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Watson's Corner

Coordinates: 42°23′33.6″N 71°7′29.9″W / 42.392667°N 71.124972°W / 42.392667; -71.124972
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Watson's Corner is the historical name for an intersection in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the corner of Rindge Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue. It was part of a wider area called Watson's Plain in colonial and Revolutionary War times and well into the 19th century.[1]

Watson's Corner gained notability on account of a skirmish that occurred there on April 19, 1775 in connection with the Battles of Lexington and Concord. A marker at 2154 Massachusetts Avenue commemorates the skirmish.[2] An account of this event from the Cambridge city website[3] describes the scene thus:[4]

At Watson’s Corner (the present intersection of Rindge and Massachusetts avenues) Cambridge patriots lay in wait behind a pile of barrels, but were surprised by flanking redcoats. John Hicks and Moses Richardson of Cambridge and Isaac Gardner of Brookline were killed, as was William Marcy, a "simple-minded youth" who thought he was watching a parade.[3]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge: Northwest Cambridge, 1977, ISBN 0-262-53032-5, Cambridge Historical Commission, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pp. 14-16, 39
  2. ^ "Watson's Corner" (PDF). Cambridge Historical Commission et al. 2000. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  3. ^ a b "The American Revolution Comes to Cambridge, Part III: Retreat: Deadly Skirmishes in North Cambridge" Archived May 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 1 May 2016
  4. ^ An obvious typo has been corrected.

42°23′33.6″N 71°7′29.9″W / 42.392667°N 71.124972°W / 42.392667; -71.124972