Savin Hill is a section of
Dorchester, the largest neighborhood of
Boston, Massachusetts,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
Named after the geographic feature it covers and surrounds, Savin Hill is about one square mile in area, and has a population of about 15,000 people. Savin Hill Beach and Malibu Beach are nearby and are a resource for surrounding communities. Rail and bus routes give access to and from Savin Hill, especially the
Savin Hill station
Savin Hill station is a rapid transit station in Boston, Massachusetts. It serves the Ashmont branch of the MBTA's Red Line. It is located at 121 Savin Hill Avenue adjacent to Sydney Street in the Savin Hill area of the Dorchester neighborhood ...
.
It is the home of the Savin Hill Yacht Club which was founded in 1875 as the ''Savin Hill Beach Association'' but later changed its name in 1888. The club is located off
Morrissey Boulevard
Morrissey Boulevard is a six-lane divided coastal road in the Dorchester, Boston, Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is owned and maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).
Route descrip ...
, a main artery in the area.
History
The Neponset Indians, a part of the larger
Massachusett
The Massachusett were a Native American tribe from the region in and around present-day Greater Boston in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name comes from the Massachusett language term for "At the Great Hill," referring to the Blue Hills ...
tribe, spent their summers in Savin Hill for centuries before the arrival of Europeans.
Captain John Smith
John Smith (baptized 6 January 1580 – 21 June 1631) was an English soldier, explorer, colonial governor, Admiral of New England, and author. He played an important role in the establishment of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the first pe ...
of Virginia, the first English settler in America, visited Dorchester in 1614, and had commerce with the Neponset Indians.
Savin Hill was settled and founded in June 1630, just a few months before Boston was settled.
The first non-native people arriving in the area were
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
s who came on the "Mary and John" from England. They had formerly settled further south on the coast, in the
Hull area, before moving north to a hill overlooking a protected harbor, now called
Dorchester Bay.
They landed in boats and built a settlement for approximately 140 people near what is today the intersection of Grampian Way and Savin Hill Avenue. Originally, the area was named Rock Hill.
By the 1780s, the name changed to Old Hill, a time when the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
was in its infancy.
The original boundary of Dorchester extended almost to the
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
border. As time went on, settlements broke away and the geographical size of the town continued to shrink until 1870, when it disappeared on paper. In that year, the town of Dorchester was incorporated into the city of Boston, and the name became the designation of a neighborhood. By then, the rocky hill where the Puritans first settled had changed its name again, this time to Savin Hill.
Joseph Tuttle, a local innkeeper, who had opened a luxurious hotel at what is today the intersection of Savin Hill Avenue and Tuttle Street, invented the new title "Savin Hill" in 1819, which he named after the
red juniper
''Juniperus virginiana'', also known as red cedar, eastern red cedar, Virginian juniper, eastern juniper, red juniper, and other local names, is a species of juniper native to eastern North America from southeastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico a ...
trees (
Savin trees) that grew abundantly in the area.
After the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, the Worthington family, who owned most of the land in present-day Savin Hill, started selling house lots. At that time, most of the Victorian homes that line the slope of the hill were constructed.
![Situationsplan von Boston (Massachusetts)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Situationsplan_von_Boston_%28Massachusetts%29.jpg)
Transportation influenced the development of the neighborhood. The Shawmut Branch Railroad provided a connection to downtown Boston starting in 1872. It was soon acquired by the
Old Colony Railroad
The Old Colony Railroad (OC) was a major railroad system, mainly covering southeastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island, which operated from 1845 to 1893. Old Colony trains ran from Boston to points such as Plymouth, Fall River, ...
.
Savin Hill Station
Savin Hill station is a rapid transit station in Boston, Massachusetts. It serves the Ashmont branch of the MBTA's Red Line. It is located at 121 Savin Hill Avenue adjacent to Sydney Street in the Savin Hill area of the Dorchester neighborhood ...
became part of Boston's rapid transit network in 1927, now operated as the
MBTA Red Line
The Red Line is a rapid transit line operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) as part of the MBTA subway system. The line runs south and east underground from Alewife station in North Cambridge through Somerville and Camb ...
.
When it was separated from the ocean by Morrissey Boulevard in the early 1930s, Savin Hill became a clearly defined area within Dorchester. The distinct nature of the hill itself was made more evident by the trench of the
Southeast Expressway (Interstate 93) in the late 1950s. Today, this original area is often referred to as Savin Hill "over the bridge," meaning on the east side of where Savin Hill Avenue bridges the Expressway. The full section commonly designated Savin Hill now runs as far west as Pleasant Street, and north-south from Columbia Road to Hancock Street.
Its relative isolation, solid and often historically significant housing stock, and proximity to downtown Boston have helped make Savin Hill one of the areas of Dorchester which has undergone the most
gentrification
Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and urban planning, planning. Gentrification ...
in recent years. Many of the neighborhood's traditional two- and three-family houses have been converted to individually owned condominiums since the late 1990s.
Due to its historic character the entire neighborhood was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 2003.
See also
*
References
Bibliography
* Giordano, Alice
"A Re-awakening of Savin Hill: Dorchester Neighborhood is Undergoing a Rebirth" The Boston Globe, September 23, 2001
*Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell,
** "Boston's South End", Images of America series, Arcadia Publishing, 1998.
** "Dorchester", Images of America series, Arcadia Publishing, 2000.
** "Dorchester: Then & Now", Arcadia Publishing, 2005.
External links
Dorchester Atheneum- Dorchester history
Columbia-Savin Hill Civic AssociationSavin Hill Improvement Association records, 1967-1971 University Archives and Special Collections, Joseph P. Healey Library,
University of Massachusetts Boston
The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a Public university, public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus Un ...
Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association records, 1967-1982 University Archives and Special Collections, Joseph P. Healey Library,
University of Massachusetts Boston
The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a Public university, public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus Un ...
{{University of Massachusetts Boston
Historic districts in Suffolk County, Massachusetts
Neighborhoods in Boston
Dorchester, Boston
Irish-American neighborhoods
Streetcar suburbs
Populated places established in 1630
1630 establishments in Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Boston
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts