Oh Somerville

Third graders visited all of the School's 28 classrooms to perform the song "Oh Somerville." The song recounts the history of the city, and, according to some long-serving staff, has been performed in Somerville at different points over the past 100 years. It was a great way for kids to learn about Somerville history, but also to work to understand the complex, original language of the song that was written in the early 1900s.

Watch as they perform for first graders:

Here are the words:
Somerville, My Somerville
by Alderman Sydney B. Keene

In Somerville, my Somerville,
Historic home of seven hills.

Somerville, my Somerville
Your fame our hearts with rapture thrills.

Somerville, my Somerville
Here Governor Winthrop came to stay.
And launched the "Blessing of the Bay"
And thus our navy's keel did lay.

In Somerville, my Somerville
Our nation's flag was first unfurled
On Prospect Hill in Somerville,
'Tis honored now o'er all the world.
But most of all in Somerville,
Now on that hill a tower doth rise,
And points triumphant to the sides,
To show that valor never dies.

In Somerville, my Somerville,
our fathers raised their breastworks high.

In Somerville, my Somerville
That Powder House was strong and dry.

In Somerville, my Somerville,
Here on each day the drum was beat.
Here they prepared the foe to meet,
And bugle never called retreat.