“ Charlestown was settled in 1629, by a small company from Salem, and was organized as a town in 1634. The territory originally within its limits has from time to time been divided up to form the towns of Woburn, Malden, Stoneham, Burlington, and Somerville, and parts of Medford, Cambridge, Arlington, and Reading. The battle of Bunker Hill was fought here on June 17, 1775, when the British set fire to the town, destroying 320 buildings, valued at $525,000. ”