Mission Hill, Boston, Massachusetts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mission Hill is a one square mile neighborhood of approximately 18,000 people in Boston, Massachusetts. The neighborhood is roughly bounded by Columbus Avenue and Roxbury to the east, Longwood Avenue to the northeast and the Olmsted designed Riverway/Jamaicaway and the town of Brookline to the west. It is northernly adjacent to the Boston neighborhood Jamaica Plain. It is served by the MBTA Green Line E Branch and the Orange Line and is within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Arts. "The Hill" overlaps with about half of the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, home to 21 world-class health care, research, education institutions and are responsible for the largest employment area in the City of Boston outside of downtown. Due to these adjacenies, the neighborhood is often struggling with institutional growth taking residential buildings and occupying storefront commercial space. But recent years have seen new retail stores, restaurants and residential development giving the neighborhood a stronger political voice and identity.
Mission Hill is an architectural landmark district with a combination of freestanding houses built by early wealthy landowners, blocks of traditional brick rowhouses, and many triple deckers. Many are condominiums, but there are also several two-family and some single-family homes.
Up until the late 19th century, much of the area was an orchard and puddingstone quarry with large swaths owned by merchants Franklin G. Dexter, Warren Fisher and Fredrick Ames. By the early 1900s, the hill was covered in triple-deckers. The neighborhood was also home to a large German population and most of the breweries in Boston, many of which are now being converted into loft condominiums.
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[edit] Geography
The neighborhood has two main commercial streets: Tremont Street (running north and south) and Huntington Ave. (running east and west). Both have several small restaurants and shops. Mission Hill is at the far western end of Tremont Street, with Beacon Hill at the far eastern end. Mission Hill has two main ZIP Codes; the southern half is designated 02120 and the northern area is 02115. Additionally, a very small portion of the southeastern edge uses the code 02130 and two streets on the far western edge use 02215.
Parker Hill, Roxbury Crossing, the Triangle District, Back of The Hill and Calumet Square are areas within the Mission Hill, an official designated neighborhood in Boston (as attested by numerous signs prohibiting parking without a sticker which can be received only by residents). As such, the distinction between Mission Hill and Parker Hill is blurred, with people referring to the whole area as "on Mission Hill."
Brigham Circle, located at the corner of Tremont and Huntington is the neighborhood's commercial center, with a grocery story, drug stores, bistros, banks and taverns. Additionally, two other smaller commercial areas are in the neighborhood: Roxbury Crossing and the corner of Huntington and South Huntington next to the Brookline line.
One block up the hill from Brigham Circle is Boston's newest park, Puddingstone Park[1], created when a new $60-million mixed use building was completed in 2002.
On Tremont Street is Mission Church [2], an eponymous landmark building that dominates the skyline of the area. Also nearby is the newly restored Parker Hill Library [3], the neighborhood branch of the Boston Public Library [4] and designed by architect Ralph Adams Cram in 1929.
Atop the hill is New England Baptist Hospital and Parker Hill Playground, which is also the highest point in the city where you can observe the panoramic view of downtown Boston, Boston Harbor, and the Blue Hills.
[edit] History
Like the easternly adjacent neighborhood of South End, Mission Hill was once considered a sub-neighborhood of adjacent Roxbury, often referenced as Parker Hill (which is the name of the geographic feature in the area). In 1870, the Redemptorist Fathers built a humble wooden mission church that was replaced by an impressive basilica in 1876 from Roxbury puddingstone. In 1910, dual-spires were added that now dominate the skyline. It is one of only 43 basilicas in the United States. Officially named Our Lady of Perpetual Help after the icon of the same name, is uniformly referred to as "Mission Church", even by its own parishioners. Due to a sloping foundation of this landmark, the west cross tops its tower at 215 feet; the other spire is two feet shorter. The length of the church is also 215 feet, presenting a perfect proportion.
There was once an adjacent Catholic high school administered by the parish, that was closed in 1992 and sold off, but the Parochial elementary school still remains. The resulting monies have been used to restore much of the church. The sold buildings are currently planned for luxury condominums.
The neighborhood was once home to large numbers of families of recent Immigrant descent, mostly Irish, but also Germans, Italians and others. After the 1950s, the combined effects of urban renewal, white flight and institutional growth caused many to flee the neighborhood. In the early 1960s the Boston Redevelopment Authority razed several homes in the Triangle District section of the neighborhood to make way for new towers surrounded by parking lots.
Many breweries were once located in Mission Hill, but three periods of Prohibition (1852-1868, 1869-1875 and 1918-1933) and the nations transition from local breweries to national mass-produced brands took their toll on business. Breweries included A.J. Houghton (1870 - 1918) at 37 Station Street, American Brewing Co. (1891-1934), Union Brewing Co. on Terrace Street (1893 - 1911), Roxbury Brewing Co. at 31 Heath Street (1896 - 1899) -- the building is now home to the Family Service of Greater Boston, Croft Brewing Co. (1933 - 1953), Burkhardt Brewing Co. (1850 - 1918), Alley Brewing Co. at 117 Heath Street (1886 - 1918) and the Highland Springs Brewery/Reuter & Co. (1867 - 1918) on Terrace Street -- the building is now referred to as The Pickle Factory and is in planning for conversion to housing.
In the late 1960s, Harvard University bought the wood frame and brick houses along Francis, Fenwood, St. Alban's, Kempton Streets, and part of Huntington Avenue, and announced plans to demolish the buildings. Most were replaced with the Mission Park residential complex of towers and townhomes in 1978 after neighborhood residents organized the Roxbury Tenants of Harvard Association convince Harvard to rebuild. Current long-terms plans by Harvard call for the remaining original buildings to be cleared for further development.
Also in the 1960's the federal government proposed to extend Interstate 95 into the center of Boston and began buying property and demolishing houses in the Roxbury Crossing section of the neighborhood along the Boston and Providence Rail Road. Roxbury Crossing was once a vibrant commercial area with theatres, shops and restruants.
After the Interstate project was shelved by the governor in 1971, Roxbury Crossing had been leveled. Ten years later saw the creation of the Southwest Corridor, a park system with bike and pedestrian trails that lead into the center of Boston. New plans call for the creation of an air-rights building on what is known to the Boston Redevelopment Authority as "Parcel 25".
By the 1980s, the area was deemed dangerous and most White people and affluent Black people had moved away. The 1989 incident involving Charles Stuart further intensified this view. With property values low, many of the homes were bought by slum lords and converted into rental housing. The inexpensive rents brought many students from nearby colleges and universities, especially MassArt, Northeastern University,Wentworth Institute of Technology and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, which has a large studio building in the neighborhood[5]. The Mission Hill Artists Collective now hosts Open Studios [6] in the fall of each year.
As past fears faded by the mid-1990s, the area began to change as homeowners moved into newly converted condominiums to take advantage of the fanastic views of the city and proximity to the Longwood Area, the MBTA and downtown Boston.
Today, the neighborhood is briskly gentiyfying and diversifying in favor of a mix of new luxury condominums and lofts, triple-deckers converted to condominums, surviving student rental units, newly rebuilt public housing, and strong remnants of long-time residents. Racially, Mission Hill is one of the most diverse in the city, with a balance of white, Asian, Hispanic and African-Americans having little conflict along race lines.
Much of the early history of Mission Hill is covered in a 65 minute documentary film, Mission Hill and the Miracle of Boston, which was directed by Richard Broadman and released in 1978. The film recounts the events that led to the Urban Renewal Program in Boston and its aftermath by showing how these events unfolded in Mission Hill.
[edit] Notable Residents, Past and Present
- Maurice Tobin, Boston politician
- Donna Summer, R&B singer
- "A Global Threat" bassist J. Curran
- Mike Ross, Boston City Council Member, whose district covers Beacon Hill, Back Bay, West End, and Mission Hill[7]
- Therese Murray, current and first woman president of the Massachusetts State Legislature [8]
[edit] Neighborhood Groups (external links)
- Mission Hill Artists Collective [9]
- Community Alliance of Mission Hill [10]
- Mission Hill Main Streets [11]
- Sociedad Latina [12]
- Roxbury Tenants of Harvard [13]
- Mission Hill Neighborhood Housing Services [14]
- Boston Redevelopment Authority neighborhood site [15]
- Mission Main Tenant Task Force [16]
[edit] Newspapers
- Mission Hill Gazette [17]
[edit] MBTA Subway Stops
- On the Green Line, E Branch:
- Longwood, Brigham Circle, Fenwood Road, Mission Park, Back of the Hill, Heath Street.
- On the Orange Line:
- Roxbury Crossing, Ruggles Street
The neighborhood is also served by MBTA Bus Route #39 running from Forest Hills in Jamaica Plain to Copley Square and Route #66 running from Dudley Square in Roxbury, through Brookline to Harvard Square in Cambridge. The Urban Ring crosstown route passes through the far eastern corner of the neighborhood along Longwood Avenue and Huntington Avenue.
| Neighborhoods in Boston, Massachusetts |
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Allston/Brighton · Back Bay · Beacon Hill · Charlestown · Chinatown · Dorchester · Downtown Crossing · East Boston · Fenway-Kenmore · Government Center · Hyde Park · Jamaica Plain · Longwood · Mattapan · Mission Hill · North End · Roslindale · Roxbury · South Boston · South End · West End · West Roxbury |
