A bike tour of historic Somerville, 5.22.2004 -- Page 3

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Next stop, more telephony history. The white-grey house barely visible behind Dick Bauer (in orange) is the Cutler Downer House. Cutler Downer was a prominent developer in Somerville. His son, Roswell, had the first commercial telephone in America installed in this house. I took a quick detour away from the rest of the riders and took this photo. I thought the sign on the right-hand telephone pole was totally cool: "Vendors prohibit from ringing bells and blowing horns". What vendor from what era inspired that admonition?

Our second rest stop took place in the beautiful Samuel and Anna Darling House. This house is another wonderful Victorian which had been rehabbed by sensitive new owners, in this case an architect. The interior was simply beautiful. On the outside, our accompanying officer kept a close eye on our bikes. After our second refreshment, we are again ready to ride on.

Down the street from our rest stop, we rode by Temple Bnai Brith, a synagogue designed in the classic Rundbogenstil (Romanesque revival style), which became popular in Germany for many types of civic buildings late 19th century. This temple was constructed in 1922. We rode to the top of Winter Hill with nary a word about Whitey and all that. Here we are gather by the Adams-Magoun House (behind the camera), listing to a talk about the Somerville planning commission, and how they had not been around in the 1970s to prevent the erection of ugly buildings like the one in the background.

The Adams-Magoun House. It was built by Joseph Adams, scion of the famous Adams family who contributed much to the United States, including the architecture of our Constitution and two presidents. Next we rode to Tufts University, the home of the Jumbos! Here, Ron Newman uses our view of the trash bins to talk about about recycling policy at Tufts. :-)

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Next stop, more telephony history. The white-grey house barely visible behind Dick Bauer (in orange) is the Cutler Downer House. Cutler Downer was a prominent developer in Somerville. His son, Roswell, had the first commercial telephone in America installed in this house.	I took a quick detour away from the rest of the riders and took this photo. I thought the sign on the right-hand telephone pole was totally cool: "Vendors prohibit from ringing bells and blowing horns". What vendor from what era inspired that admonition?


Our second rest stop took place in the beautiful Samuel and Anna Darling House. This house is another wonderful Victorian which had been rehabbed by sensitive new owners, in this case an architect. The interior was simply beautiful. On the outside, our accompanying officer kept a close eye on our bikes.	After our second refreshment, we are again ready to ride on.


Down the street from our rest stop, we rode by Temple Bnai Brith, a synagogue designed in the classic Rundbogenstil (Romanesque revival style), which became popular in Germany for many types of civic buildings late 19th century. This temple was constructed in 1922.	We rode to the top of Winter Hill with nary a word about Whitey and all that. Here we are gather by the Adams-Magoun House (behind the camera), listing to a talk about the Somerville planning commission, and how they had not been around in the 1970s to prevent the erection of ugly buildings like the one in the background.


The Adams-Magoun House. It was built by Joseph Adams, scion of the famous Adams family who contributed much to the United States, including the architecture of our Constitution and two presidents.	Next we rode to Tufts University, the home of the Jumbos! Here, Ron Newman uses our view of the trash bins to talk about about recycling policy at Tufts. :-)