Davis Square

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Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts

Davis Square is a square in Somerville, Massachusetts, located around the intersection of Holland Street, Dover Street, Day Street, Elm Street, Highland Avenue, and College Avenue, but is often more broadly used to refer to the neighborhood which centers on the square encompassing parts of both Somerville and Cambridge. It is located within walking distance of Tufts University, Ball Square, Porter Square, Powder House Square, Teele Square and the main campus and law school of Harvard University. The Davis Square T station is one of the stops on the Red Line of the MBTA. The Somerville Community Path runs right through the middle of the square on a former rail line, leading to the popular Minuteman Bikeway. The cobblestone square now attracts families in the summer who congregate outside the ice cream parlor, JP Licks listening to musicians and people watching. The Somerville Arts Council's popular ArtBeat festival takes place here every year on the third weekend of July, while the HONK! Festival of activist brass bands occurs here every October, on Columbus Day weekend. The historic Somerville Theatre is located in the Square.

In 1997, Davis Square was listed by the Utne Reader as one of the fifteen "hippest places to live" in the United States.^[1]

In 2005, The Boston Globe reported the first million dollar condo sale in Davis Square, which represented a major psychological change for a neighborhood known for being budget friendly.^[2]

Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts

Today, Davis Square is a mix of the old and the new. Restaurants, coffee shops, and stores catering to students and young urban professionals coexist with working class diners and tailors that predate Davis Square's trendy period.^{[citation needed]}

The Public Radio International show, Living on Earth is recorded in its studios in Davis Square. For five years, the Jimmy Tingle Off-Broadway Theater boasted a variety of nationally and regionally known acts, both comedic and musical, including Jimmy Tingle himself, but closed at the end of October 2007.^[3]

Davis Square gets its name from Person Davis (1819-1894), whose 10 acre estate contained the present-day Davis Square.^[4]