"The large Armenian Church in the area was originally on Shawmut Street in Boston, but later moved to Watertown," Russell says.
The relocation of the church solidified Watertown's position as the center of Armenian culture in New England.
"Armenians used to hold communal picnics there," Russell says.
Armenians were recognized in the Middle East as accomplished artists and musicians and they brought that tradition with them to Watertown.
Arshile Gorky, an Armenian refugee who settled in Watertown, was an abstract impressionist painter and studied at the Boston New School of Design in 1924.
He would sit and paint on the banks of the Charles River each Sunday.
One of his more famous works was a painting of the Park Street Church in Boston, which has been displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
After the Armenian community established itself in Watertown, its members began to surface in various American political movements.
"During the 1930s the Armenians were involved in all kinds of radical politics," Russell says. "Anarchists, Moscow-style communists--there were even Armenian Trotskyites."
"Cultural life was extremely rich, even though it was the Depression," he says.
Several Armenian-American newspapers reflecting different political viewpoints were published daily in Watertown at that time, he says.
One example was the Hayrenik, "the organ of the Armenian Revolutionary Foundation, a nationalist political party with a socialist program," Russell says.
The publication was read by Armenians worldwide, and was printed daily until the 1970s, he says.