Best place to fantasize about picking off redcoats

Prospect Hill Tower, in Somerville, isn't hard to find -- just head to Union Square and look up. This impressive, archaic-looking brick monument, which resembles a sort of cross between an armory and a fortress, was erected in 1903 to commemorate the raising of the first American flag there in 1776. Although it isn't usually possible to penetrate into the darkness behind the iron bars -- the tower is opened only once a year, when the flag-raising is reenacted on New Year's Day -- the small green park at the foot of the tower is a sunny spot of greenery, and the walkway around its base commands a highly impressive view of Cambridge and Somerville all the way down to the river (they didn't call it Prospect Hill for nothing). You'll find it hard to suppress a surge of affection as you behold the slightly smog-smeared billboards and narrow rooftops of our fair city from a rather different perspective. So take in an urban sunset or plan a picnic (perhaps a slightly illicit one) on the surprisingly pretty grassy sward -- and remember, you're basking in New England history! True, the occasional empty bottle and scrawled graffiti are ample testimony to the uses to which contemporary local youth put the tower, but, hey, aren't those the freedoms our forefathers fought and died for?

Prospect Hill Tower, Union Square, Somerville.