Locals and visitors to Winter Hill noticed a new street art stencil over Somerville Open Studios weekend. The art marks the location of President Obama’s old basement student apartment at 365 Broadway in Somerville, where he lived while a graduate student at Harvard Law School from 1988-1991.
While the subject of several new stories over the years, the site has never been officially commemorated. In an interview published in The Somerville Times in 2013, the building’s owner Jay Holmes said he planned to erect a marker in front of the building. But as of early 2018 none had yet appeared, leaving the site somewhat of a local secret.
The site has been reported in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Somerville Times, Somerville Patch, and Curbed Boston. Ties to former presidents and Civil Rights leaders have been a source of local pride for Boston, Cambridge and Somerville. President Obama also appears among the famous people with local ties seen in the mural at Cambridge Brewing Company.
