European colonists settled the Town of Arlington in 1635 as a village within the boundaries of Cambridge, Massachusetts, under the name Menotomy, an Algonquian word considered by some to mean "swift running water", though linguistic anthropologists dispute that translation.[1] A larger area was incorporated on February 27, 1807, as West Cambridge, replacing Menotomy. This includes the town of Belmont, and outwards to the shore of the Mystic River, which had previously been part of Charlestown. The town was renamed Arlington on April 30, 1867, in honor of those buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
The Massachusett tribe lived around the Mystic Lakes, the Mystic River, and Alewife Brook. Chief Nanepashemet was killed by a rival tribe in about 1619, and Nanepashemet's widow "Squaw Sachem of Mistick" became the acknowledged leader of the tribe. In 1639, she deeded the land of what was then Cambridge and Watertown to the colonists. She lived her last years on the west side of the Mystic Lakes near Medford, where she died sometime between 1650 and 1667.[2]
A stream called Mill Brook flows through the town, which historically figured largely into Arlington's economy. In 1637, Captain George Cooke built the first mill in this area. Subsequently, seven mills were built along the stream, including the Old Schwamb Mill, which still survives. The Schwamb Mill has been a working mill since 1650, making it the longest working mill in the country.
Paul Revere's midnight ride to alert colonists took him through Menotomy,[3] now known as Arlington. Later on that first day of the American Revolution, more blood was shed in Menotomy than in the battles of Lexington and Concord combined. Minutemen from surrounding towns converged on Menotomy to ambush the British on their retreat from Concord and Lexington. Twenty-five Americans were killed in Menotomy, half of all Americans killed in the day's battles, as well as 40 British troops (more than half their fatalities). Arlington resident Cyrus Dallin would later create an iconic sculpture of the midnight rider; a version can be seen at the town's Cyrus Dallin Art Museum.
1852 Map of Boston area showing Arlington, then called West Cambridge. The former Middlesex Canal is highlighted.
The Jason Russell House is a museum which remembers those 12 Americans who were killed in and around this pictured dwelling on April 19, 1775. Bullet holes are visible in the interior walls to this day.
In its early years, Arlington was a thriving farming community and had its own lettuce that was quite popular.[4] Arlington had a large ice industry on Spy Pond from the mid-19th century until the last ice house burned down in 1930; much of its ice was sent to the Caribbean and India by "Ice King" Frederic Tudor.
Arlington's population grew by over 90 percent during the 1920s.[5] In 1979, the first spreadsheet software program VisiCalc was developed by Bob Frankston and Dan Bricklin in the attic of the Arlington apartment rented by Bob Frankston.[6]
An 1875 map of Arlington
Geography and infrastructure
Arlington covers 3,517.5 acres (14 km2), or 5.5 square miles, of which 286.2 acres (1.2 km2), or 0.4 square miles, are covered by water.[7] There are 210.52 acres (0.9 km2) of parkland. Elevation ranges from 4 feet (1.2 m) above sea level (along Alewife Brook) to 377 feet (114.9 m) near Park Avenue and Eastern Avenue.
Quincy Heights, a neighborhood in Arlington Heights
Zip Codes
02474: East Arlington, and most of the rest of the town north of the Minuteman Bikeway
02476: Arlington Heights, and most of the rest of the town south of the Bikeway and west of Spy Pond
Adjacent municipalities
Arlington is located in eastern Massachusetts and is bordered by the cities of Medford to the northeast, Somerville to the east, Cambridge to the southeast, and the towns of Winchester to the north, Lexington to the west, and Belmont to the south.
The Minuteman Bikeway also runs through the center of town, connecting residents by bike to Bedford, Lexington, the Alewife Red Line station and Boston.
Route 2 is a limited access highway that runs along the southern border of Arlington with Belmont.
Historically, since the World War One (1910s) and World War Two (1940s) era. Arlington is known for being mostly an Irish, Italian and Greek middle class community but in the last decades has become increasingly expensive and diverse, [citation needed] while still retaining its middle class style homes with a mixture of double/triple decker homes (multiple family styles homes) and (mostly smaller sized for single family homes) single family homes.
At the 2020 census,[18] there were 46,308 people living in 19,308 households in the town. The population density was 9,004.1 people per square mile. There were 19,974 housing units at an average density of 3,841.2 per square mile (1,483.1/km2) as of the 2010 census. The racial makeup of the town as of the 2020 census was 75.6% White, 3.3% African American, 0.1% Native American, 13.7% Asian and 6.1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.0% of the population.
There were 19,308 households with an average household size of 2.37 According to previous data, 27.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.1% were married couples living together, 2.0% had a male householder with no wife present, 9.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43.0% were non-families. 35.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
Of the 46,308 people in the population, 6.5% were under the age of 5, 21.4% were under the age of 18, and 16% were 65 years and over. 53.3% of the population was female.
Arlington's executive branch consists of an elected five-member select board. The day-to-day operations are handled by a town manager hired by the select board.
The legislative branch is a representative town meeting,[22] presided over by the town moderator, and is made up of 252 town meeting members.[22] Twelve town meeting members are elected to staggered three year terms from each of the 21 precincts. Article LXXXIX section 8 of the Massachusetts Constitution permits towns with a population greater than 12,000 to adopt a city form of government.[23] The town of Arlington meets the population requirement to become a city, but has not done so, in part because it would lose its ability to engage citizens in local government under the representative town meeting form of government. Annual town meetings begin in April on the first Monday after Patriots' Day, and are held two nights a week until all items on the town warrant are resolved, and generally last three to four weeks.
Select board
Stephen W. DeCourcey
Lenard T. Diggins
Eric D. Helmuth (chair)
John V. Hurd (vice-chair)
Diane M. Mahon
In April 2021, Arlington voted to become the third municipality in the United States to recognize polyamorous domestic partnerships, following adjacent cities of Somerville and Cambridge.[24]
School committee
Kirsi C. Allison-Ampe (chair)
Liz Exton (secretary)
Laura Gitelson
Leonard J. Kardon
Jane P. Morgan
Paul Schlichtman (vice-chair)
Jeffrey D. Thielman
Other town-wide elected officials
Juli Brazile, town clerk
Greg Christiana, town moderator
Education
Public schools
Arlington has a public school system with ten schools. (seven elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school)[25] The seven elementary schools (K–5) are Brackett, Bishop, Dallin, Hardy, Peirce, Stratton, and Thompson. There are also two middle schools, grade 6 at Gibbs, and grades 7–8 at Ottoson, and Arlington High School, which includes grades 9–12. In addition, Arlington is in the district served by the Minuteman Regional High School, located in Lexington, one of the top vocational-technical schools in Massachusetts.[26]
Private and parochial schools
There are two Parochial schools, Arlington Catholic High School, and an elementary/middle school, St. Agnes School,[27] both affiliated with St. Agnes Parish.[28] In addition, there are two secular elementary schools, Lesley Ellis and the Alivia Elementary School.
Hills Pond, Menotomy Rocks ParkThe water tower in Arlington Heights, built in 1921
The Old Schwamb Mill is the oldest continuously-operating mill site in the United States. Founded by the Schwambs, who immigrated to the U.S. from Germany, the mill currently produces and sells museum-quality, hand-turned wooden oval and circular frames, created much as they were in 1864. Named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, the mill-museum is operated by a nonprofit educational trust that maintains the mill's traditions.
Menotomy Rocks Park encompasses Hills Pond and has trails through the surrounding forested land.
Robbins Farm Park along Eastern Avenue includes a playground, ball fields, a basketball court and a commanding view of the Boston skyline.
Robbins Library contains the oldest continuously operated free children's library in the country.[30] A sculpture of the Menotomy Hunter by Cyrus Dallin can be found in an adjacent park.
Spy Pond Park provides access to the northeastern shore of Spy Pond.
The Great Meadow comprises both wet meadow swamp and forest right outside the border of Arlington. While the Great Meadow lies within the borders of Lexington, the park is owned and maintained by the Town of Arlington.[31]
The Henry Swan House, built in 1888, is a historic house at 418 Massachusetts Avenue. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.[32]
The Jason Russell House contains a museum that displays, among other items, a mastodon tusk found in Spy Pond in the late 1950s by a fisherman who originally thought he had brought up a tree branch.
The Minuteman Bikeway, a popular rail trail built in 1992, passes through various Arlington neighborhoods, including Arlington Center.
The Regent Theatre is a historic theater in downtown Arlington. It was built in 1916 for vaudeville acts and is still used for live performances as well as films. It was remodeled in 1926. The theatre, located at 7 Medford Street, has 500 seats. It hosts the Arlington International Film Festival.[33] In 2024, the theater was sold to Harvard University computer science professor David J. Malan.[34]
^"1950 Census of Population"(PDF). 1: Number of Inhabitants. Bureau of the Census. 1952. Section 6, Pages 21–10 and 21-11, Massachusetts Table 6. Population of Counties by Minor Civil Divisions: 1930 to 1950. Retrieved July 12, 2011. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^"1920 Census of Population"(PDF). Bureau of the Census. Number of Inhabitants, by Counties and Minor Civil Divisions. Pages 21–5 through 21-7. Massachusetts Table 2. Population of Counties by Minor Civil Divisions: 1920, 1910, and 1920. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
^"1890 Census of the Population"(PDF). Department of the Interior, Census Office. Pages 179 through 182. Massachusetts Table 5. Population of States and Territories by Minor Civil Divisions: 1880 and 1890. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
^"1870 Census of the Population"(PDF). Department of the Interior, Census Office. 1872. Pages 217 through 220. Table IX. Population of Minor Civil Divisions, &c. Massachusetts. Archived from the original on August 8, 2010. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
^"About Us". Saintagnesschool.com. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved October 13, 2012.
^"Contact". Saturdays (In-person) Medford High School 489 Winthrop Street Medford, MA 02155 [...] All other days The Japanese Language School Arlington Office 792 Massachusetts Avenue Arlington, MA 02476
^Ron Newman. "Regent Theatre in Arlington, MA". Cinema Treasures. Retrieved May 4, 2014. The Regent Theatre in downtown Arlington is currently used for mostly live performances and some film presentations as well. The Arlington was used primarily as a venue for family and children's films in the mid-1990s.
^"About Us". Arlington-Teosinte Sister City Project. Retrieved September 3, 2021. In 1988 Arlington's Board of Selectmen officially recognized Teosinte, El Salvador as its Sister City [..] In 2005 the relationship was re-established
^"2009 Town Meeting". arlingtonma.gov. Town of Arlington. 2009. Retrieved September 3, 2021. In 2009, Mayor Yutaka Oda from Nagaokakyo, Japan addressed Town Meeting to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the Sister City Relationship between Nagaokakyo and Arlington
Further reading
Somerville, Arlington and Belmont Directory. 1869; 1873; 1876.
_map.jpg)
