Magoun Square

Magoun Square is a neighborhood and commercial district located in Somerville, Massachusetts, centered at the intersection of Broadway and Medford Street. Situated within the broader urban fabric of Somerville, the square serves as both a residential community and a focal point for local commerce, dining, and cultural life. Its streets reflect decades of demographic layering, architectural change, and community development that mirror the history of the greater Greater Boston area. The square takes its name from a notable local figure whose legacy is preserved in the area's streetscape and built environment.

History and Origins

The history of Magoun Square is bound up with the development of Somerville as an industrial and residential city during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The square derives its name from Magoun, a figure whose prominence in the area is commemorated by the nearby historic structure that bore the family name. That building's interior was extensively remodeled and altered by subsequent owners over the years, yet original features from its earlier construction have survived, offering a physical connection to the square's founding era.

Like much of Somerville, Magoun Square developed as a working-class and immigrant community through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its streets and buildings accumulated layers of history as successive waves of residents—Italian, Jewish, Irish, and others—established homes, businesses, and community institutions in and around the square. This pattern of settlement gave the neighborhood a dense, multi-ethnic character that would persist and evolve well into the contemporary era.

Geography and Location

Magoun Square is positioned within the northern section of Somerville, placing it in close proximity to Winter Hill, another of Somerville's recognized neighborhood districts. The square's commercial center sits at the convergence of Broadway and Medford Street, two arterial roads that have historically channeled movement through this part of the city. This intersection has given the square its identity as a distinct node within Somerville's neighborhood geography, distinguishing it from adjacent areas while connecting it to the broader urban grid.

The relationship between Magoun Square and Winter Hill is particularly close. The two neighborhoods share demographic patterns, physical borders, and historical development trajectories. Together they have formed a continuous zone of residential and commercial activity in northern Somerville, with Broadway serving as a unifying corridor linking the two districts.

Demographics and Community

Magoun Square and neighboring Winter Hill reflect a demographic composition that has evolved significantly over the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. Historically, the area was home to established communities of Italian-American, Jewish, and Irish residents, whose presence shaped the character of the neighborhood's institutions, businesses, and social life.

In more recent decades, Magoun Square has seen the arrival of Haitian, Latin American, Asian, and Indian populations, who have joined and in some cases reshaped the neighborhood's cultural landscape. This process of demographic change reflects broader patterns of immigration and urban settlement that have transformed many inner-ring suburbs and cities in the Greater Boston region. The coexistence of long-established ethnic communities alongside newer immigrant populations gives Magoun Square a layered cultural character that is visible in its businesses, houses of worship, and street life.

Research conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology has documented this diversity, noting that in Winter Hill and Magoun Square, Haitian, Latin American, Asian, and Indian populations live alongside historic Italian, Jewish, and Irish populations. This documentation underscores the square's standing as a genuinely multicultural neighborhood rather than one defined by a single ethnic or cultural identity.

Architecture and Built Environment

The architectural character of Magoun Square reflects the incremental development patterns typical of Somerville as a whole. Residential streets in and around the square are composed largely of two- and three-family structures, modest single-family homes, and the occasional larger multi-family building, all developed over a span of many decades. The commercial strip along Broadway features ground-floor retail and restaurant spaces beneath upper-floor residential units, a building typology common to streetcar-era commercial corridors throughout New England.

The historic structure associated with the Magoun name stands as one of the more significant individual buildings in the neighborhood's built environment. Though its interior has been substantially altered through the work of subsequent owners, it retains original features that link it to an earlier period of construction and to the broader history of the family whose name the square bears.

Commerce and Dining

The commercial district along Broadway in Magoun Square has attracted a variety of restaurants and businesses that reflect both the neighborhood's heritage and its evolving demographic composition. In recent years, the square has seen the arrival of new dining establishments that have brought increased attention to the area from residents across Somerville and beyond.

Among the notable openings in the early 2020s was Premiere on Broadway, a restaurant offering Italian-American food developed with involvement from Dan Bazzinotti, a chef associated with Eataly. The restaurant, located at 517 Broadway, began serving dinner nightly and attracted coverage from regional media as a significant addition to the square's restaurant scene.

The arrival of Italian-American dining anchored in a culinary tradition with deep roots in the neighborhood's historic demographic composition signals a commercial development trajectory that is attentive to both the neighborhood's past and its contemporary appetite for quality food and drink. The square's commercial corridor has continued to evolve as new operators have identified the area as a viable destination for restaurant and retail ventures.

Relationship to Broader Somerville

Magoun Square occupies a specific position within Somerville's system of recognized neighborhoods and commercial districts. Somerville is a densely populated city immediately northwest of Boston, and its neighborhood squares—of which Magoun is one among several—function as nodes of commercial and civic activity within an otherwise continuous urban fabric. Other well-known squares in Somerville include Davis Square, Union Square, and Teele Square, each with its own character and development history.

Magoun Square has historically occupied a less prominent position in the public imagination than Davis or Union Square, both of which have experienced more intensive commercial development and media attention. However, the square has increasingly registered as a destination in its own right, particularly as new dining and retail establishments have opened along Broadway and as broader trends of neighborhood investment have reached its commercial corridor.

The square's relationship to Winter Hill is especially important for understanding its place within Somerville. The two neighborhoods share a planning history, a demographic profile, and a physical contiguity that make them natural complements. Studies and planning documents that address one area frequently address the other simultaneously, reflecting the degree to which they function as an integrated zone rather than wholly separate entities.

Planning and Development

Magoun Square has been the subject of urban planning attention over the years, particularly in the context of Somerville's broader efforts to manage growth, preserve neighborhood character, and accommodate new development. The square's location along a major commercial corridor makes it a natural focus for planning discussions about streetscape improvement, transit access, and the balance between residential stability and commercial vitality.

Academic and planning documents produced by institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have examined the demographic and physical conditions of Magoun Square and Winter Hill as part of broader studies of Somerville's northern neighborhoods. These studies have contributed to the body of knowledge available to planners, community organizations, and residents seeking to understand and shape the future of the area.

The arrival of new restaurants and commercial establishments in the square in the early 2020s represents one dimension of the ongoing development dynamic in the area, reflecting investor and operator confidence in the neighborhood's trajectory while also raising questions familiar to many urban neighborhoods about the pace and character of change.

Cultural Significance

Magoun Square's cultural significance derives from its position as a place where multiple communities have coexisted and contributed to a shared local identity. The historic Italian, Jewish, and Irish communities that established themselves in the area over the course of the twentieth century left lasting imprints on the neighborhood's built environment, institutions, and social networks. The subsequent arrival of Haitian, Latin American, Asian, and Indian residents has added new dimensions to that cultural landscape without erasing what came before.

This layering of communities over time is characteristic of many urban neighborhoods in the northeastern United States and gives Magoun Square a richness of cultural reference that extends beyond any single ethnic tradition. The square's restaurants, businesses, and street life all reflect this complexity, offering a local environment shaped by multiple histories running in parallel and in dialogue with one another.

The square's commercial revival in the early 2020s, marked by the opening of new restaurants and the media attention that followed, represents a moment of heightened visibility for an area that has long functioned as an active neighborhood center without attracting the wider recognition afforded to some of Somerville's other squares.

See Also

• Somerville, Massachusetts
• Winter Hill, Somerville
• Davis Square
• Union Square, Somerville
• Greater Boston