From Dave Brigham:
Welcome to the first of several posts about Somerville, Mass., a city once derided as "Slummerville" that has become a hot market for residential and commercial properties in recent years. Today's installment covers, as you may have guessed by reading the headline, the Winter Hill neighborhood and its Gilman Square area.
Pro: Gilman Square recently became one of the newest stops on the MBTA's Green line, part of a long-awaited extension running beyond Lechmere station. This is great for Somerville residents, local businesses and the environment.
Con: I should have checked out this neighborhood a decade ago, before some of the industrial buildings that I love to shoot were torn down.
Pro: I still found plenty of interesting things both in Gilman Square and Winter Hill as a whole. The proof is below.
Con: I found locations where the Winter Hill Gang once hung out, back in the latter third of last century.
See what I did there?
Let's start out in Gilman Square, which is located in the south-central area of Winter Hill, not far from Somerville City Hall and the high school.
As I mentioned, this neighborhood has changed in recent years, and more changes are on the way, which I will discuss below. The square is one of the smaller ones in Somerville. "The Boston and Lowell Railroad came to the area in the mid 19th century, and rapid property development followed," according to Wikipedia. "By the turn of the century, Gilman Square featured a public green surrounded by four-story commercial buildings."
I recall when the square looked that way, but I didn't pay much mind to it. I lived in Somerville from January of 1995 to November of 1997, and drove through here on occasion. More recently, I drove through here once in a while when out on long drives trying to get one or or the other of my kids to take a nap. At least two buildings that I saw back then are gone: A+ Auto Body, at the intersection of Medford and Walnut streets; and the Homans Building, where Pearl Street merges into Medford Street.
I walked past the old A+ Auto Body site, which was also known as Hill-Michie Co. Auto Garage, and found some ruins.
While the garage was found to be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, that wasn't enough to save it. A report prepared by the Green Line Extension project of the MBTA found that the building was likely the oldest auto garage and car dealership in Somerville. Nevertheless, it was torn down. I'm not sure whether anything will be built in its place. The site looms over the new train tracks (and older commuter train tracks), as well as a part of the Somerville Community Path that is under construction.
As for the Homans Building, it was razed to make way for the new above-ground Green line train station.
"Built in 1929, the building originally served as a distribution facility for Chicago-based company Monarch Finer Foods," according to the above-linked Patch article. "The concrete lion face on the façade, Monarch's trademark, was removed...and will be reincorporated into the Gilman Square neighborhood."
I'm glad that the city and state made an effort to preserve a little piece of Gilman Square's history. The area where the Homans building once stood will serve as an entrance to the station, as well as a park.
To see photos of the old warehouse, check out this Flickr link.
After I run through the cool stuff I found in Gilman Square, I'll talk a little about what the future holds for this neighborhood. Below that, I will feature more from the rest of the Winter Hill area.
Sarma, a small-plates restaurant focused on Mediterranean flavors, is run by Cassie Piuma, who worked for many award-winning chefs before opening this joint in 2013; and Ana Sortun, a Boston food scene bigwig who also operates Oleana and Sofra Bakery, and who has authored cookbooks.
This space was formerly occupied by The Paddock, another foodie destination that had been in business for many years. Sarma has a fantastic exterior mural of an octopus, which is featured on the menu.
The restaurant is located in what is known as the Litchfield Block, which was built in 1891.
"In 1892 the building was occupied by James Litchfield, a grocer who may have been responsible for constructing this block," according to MACRIS. "Between 1914 and 1933 the building had a hardware store and a Western Union office. Professional and residential tenants included a female dentist, a music teacher, two railroad engineers, and a barber."
Sounds like a fun bunch!
Continuing east on Pearl Street, we come to a building with both an awesome present and an interesting past.
Known historically as the New England Telephone Building, or the Telephone Switching Building, this yellow-brick Colonial Revival beauty on the corner of Pearl and Bradley streets was built in 1904. It was the main exchange for the New England Telephone Company from 1904-1933, according to MACRIS. "The Bradley Street exchange handled 14,250 calls per day, was the fourth largest suburban exchange, and employed twenty-three operators and seven mechanics," MACRIS continues.
Today it's a live/work space for dozens of artists, and is known as Mad Oyster Studios.
Just steps away is a church located in a circa-1930 building that used to be...apartments? A store? An engine shop?
I believe that Eglise Evangelique Bethel de Somerville (Bethel Evangelical Church of Somerville) is a Haitian congregation.
Heading east-southeast, I knew I wanted to make a photo of Mudville, a pottery studio that I've driven past many times over the years.
Located at the intersection of Pearl Street and McGrath Highway/Route 28, Mudville was established in 1974, "teaching the basics of pottery to generations of people new to clay," per its web site. The studio closed at some point, but was for a while "available to people familiar with Mudville who are able to work independently," per the web site.
The founder, Nan Hamilton, died in November 2021, so I assume the business is now totally shut down.
The building dates to 1940. I'm not sure what it's prior uses were.
I headed back toward the heart of Gilman Square on the south side of Pearl Street, which is where I found the former Kemp Nut Company building.
Now comprised of at least some artist studios, 226 Pearl Street was built sometime between 1917 and 1924, according to various sources I've found online. It was used to manufacture nut products, and also as a residence for company founder Edward F. Kemp, per MACRIS. The company eventually expanded into a former auto body shop at 100 Walnut Street (now a park), and also used a building along the railroad tracks and a separate shipping building somewhere in Gilman Square, per MACRIS. Kemp's shelled, roasted and salted nuts were sold throughout New England, including at the company's own Golden Glow Shops, MACRIS indicates.
A few doors down is Great Eastern Vintage, which features two fantastic works of art on the exterior.
Diana Ross (top) and Josephine Baker (bottom) were painted by Massiel Grullón. These works represent her first solo exterior murals, per her Instagram page.
Back in the heart of the square, I was dazzled by the artwork on the stairs leading across a small swatch of green space from Pearl Street to Medford Street.
Painted by Liz LaManche, the work is called "The Soul's Journey As A Series of Weird Old Cars." "I made it to honor the late Al Riskalla, longtime friend and owner of ABJ Auto nearby," LaManche says on her web site. "He was beloved in our community for his years of kindness, humor and honesty, creating a safe congenial space & fixing cars affordably for those in need. The design represents the soul’s journey to enlightenment, as a series of old cars. Rainbow tire tracks lead up to the stairs."
Make sure to check out that web link, as you'll get the full effect of the vivid colors when this work was first painted.
The showpiece of Gilman Square is unlike any building I've seen, and I wish I'd made better photos. I was fighting the sun and shadows and the sheer mass of this place.
Known alternately as the Malta Temple and the Signet Commandery, this 1902 Classical Revival building features a "large copper clad relief of a mounted knight...flanked by two small copper clad relief panels of a cross (left) and crown (right)," per MACRIS. The relief gives the building a real sense of intrigue and power. This four-story "orange brick building with brownstone, terra cotta, and copper trim" was built by the "Knights of Malta, a fraternal organization founded in 1896, which, by 1901, had a membership of between 200-300," per MACRIS.
Similar in organization and practice to the Masons, the Knights of Malta was "introduced into America in 1844 by Charles McClintock and George H. Pearce," per the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Libraty's web site. The organization's stated purpose was to “unite men under the most binding forms, to comfort one another in the practice of Christian religion...to promote Protestant unity, and to defend the Protestant faith against all foes whatsoever.” The group also provided mutual sickness and death benefits to its members.
In its heyday, the temple "featured a three room bowling alley in the basement, four stores on the first floor with rear entrances, and a billiard room which connected to the basement bowling alley," according to MACRIS. "The second floor was occupied by offices in the front, with a 40 X 50 foot assembly hall in the rear. The hall had a stage, ladies parlor, toilet rooms, and ticket offices, as well as a folding partition to create two small halls. The third floor housed the Knights of Malta apartments and included a commandery room, a coat room, double parlors with large fireplaces and a smoking room. The fourth floor housed a 350 person dining hall and kitchen."
A commandery is a district controlled by a commander of certain medieval orders of knights, per Dictionary.com. I bet the Knights of Malta in Gilman Square had some fancy-ass outfits they would wear in and around the commandery.
These days, this impressive slab of a building is occupied by East Cambridge Piano, which has been in business since 1978; and Boston Billiard Emporium, which has been around since 1972.
Next to the Commandery, in a small lot in front of an apparently out-of-use commercial garage, I spied a really nice example of one of the only American-designed, mass-produced passenger cars with rear-mounted, air-cooled engines (thanks Wikipedia).
That's a Chevrolet Corvair, a first generation model, produced sometime between 1960 and 1964. I hope somebody gets this thing running soon.
Heading up School Street, just southwest of the train tracks, is a nice old apartment building.
Known alternately as The Montrose and the George Goodrich Apartment Building, this fantastic Colonial Revival/Queen Anne rose in 1894. "According to late 19th century drawings, the Montrose was built in the Queen Anne Style with four turrets, which have been removed," according to MACRIS. "Today it resembles a Classical Revival block of three and four stories built into the hill with a high raised brick basement and four projecting bays, two central ones flanking the entrance and one on each end."
MACRIS continues: "The frame apartment building...is somewhat unusual in that the owner / speculator also lived at the Montrose. George Goodrich is listed in City Directories as dealing in drain and sewer pipes. The Montrose was one of 45 apartment 'hotels' listed in the early 20th century directories and had many salesmen and clerks living here."
The final shot from Gilman Square is of a type that I don't usually make: an interior shot.
I was taken by the cozy kitchen of Brianna's Cafe, which is located on Medford Street, next to St. Ann Catholic Church. It is run by a husband-and-wife team who came to this country from El Salvador.
Before I get to the rest of Winter Hill, I want to talk about proposed changes for Gilman Square, now that it has a light-rail station that will allow easier access to Medford and Boston and beyond. Any time a new transportation option opens, new residents and businesses almost assuredly follow.
The two sites of interest are: the Triangle, located where Medford and Pearl streets come together at a point, abutting a large brick apartment building called Pearl Street Park; and 350 Medford Street, former site of the Homans Building. The City of Somerville owns both of these sites, and has conducted Zoom meetings and resident surveys to find consensus around what types of buildings should be constructed, and how high they should be.
According to the Gilman Square Station Area Plan completed in 2014, "A consensus solidified around a vision that Gilman Square's future should resemble its past: a neighborhood square that offered a mix of service, employment, cultural, and transportation options to residents of the station area."
In a 2021 Zoning Feasibility & Massing Study conducted by the city, 36% of survey respondents preferred buildings to be four stories or shorter; 59% of respondents liked the idea of six-story buildings; half of these respondents, or approximately 30% of the total, were open to buildings taller than six stories; and many preferred taller buildings to be closer to the Green Line Station than Medford Street.
I'm not sure what the next steps in the process are.
In a 2014 Gilman Square Station Area Plan, there was a proposal to add a central green between the Triangle and the Malta Temple. I'm not sure whether that is still being considered.
OK, let's get to the rest of Winter Hill, which has a sordid past and, like Gilman Square, a future that includes redevelopment plans. I'll get to that below.
My tour of this neighborhood begins at the Deanna Cremin Playground, located at the corner of Otis Street and Route 28.
This lovely little play space was created in memory of Deanna Cremin, a 17-year-old Somerville girl who was murdered on March 30, 1995, a crime that has never been solved. When the playground popped up on Google Maps, I knew I had to check it out and feature it. I moved to Somemrville in late January/early February of 1995, and remember this horrible crime, as well as the murder of Janet Downing by 15-year-old Eddie O'Brien that summer in the city.
These were both horrible crimes, and I'm surprised that a) no one has been charged in Deanna's murder, although the police seemed to have at least three suspects, and b) Eddie O'Brien was convicted on what seemed to be bad evidence, and with the existence of a suspect who seemed to have motive and access.
Boston music legend Willie "Loco" Alexander wrote a song about Deanna's murder, which one of my favorite local acts, Slide (R.I.P.) recorded.
Now I'm going to the top of Winter Hill, where, at the intersection of Broadway and Main Street, I spied a small salon that's been out of business for a while.
The main building dates to 1921; the little addition for Lourdes Beauty Salon might be from a more recent time.
The hair-care business was established in 1984. The sign looks like it could be fairly new. Currently, the space is for lease.
Strolling southeast along Broadway, I flashed on a relatively minor historic fact about a Very Important Person. I did a quick Google search while stopped along the sidewalk, confirming what, as it turns out, I didn't need to look up after all.
Barack Obama lived at 365 Broadway from 1988 to 1991 while he attended Harvard Law School, which is located about 2.5 miles away in Cambridge.
The house was already historic before the future 44th President of the United States moved in. Known as the Langmaid Terrace, this Queen Anne-style rowhouse was built in 1893, and is "one of the most interesting [residential buildings] architecturally and still commands attention on the busy thoroughfare," per MACRIS. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The photo below showcases a culture clash the likes of which you see all around Boston and its suburbs.
In the foreground is The Pilates Rx, a "concierge studio offering private Pilates instruction and physical therapy & pelvic health services for the modern athlete," per its web site. This business is focused, most likely, on newer, younger Somerville residents who are more inclined to pursue physical fitness. In the background is Winter Hill Liquor Mart, which has been in business since 1974 and has a nice sign that may go back to that date.
Both of these types of places are important to Winter Hill, as they are to any neighborhood. The world works best when there are different types of people doing different things, for different reasons, at different points in their lives. Right?
Anyway, the liquor store building dates to 1910.
That brings me to a long-abandoned grocery store located across a parking lot behind the liquor mart, and the future of this part of Winter Hill.
Shuttered in 2006, the Star Market was located in a building from the 1960s, and left the neighborhood with no grocery store for many years. There is a Stop & Shop not far away, in East Somerville. I'm not sure how long that has been there.
The City of Somerville acquired the old Star Market property by eminent domain after the prior owner, who wanted to bring an Ocean State Job Lot to the site, lost a zoning decision and an appeal. The city hired Mark Development, whose portfolio includes the Trio apartment development in Newton and The Landing in Hudson, to develop the site, which has been dubbed Temple Square, after an abutting street.
Mark Development recently announced that its plan for underground parking at the proposed 299 Broadway project in Winter Hill hit a major roadblock in the form of previously unknown asbestos on the site, according to The Somerville Times.
Mark Development planned to request a waiver from the Zoning Board of Appeals for a percentage of future residents to gain on-street parking, according to the Times article. I'm not sure the status of that waiver, or the project.
In November 2016, the City of Somerville completed its Winter Hill Neighborhood Plan, which calls for rejuvenating Broadway as a commercial thoroughfare, and reconnecting Winter Hill to the rest of Somerville, physically and culturally. Additional ideas include adding affordable housing, increasing office space and making the area more pedestrian-, cycle- and transit-friendly, per the Plan.
Other properties mentioned in the Neighborhood Plan as possible redevelopment sites include one along Broadway that is currently home to CareWell Urgent Care and Winter Hill Bank. Formerly a car dealership, the site dubbed Whitcomb Place would, under the plan, be redeveloped with three buildings with a total of up to 130 units and 8,700 square feet of retail space.
Another site is what the City has termed the Brewery Block, named for the Winter Hill Brewing Company. This area encompasses the block along Broadway between Marshall and School streets, and includes a Citizens Bank, the brewery, a post office, a one-story retail building and some houses. According to the plan, "In this redesign, the Citizen's Bank, post office addition, and Winter Hill Bakery redevelopment are mixed use - with first floor retail and residential above with potential for up to 81 new units."
Many cities undertake these plans to demonstrate what a given area could look like given the right circumstances and some advanced planning. I have no idea whether any of these ideas will come to fruition.
Let's back it up a bit.
The post office building dates to 1911, according to MACRIS. "George Fletcher was one of the first occupants of the building and may have even built the property," MACRIS indicates. "Fletcher was a photographer and had his studio on the third floor where he made use of the large center skylight. From 1927 to the present the Post Office has occupied the ground floor."
(Mural on the side of the post office.)
(Graffiti on the rear of the post office.)
Next door, the space that is now Winter Hill Bakery has a strong connection to the aforementioned sordid past of Winter Hill.
In the gangland days, this was a bar called Pal Joey's, where kingpin Howie Winter and his associates in the Winter Hill Gang hung out. In "business" from the 1950s into the 1990s, the gang was involved in all the nefarious things one thinks of when thinking of the mob: gambling, murder, gun-running. Winter was the boss from 1965, after prior leader James "Buddy" McLean was killed, until 1978, when he was sent to prison.
I won't go into all the details of the gang, but suffice it to say its members included infamous Boston bad guys such as Johnny Martorano, Patrick Nee, Stephen Flemmi and, of course, James "Whitey" Bulger, who took over the operation after Winter went to prison, and moved it to South Boston.
For more insight into the gang, check out the '60 Minutes" segment below featuring Martorano, the notorious hit man for the Winter Hill mob.
As for the bakery's building, 310-318 Broadway, it's a former theater. The building doesn't look at all like it once hosted vaudeville shows, moving pictures, lectures and other events. But, according to MACRIS, it did.
"The 310-318 Broadway site was owned in the 1870s by the Broadway Methodist Episcopal Church who built a chapel on the site," according to MACRIS. "In the early 1880s the church experienced financial problems and sold the property to W.H. Cushman and moved across Broadway to a location near Temple Street. In 1881 Cushman remodeled the chapel into a public hall for the production of amature dramatics, exhibitions, and lectures. As originally designed the building had a 16'x 22' stage, and a main entrance created on Marshall Street with ticket office and coat check room."
(The Marshall Street main entrance to what was once known as the Broadway Theater.)
"Double doors separated the entrance from the hall proper which seated about 500 people," MACRIS continues. "By 1900 the building had a restaurant (located in the projecting bay on Marshall Street), and five stores facing Broadway. In 1910 the theater, one of only two in the City, was known as the Broadway Theater. It featured both vaudeville acts and moving pictures and remained in business until 1917. Although in poor repair, the building is the oldest public theater in Somerville."
At some point, the Broadway Theater opened (scroll down a bit on this link) further east-southeast on Broadway, in East Somerville. I will talk about that building in a future post about that neighborhood.
Now we're going to head toward the bottom of Broadway, and then work our way back up.
The Red Tiger Academy of Martial Arts has been in business for more than 20 years. I'm guessing this sign is roughly that old.
There are three mom-and-pop shops along Broadway specializing in Italian food.
Alfredo's Italian Kitchen has been here since 2012. These folks also operate a restaurant in South Boston.
In between Alfredo's and Leone's, which I'll talk about in a minute, down a back alley, is Moe Fencing Club
As you can see, the fencing club is located in the space once occupied by Bontronics, which was an audio/video equipment renting/leasing/design operation.
Leone's Sub and Pizza, which has a fantastic sign, has been family-owned and operated since 1954.
Mamma Lisa's Pizzeria has been cranking out pies for more than 40 years.
Now we return to the Winter Hill Gang (not to be confused with the Sugarhill Gang.)
Leone's was around during the entire Winter Hill Gang regime. In the '60s and '70s, if someone had gone out the back door of the pizza place and looked across the parking lot, perhaps they would have seen members of the Winter Hill Gang hanging out at an auto body shop, which was located at 12 Marshall Street.
Now home to Greater Works Church of God Somerville, this is the former home of Marshall Motors, where the Winter Hill Gang had its headquarters. After years (decades?) as a notorious den of iniquity, including a trap door where people were threatened, intimidated and sometimes killed (the "60 Minutes" video above features footage taken in the old auto body shop), this circa-1925 building was converted to a church in 2010.
I hope you enjoyed this tour through the past and present of Winter Hill. Stay tuned in the near future for posts about Magoun and Ball squares, and East Somerville and the Inner Belt.
For more about Whitey Bulger, see August 27, 2020, "Circling Andrew Square," and November 17, 2014, "Whitey Wuz Here."
For more Somerville coverage, check out my Union Square series from 2019/2020:
Union Square, Somerville, Part I: New Purposes & Grease Monkeys
Union Square, Somerville, Part II: Factories and Housing
Union Square, Somerville, Part III: Retail and Hangouts
Union Square, Somerville, Part IV: Holy
Union Square, Somerville, Part V: The Future?
Also check out the posts below:
November 3, 2019, "East Cambridge-ish Randoms"
April 7, 2016, "Sweet and Junky"
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