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jakeXT

(10,575 posts)
Sun Apr 21, 2013, 02:33 PM Apr 2013

Watertown Is No “Sleepy Town”


WATERTOWN, Mass. — If you watched Friday's manhunt unfold on Twitter or TV, you might think it was the most exciting thing to ever happen in Watertown. A Chechen teenager suspected of bombing the 117th Boston Marathon ditched a stolen car and fled into this relatively unknown suburb, bringing 9,000 city, state and federal officers with him. The officers — one for every three Watertown residents — filled the town's streets, ordering residents to "shelter in place" for nearly 12 hours. There was a tense search, a tenser standoff, and a thrilling conclusion. You might assume this was the biggest story to ever hit the sleepy, sleepy town.

But then you'd be laughed at by the town's librarians.

They don't mean to belittle Friday's events or the work of those 9,000 officers, "but Watertown has over 375 years of history," one librarian told BuzzFeed, speaking anonymously, in compliance with library policy. "There's the Revolutionary War, for starters."

Watertown was founded in 1630, one month before Boston — though they were named on the same day, the librarian pointed out. When the British Army seized Boston in 1775, the Massachusetts government relocated to Watertown. The general court convened inside a house five blocks away from where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was hiding. Sam Adams lived here. Paul Revere lived here. George Washington passed through here. One of the earliest versions of American currency — used to pay soldiers — was printed here.

Watertown was one of the first American towns to protest taxation without representation — in 1632, its citizens refused to pay a tax benefiting neighboring Cambridge. The United States' first international treaty was signed here with the Mi'kmaq Indian nation, 15 days after the Declaration of Independence.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jtes/watertown-is-no-sleepy-town
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Watertown Is No “Sleepy Town” (Original Post) jakeXT Apr 2013 OP
Thanks for the history lesson. longship Apr 2013 #1
From the video of an 'illegal' search in V & MM, it's a lovely neighborhood. freshwest Apr 2013 #2
Good find, thanks for posting. freshwest Apr 2013 #3
thanks jakeXT Cha Apr 2013 #4

freshwest

(53,661 posts)
2. From the video of an 'illegal' search in V & MM, it's a lovely neighborhood.
Sun Apr 21, 2013, 03:10 PM
Apr 2013

Great history lesson in this OP.

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