Winter Hill, Somerville, Massachusetts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Winter Hill is a neighborhood in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Located roughly north of Highland Avenue in Somerville, Massachusetts, Winter Hill is home to a mix of lovingly restored homes and aluminium-sided fixer-uppers, replete with china gnomes and bath-tub Virgin Marys. Once known as the home base of Irish gangsters Whitey Bulger (currently on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list), James "Buddy" McLean, Howie Winter and the notorious Winter Hill Gang, Winter Hill is now, like much of the rest of Somerville, experiencing gentrification and a resulting rise in property values and rents. Despite these changes, the area continues to hang onto its neighborhood flavor and is home to a large community of Brazilians, Portuguese, Cape Verdeans, and other ethnic groups.
The area also has a substantial gang problem with MS13 members and others such as Crips, Bloods, and Latin Kings attempting to take over the area. On January 30, 2003, several MS13 members raped a young deaf girl [1].
The Theater Coop, one of the Boston area's few new repertory live theaters, is located between Foss Park and the local supermarket. There is also a community pottery studio called Mudflat and a collective of stained glass artists called Daniel Maher Stained Glass.
Winter Hill also has many old Somerville favorites such as The Paddock restaurant on Pearl Street, Mama Lisa's, Leone's, and Primo's pizza establishments, the Winter Hill Bakery, and Maria's Italian Cold Cuts. Soccer is a popular pastime, and it is not uncommon to see leagues complete with matching uniforms, as well as many of the new immigrants from Brazil and Latin America in shirts-against-skins games, playing in Foss park next to Interstate 93, at the base of Winter Hill. The park also has a large, colorful mural painted behind the public swimming pool.
A planned extension of the Green Line to the Winter Hill area is possible, specifically with a station at Medford Street, though construction has been pushed back to 2012 and no final path has been agreed upon. Beyond Lechmere Planning
