] and led to the establishment of [[representative democracy]] in the colony. 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. Here about 1632 was erected the first [[gristmill]] in the colony, and in 1662 one of the first [[textile manufacturing|woolen mills]] in America was built here.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Watertown (Massachusetts)|display=Watertown|volume=28|page=411}}</ref> The first burying ground, on Arlington Street, was established in the 1660s. It contains a monument to Joseph Coolidge, the only Watertown resident killed during the British retreat from Concord in April 1775.<ref name="EB1911"/>
[[Image:Gerry Landing.jpg|thumb|left|Saltonstall's landing spot in Watertown, also known as Elbridge Gerry Landing]]

===Revolutionary War era===

Much excitement was generated in Watertown towards the start of the [[American Revolutionary War]] period. In 1773, many of its citizens were engaged with the [[Sons of Liberty]] in another tax protest, this time against the [[Tea Act|British Tea Tax]] which resulted in the famous [[Boston Tea Party]] protest.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://maintour.com/watertown-massachusetts-tourist-information/|title=Watertown Tour|website=maintour.com}}</ref>

Then later (April 1775), some 134 Watertown [[minutemen]] responded to the [[Lexington Alarm|alarm from Lexington]] to rout the British soldiers from their march to Concord. Thereafter many of these citizen soldiers were part of the first battle line formed at the [[Siege of Boston]]. Another Watertown citizen, [[Israel Bissel]], was the first rider to take the news of the British attack and rode all the way to Connecticut, New York and Philadelphia.<ref>"Bissell Outrode Paul Revere But History Left Him in the Dust", ''[[Hartford Courant]]'', April 16, 2007</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.constitutionfacts.com/us-declaration-of-independence/the-five-riders/|title=The Five Riders|website=www.constitutionfacts.com}}</ref>

[[Image:Fowle House - Watertown, Massachusetts.JPG|thumb|right|200px|[[Edmund Fowle House]], built in the 1700s and used by the Massachusetts government during the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]]]]
The [[Massachusetts Provincial Congress]], after adjournment from [[Concord, Massachusetts|Concord]], met from April to July 1775 in the First Parish Church, the site of which is marked by a monument. On July 3, [[George Washington]] was greeted in Watertown; the following day he took command of the Army in Cambridge.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ci.watertown.ma.us/360/Did-You-Know|title=Did You Know? {{!}} Watertown, MA – Official Website|website=www.ci.watertown.ma.us|access-date=February 14, 2020}}</ref> The [[Massachusetts General Court]] held its sessions here from 1775 to 1778. Committees met in the nearby [[Edmund Fowle House]]. Boston [[town meeting]]s were held here during the [[siege of Boston]], when many Boston families made their homes in the neighborhood. For several months early in the [[American Revolution]] the [[Committees of safety (American Revolution)|committees of safety]] and [[committee of correspondence]] made Watertown their headquarters and it was from here that [[Joseph Warren|General Joseph Warren]] set out for [[Battle of Bunker Hill|Bunker Hill]].<ref name="EB1911"/><ref>Hodges, Maud deLeigh. 1980. Crossroads on the Charles. Phoenix Publishing, Canaan, NH</ref>
[[File:Browne House - Watertown, Massachusetts.JPG|thumb|right|200px|[[Browne House]], built {{circa|1694}}]]

The [[Treaty of Watertown]], the first treaty signed between the newly formed United States of America and a foreign power, the St. John's and [[Mi'kmaq people|Mi'kmaq]] First Nations of [[Nova Scotia]], was signed in this house.{{clarify|reason=Which: Fowle House or Browne House?|date=February 2020}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/documentaryhisto24main|title=Documentary history of the state of Maine ..|last=Maine Historical Society|publisher=Portland|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Paul|first=Daniel N.|author-link=Daniel N. Paul|title=We Were Not the Savages: A Mi'kmaq Perspective on the Collision Between European and Native American Civilizations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HikaAQAAIAAJ&pg=PP1|edition=2nd|year=2000|publisher=Fernwood|isbn=978-1-55266-039-3|pages=169–170}} (includes full text of both treaties).</ref>

The Coolidge Tavern, built in 1742, was frequented by minutemen during the war. Here, Washington was entertained on his New England tour in 1789.<ref name="EB1911"/> The tavern was demolished in 1918 to make way for a [[tram|trolley]] terminal.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/Lost_Architecture/comments/dvzv1i/coolidge_tavern_watertown_ma_built_174042_by/
|title=Reddit {{!}} Lost Architecture {{!}} Coolidge Tavern | author=sverdrupian |date=November 13, 2019 | access-date=February 14, 2020}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=February 2020|reason=Reddit is [[WP:UGC|user-generated]] content, needs a [[WP:RS|reliable source]]}}

=== Industrial era ===

From 1832 to 1834, [[Theodore Parker]] conducted a private school and his name is still preserved in the Parker School,<ref name="EB1911"/> though the building no longer operates as a public school.

Mount Auburn Cemetery was founded in 1831, creating the first garden cemetery in the United States.  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 has been recognized as one of the most significant designed landscapes in the country. Although perceived as a Cambridge institution, almost all of the cemetery is actually in Watertown.

The [[Watertown Arsenal]] operated continuously as a military munitions and research facility from 1816 until 1995, when the Army sold the property, by then known as the Army Materials Technology Laboratory,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/watertown.htm|title=History of the AMTL|author=John Pike|access-date=October 7, 2014}}</ref> to the town of Watertown. The Arsenal is notable for being the site of a 1911 [[strike action|strike]] prompted by the management methods of operations research pioneer [[Frederick Winslow Taylor]] (Taylor and 1911 Watertown Arsenal Strike). Taylor's method, which he dubbed "Scientific Management," broke tasks down into smaller components. Workers no longer completed whole items; instead, they were timed using stopwatches as they did small tasks repetitively, as Taylor attempted to find the balance of tasks that resulted in the maximum output from workers. The strike and its causes were controversial enough that they resulted in Congressional hearings in 1911; Congress passed a law in 1915 banning the method in government owned arsenals. Taylor's methods spread widely, influencing such industrialists as Henry Ford, and the idea is one of the underlying inspirations of the factory (assembly) line industrial method. The Watertown Arsenal was the site of a major superfund clean-up in the 1990s, and has now become a center for shopping, dining and the arts, with the opening of several restaurants and a new theatre. The site includes the [[Arsenal Center for the Arts]], a regional [[arts centre|arts center]] that opened in 2005. The Arsenal was owned by the electronic health record system maker [[athenahealth]], until it was sold to [[Alexandria Real Estate Equities]] in 2019, adding to the life science focused development along Arsenal Street.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Logan |first1=Tim |title=Developer buys athenahealth's Watertown campus for $525.5 million |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2019/12/20/developer-buys-athenahealth-watertown-campus-for-million/hhmXvhEFO1ausVxJr6DQjN/story.html |access-date=21 October 2024 |work=Boston Globe}}</ref> Arsenal Street features two shopping malls across the street from one another, with the Watertown Mall on one side and [[Arsenal Yards]] on the other.

The Stanley Brothers built the first of their steam-powered cars, which came to be known as [[Stanley Motor Carriage Company|Stanley Steamers]], in Watertown in 1897.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z11210/Stanley_Steamer%20Rocket/default.aspx |title=1906 Stanley Steamer Rocket Images, Information and History |publisher=Conceptcarz.com |access-date=January 19, 2013}}</ref>

The [[Locomobile Company of America]], founded in 1899, also produced steam-powered cars in Watertown until the company moved to [[Bridgeport, Connecticut]].

=== 21st century ===
Shortly after midnight of April 18–19, 2013, the two suspects in the [[Boston Marathon bombing]] engaged in a [[Boston Marathon bombing#Watertown shootout|protracted battle with police]], in Watertown involving the use of firearms and explosives. [[Tamerlan Tsarnaev]] was critically wounded and later pronounced dead and the town was completely [[lockdown|locked down]] for hours as police, [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], and [[Army National Guard]] personnel patrolled it, looking for the remaining suspect, [[Dzhokhar Tsarnaev]], who was captured wounded but alive in a boat shortly after the lockdown ended on the following evening.

In the November 2021 election, the citizens voted to amend the official name of the city to "The City of Watertown"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Breitrose |first=Charlie |date=2021-11-03 |title=See Precinct Results for 2021 Town Council, School Committee, Library Trustees Races and the Charter Questions |url=https://www.watertownmanews.com/2021/11/03/see-precinct-results-for-2o21-town-council-school-committee-library-trustees-races-and-the-charter-questions/ |access-date=2023-08-03 |website=Watertown News |language=en-US}}</ref> (from "The City Known as the Town of Watertown")