Mission Hill, Boston
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Mission Hill is a square mile (2 square km), primarily residential neighborhood of Boston, bordered by Roxbury,
Jamaica Plain Jamaica Plain is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood of in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of Roxbury, Massachusetts, Roxbury. The community seceded from Roxbur ...
and Fenway-Kenmore and the town of Brookline. The neighborhood has two main streets, namely
Tremont Street Tremont Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts. Tremont Street begins at Government Center, Boston, Massachusetts, Government Center in Boston's city center as a continuation of Cambridge Street, and forms the eastern edge of ...
and
Huntington Avenue Huntington Avenue is a thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, beginning at Copley Square and continuing west through the Back Bay, Fenway, Longwood, and Mission Hill neighborhoods. It is signed as Massachusetts Route 9 (forme ...
. It is served by several stations on the MBTA's Green Line E branch, as well as Roxbury Crossing station on the Orange Line. Mission Hill is home to several hospitals and universities, including
Brigham and Women's Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH or The Brigham) is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the largest hospital in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Along with Massachusetts General Hospital, it is one of the two ...
and New England Baptist Hospital. Though first settled in the 17th century, the neighborhood is known for its brick
row house A terrace, terraced house (British English, UK), or townhouse (American English, US) is a type of medium-density housing which first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses party wall, sharing side walls. In the United States ...
s and triple decker homes of the late 19th century. It is also home to several community centers, several neighborhood groups, one branch of the
Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also Massachusetts' Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse''), meaning all adult re ...
, one high school, and one newspaper. The neighborhood's population was estimated at 15,883 in 2011. Of these 42.7% are white, 18.0% are black, 17.5% are Hispanic, 14.1% are Asian, 1.2% are multiracial, and 1.4% identify as "Other".


Geography

The neighborhood has two main commercial streets: Tremont Street and
Huntington Avenue Huntington Avenue is a thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, beginning at Copley Square and continuing west through the Back Bay, Fenway, Longwood, and Mission Hill neighborhoods. It is signed as Massachusetts Route 9 (forme ...
. Both have several small restaurants and shops. Mission Hill is at the far western end of Tremont Street, with Government Center at the far eastern end. Mission Hill's main ZIP Code is 02120. Additionally, a very small portion of the southeastern edge uses the ZIP Code 02130, areas adjacent to the Longwood Medical Area use 02115 and two streets on the far western edge use 02215. Parker Hill, Back of The Hill, and Calumet Square are areas within the Mission Hill, an officially designated neighborhood in Boston (as attested by numerous signs prohibiting parking without a suitable Mission Hill neighborhood residential sticker, which only residents can procure legally). Brigham Circle, located at the corner of Tremont and Huntington is the neighborhood's commercial center, with a grocery store, drug stores, bistros, banks and taverns. One block up the hill from Brigham Circle is Boston's newest park, Kevin W. Fitzgerald Park (formerly Puddingstone Park) created when a new $60-million mixed use building was completed in 2002. On Tremont Street is Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica (1878, Schickel and Ditmars, 1910 towers addition by Franz Joseph Untersee), an
eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...
ous landmark building that dominates the skyline of the area. The church was chosen as the location for the
funeral A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...
of Senator Edward M. Kennedy on Saturday, August 29, 2009. Also nearby is the recently restored Parker Hill Library, the neighborhood branch of the Boston Public Library, and designed by architect
Ralph Adams Cram Ralph Adams Cram (December 16, 1863 – September 22, 1942) was a prolific and influential American architect of collegiate and ecclesiastical buildings, often in the Gothic Revival style. Cram & Ferguson and Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson are partn ...
in 1929. The city used
eminent domain Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...
to acquire the land for both the library and the adjacent Mission Hill playground. Atop the hill are the New England Baptist Hospital and the Parker Hill Playground, which extends from the hospital grounds down Parker Hill Avenue.


Location

The neighborhood is roughly bounded by Columbus Avenue and the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury to the east, Ruggles Street to the northeast and the
Olmsted Olmsted may refer to: People * Olmsted (name) Places * Olmsted Air Force Base, inactive since 1969 * Olmsted, Illinois * Olmsted County, Minnesota * Olmsted Falls, Ohio * Olmsted Point, a viewing area in Yosemite National Park * Olmsted To ...
designed Riverway/ Jamaicaway, and the town of Brookline to the west. The Historic District was designated by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 1985 and is roughly bounded by Smith Street, Worthington Street,
Tremont Street Tremont Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts. Tremont Street begins at Government Center, Boston, Massachusetts, Government Center in Boston's city center as a continuation of Cambridge Street, and forms the eastern edge of ...
(to the south), and
Huntington Avenue Huntington Avenue is a thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, beginning at Copley Square and continuing west through the Back Bay, Fenway, Longwood, and Mission Hill neighborhoods. It is signed as Massachusetts Route 9 (forme ...
(to the west). The Mission Hill neighborhood is immediately north of the Boston neighborhood of
Jamaica Plain Jamaica Plain is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood of in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of Roxbury, Massachusetts, Roxbury. The community seceded from Roxbur ...
. It is served by the
MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...
Green Line E branch and the Orange Line, and is within walking distance of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Gardner Museum. "The Hill" overlaps with about half of the
Longwood Medical and Academic Area The Longwood Medical and Academic Area, also known as Longwood Medical Area, LMA, or simply Longwood, is a medical campus in Boston, Massachusetts. Flanking Longwood Avenue, LMA is adjacent to the Fenway–Kenmore, Audubon Circle, and Mission ...
, home to 21 health care, research, and educational institutions which together provides the largest employment area in the City of Boston outside of
downtown Boston Downtown Boston is the central business district of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Boston was founded in 1630. The largest of the city's commercial districts, Downtown is the location of many corporate or regional headquarters; city, c ...
. Due to these adjacencies, the neighborhood is often struggling with institutional growth taking residential buildings and occupying storefront commercial space. Recent years have seen new retail stores, restaurants, and residential development giving the neighborhood a stronger political voice and identity, as some of the educational institutions have made commitments to house all or most of their about 2000 undergraduate students in newly erected campus housing, including several new high-rise dormitories. People aged 20 to 24 account for 32% of the population currently living in Mission Hill. The Mission Hill Triangle is an architectural conservation district with a combination of freestanding houses built by early wealthy landowners, blocks of traditional brick rowhouses, and many triple-deckers. Many are now
condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual own ...
s, but there are also several two-family and some single-family homes. The neighborhood was named in March 2008 as one of 25 "Best ZIP Codes in Massachusetts" by ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'', citing increased value in single-family homes, plentiful restaurants and shopping, a marked racial diversity, and the behavioral fact that 65% of residents walk, bike, or take
public transit Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of wh ...
to their work.


Green space

There are a few large parks in Mission Hill for walking or sitting. One is called Kevin W. Fitzgerald Park. Formerly named Puddingstone Park because of the local rock sources, the park includes lawn space and asphalt walkways for people to walk on. The walkway is lined with benches for people to rest and enjoy the various views such as Lower Roxbury, the Fenway, and Back Bay. This park was previously one of the five quarries in Boston. This park was known as the Harvard Quarry. The operation of the quarry was ceased around 1910 and this left a 65-foot-high quarry wall. In the 1990s, the open space planning committee worked on preserving public access to the quarry. The community and the developer decided together that the walls of the old quarry would be preserved and they would create a new 6-acre open space for the community at the top of the puddingstone bowl. Harvard Quarry Urban Wild was then named Puddingstone Park. In November 2006, the park was renamed Kevin Fitzgerald Park in honor of the former Massachusetts State Representative. Most of the land is already being developed on for more housing and institutional purposes. Only 6.2 acres of land are protected for preservation of public access. McLaughlin Park is another park located in Mission Hill. An article posted in the ''Mission Hill Gazette'' on April 3 talked about the park being renovated on a $430,000 budget. A direct quote taken from the article states the plan for the renovations, "The City presented a plan for the renovation in September that would lay a loop path around the upper terrace; build an overlook area along the southeastern portion of the terrace; repair Ben's Tower; add a new set of stairs from the upper terrace to the lower terrace; and address other maintenance issues." Ben's
tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...
is a memorial for a child named Ben who was from Mission Hill and enjoyed playing in the McLaughlin Park. Ben died of cancer. The Butterfly Garden located on the Back of The Hill is another lovely gated garden, smaller in size.


Visual appearance

Historically, Mission Hill Main Streets, a neighborhood affiliation of Boston Main Streets, has worked to neaten and improve the 'main streets' where small businesses operate. Business operators with cashflow restraints can apply for business mentoring, and loans and/or grants for awnings and structural improvements. The Community Alliance of Mission Hill, is an unincorporated network of neighbors, largely property owners, who have combined to review trends and developments in Mission Hill, specifically zoning and building requests. The Mission Hill Beautification Task Force (MHB Task Force) is a CAMH sub-network focused upon cleanup and preservation, beautification, and public outreach and education and concerning well-being and the quality of life in Mission Hill.


MBTA subway stops

* On the Green Line E branch: ** Longwood Medical Area, Brigham Circle, Fenwood Road, Mission Park, Riverway, Back of the Hill. * On the Orange Line: ** Roxbury Crossing The neighborhood is also served by MBTA bus route 39 running from Forest Hills in
Jamaica Plain Jamaica Plain is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood of in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of Roxbury, Massachusetts, Roxbury. The community seceded from Roxbur ...
past Copley Square to Back Bay Station, and MBTA bus route 66 running from Dudley Square through Brookline to
Harvard Square Harvard Square is a triangular plaza at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue (Boston), Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street (Cambridge, Massachusetts), Brattle Street and John F. Kennedy Street near the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, C ...
in
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
. The Urban Ring crosstown route passes through the far eastern corner of the neighborhood along Longwood Avenue and
Huntington Avenue Huntington Avenue is a thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, beginning at Copley Square and continuing west through the Back Bay, Fenway, Longwood, and Mission Hill neighborhoods. It is signed as Massachusetts Route 9 (forme ...
.


Demographics

According to the
American Community Survey The American Community Survey (ACS) is an annual demographics survey program conducted by the United States Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the United States census, decennial census ...
(ACS), Mission Hill's population was 15,883 in 2011. It listed 47.8% of the people in the community as White, 18.0% as Black or African American, 17.5% as Hispanic or Latino, 14.1% as Asian, 1.2% as "two or more races", and 1.4% as "other". Given its proximity to many colleges and universities, and because it houses several dormitories, ages in the neighborhood centered near the early to mid-20s. The ACS estimated residents between the ages 20–24 make up most of the population of Mission Hill, Boston. The 2011 ACS listed median household income in Mission Hill as $33,432 during a 12-month span. 21.1% of the households made less than $10,000 yearly. The median family income during a 12-month span was $36,237. The highest percent of family income accounts for 12.0% and they make between $75,000 to $99,999 yearly. Out of 6,230 households, 1,300 received food stamps/SNAP over a 12-month span. However, Mission Hill Neighborhood Housing Services claims that "Mission Hill's population of 18,722 people is racially and economically diverse" on its website. Seeming disparities in statistics might recurringly result from the very large number of short-term undergraduates and visiting international faculty, postdocs, researchers, and professional degree candidates who may or may not appear in statistical data sets that are cited for publication.


History

Industry began in the area as early as the 17th century. Much of the early history of Mission Hill through 1978 is covered in a 65-minute documentary video, ''Mission Hill and the Miracle of Boston'', a widely used documentary which was directed by Richard Broadman (died 2002) of the Museum of Fine Arts 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.


17th and 18th century

Like the adjacent neighborhood of
Jamaica Plain Jamaica Plain is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood of in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of Roxbury, Massachusetts, Roxbury. The community seceded from Roxbur ...
to the south, Mission Hill was once a neighborhood of adjacent Roxbury before Roxbury's annexation by Boston. According to maps from the period, it was often referenced as Parker Hill (which is the name of the geographic feature in the area). After
annexation Annexation, in international law, is the forcible acquisition and assertion of legal title over one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. In current international law, it is generally held t ...
(and more rapidly in recent years) the area slowly came to be considered a separate neighborhood of its own right. The majority of government, commercial, and institutional entities list "Mission Hill" in the breakdown of Boston neighborhoods and its boundaries generally agreed upon. Until the
American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
, Mission Hill supported large country estates of wealthy Boston families. Much of the area was an orchard farm, originally owned by the Parker family in the 18th century. Peter Parker married Sarah Ruggles, whose family owned large areas of land including most of what became known as Parker Hill (later renamed Mission Hill). Parker's life ended when a barrel of his own cider fell on him. (Much of this story is outlined in "The History of Peter Parker and Sarah Ruggles", a book by John William Linzee, published in 1913.) An annual 'cider press' neighborhood event is held in the 'top of the hill' park adjacent to New England Baptist Hospital, commemorating this neighborhood narrative. The
orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit tree, fruit- or nut (fruit), nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also so ...
continued for some time thereafter, but gradually pieces of the land were sold and developed. Boston's reservoir was once located at the top of the hill. Many of the older apple trees along Fisher Avenue and in an undeveloped area of the playground are probably descendants of the Parker family's original trees. The lower portion of the eastern hill was a puddingstone
quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...
with large swaths owned by merchants Franklin G. Dexter, Warren Fisher, and Fredrick Ames. Maps of the area indicate Mission Hill development began before the Fenway and Longwood Medical Area. Huntington Avenue, now one of the main connections to the rest of Boston, once stopped at the intersection of Parker Street, near the present-day site of the Museum of Fine Arts. Up until that time, Mission Hill was connected via Parker Street (a man-made raised passage between the Stony Brook and the Muddy River – both which formed a
tidal flat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal ...
into the
Charles River The Charles River (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ), sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Hopkinton to Boston along a highly me ...
) all the way to
Boylston Street Boylston Street is a major east–west thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, and its western suburbs. The street begins in Boston's Chinatown, Boston, Chinatown neighborhood, forms the southern border of the Public Garden (Boston) ...
in the
Back Bay Back Bay is an officially recognized Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on Land reclamation, reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the ...
. Part of what was once Parker Street is now called Hemenway Street. The once main intersection of Parker Street and Huntington Avenue has been traffic-engineered, cutting the straight-line road in two and forcing traffic to first turn onto Forsyth Way to make the connection. Many other streets leading into Mission Hill were also realigned and/or renamed at Huntington Avenue (including Longwood Avenue/McGreevey Way, Smith/Shattuck Street, Vancouver Street, and Palace Road/Worthington Street), limiting both pedestrian and vehicular access.


19th century

The first brewery was established at the foot of Parker Hill in the 1820s. By the 1870s beer production was the main industry in Mission Hill, and many breweries lined the Stony Brook (now a culvert running along the Southwest Corridor). Most of Boston's breweries were once located in Mission Hill, but three periods of
Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...
(1852–1868, 1869–1875 and 1918–1933) and the nation's transition from local breweries to national mass-produced brands took their toll on business. Many of the remaining buildings are now being converted into loft condominia. After the 1880s and the re-routing of the Muddy River by Frederick Law Olmsted, Huntington Avenue was joined from Parker Street to Brigham Circle, creating the Triangle District. (Maps from the time indicate that Huntington Avenue from Brigham Circle to the Brookline line was named Tremont Street.) Development began in earnest in the mid-19th century. In 1870, the Redemptorist Fathers built a humble wooden mission church that was replaced by an impressive Roxbury puddingstone structure in 1876. In 1910, dual-spires were added that now dominate the skyline. The church was elevated to
basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...
in 1954 by
Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...
and is one of less than 100 in the United States. Officially named
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Our Mother of Perpetual Succour (), colloquially known as Our Lady of Perpetual Help), is a Catholic Church, Catholic Titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a 15th-century Byzantine art, Byzantine ico ...
after the
icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...
of the same name, it 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 ; the other spire is two feet shorter. The length of the church is also , presenting a perfect proportion. At one time, the Basilica was a campus of buildings; the Queen Anne style Sister's Convent and Grammar School (1888–1889, Henry Burns) and the
Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...
St. Alphonsus Hall (1898, Franz Joseph Untersee) administered by the parish. The church closed Mission Church High School in 1992, but a parochial elementary school still remains. The sale of these buildings at 80–100 Smith Street allowed much of the church to be restored. The sold buildings are currently planned to be used for 'Basilica Court,' a 229-unit residential complex, developed by Weston Associates, Inc. The Hall was the club headquarters for the St. Alphonsus Association founded in 1900. It was the preeminent social and athletic Catholic men's organization for nearly 50 years and its 1000-seat theater held many community, political, and theatrical events. Another example of high religious architecture is the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral of New England at 514 Parker Street at the eastern edge of the neighborhood. Referred to as the "mother church" of the Greek Orthodox Church in New England, it is the cathedral of the Diocese of Boston and the seat of Bishop Methodios Tournas. Built between 1892 and 1927, it is one of the oldest Greek churches in the United States, a Boston landmark, and is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
. In 1927 a Greek artist was commissioned to decorate the cathedral with Byzantine iconography. The radiant
stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...
windows and large crystal chandeliers also contribute to the visual majesty of the cathedral's interior. Puddingstone plays a historic role in the area. The large puddingstone quarry that ran between Tremont Street and Allegany Street produced the stone foundations of most of the late-19th-century houses in the neighborhood. This locally sourced material made quick construction of working-class housing possible. Some structures around the Tremont Street/Parker Street intersection are made entirely of the material, including 682–688 Parker Street, 2–5 Sewall Street and 1472–74 Tremont Street (1856, David Connery, mason). Most of the houses in the neighborhood are stone foundations and wood construction, but the Triangle Historic District along Huntington Avenue is stone and brick, and one of only eight such districts in Boston given landmark status by the city. These seventy-one buildings bordered by Huntington Avenue, Tremont Street, and Worthington Street exemplify the development of the neighborhood from the 1870s through the 1910s. Construction of this area was begun in 1871. The Helvetia, a distinctive apartment hotel, was built at 706–708 Huntington Avenue in 1884–1885; a Georgian revival
apartment building An apartment (American English, Canadian English), flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), tenement ( Scots English), or unit (Australian English) is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) ...
known as The Esther was built at 683 Huntington/142–148 Smith Street in 1912. Both buildings continue have retail on the ground floor and apartments above. Similar row houses line one side of Delle Avenue a few blocks away from the Triangle District. Taller and larger brick row houses also line Huntington Avenue, Wait Street, and South Huntington. By 1894, the electric streetcar was in operation on Huntington Avenue. Builder-developers began cutting streets through the hillside farmland and building homes for commuters on Parker Hill Avenue, Hillside Street, and Alleghany Street. An excellent example from this era is the Timothy Hoxie House at 135 Hillside Street. A freestanding
Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...
villa, it was built in 1854 across from its present location. The Hoxie family left Beacon Hill for pastoral Mission Hill. Single-family houses of this size are rare today in the area. Demand for housing went up and builders turned to building multifamily dwellings, generally constructed on smaller lots. The carpenter-contractor John Cantwell lived in the
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
cottage at 139 Hillside Street, and purchased the Hoxie House after Timothy's death. He moved the house to its present site so that upper Sachem Street could be cut through. Cantwell also developed triple deckers on adjacent lots on Darling and Sachem Streets. In 1890, he subdivided the lot on which the Hoxie House stood and built triple-deckers at 17 and 19 Sachem Street. By the 1890s, there was a more urban feel to the neighborhood and the hill was covered in triple-deckers. Calumet, Iroquois and other streets with Native American names were built up within ten years into a dense neighborhood of triple deckers in the Queen Anne style. The Queen Anne style is prevalent in Mission Hill because this building boom coincided with the popularity of this style. A restoration of this style of houses along Parker Street is becoming something of a
Polychrome Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery, or sculpture in multiple colors. When looking at artworks and ...
Row. Before 1900, the
Georgian Revival Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover, George I, George II, Ge ...
New England Baptist Hospital (at the time, the Robert Breck Brigham Hospital) at 125 Parker Hill Ave was one of the few institutions in the neighborhood. Other soon followed, moving from their downtown locations to the Mission Hill/Longwood area for more space and less expensive land (along with the completion of the Emerald Necklace). In 1906, the
Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...
moved into five buildings on Longwood Avenue. Wentworth Institute at 360 Ruggles Street began building in 1911. In 1912, the then Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham & Women's Hospital) opened on Brigham Circle. In 1914, Children's Hospital also moved to Longwood Avenue. Beth Israel Deaconess was constructed a short time later."Mission Hill: background information and planning issues, preliminary neighborhood improvement strategies", Boston Redevelopment Authority, (1975)


20th century

In the late 19th century through the 1970s, the neighborhood was once home to large numbers of families of recent immigrant descent: mostly Irish, but also
Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...
, Italians, and others. After the 1950s, the combined effects of
urban renewal Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...
,
white flight The white flight, also known as white exodus, is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the Racism ...
, 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 the Whitney Redevelopment Project, which are three high-rise towers along St. Alphonsus Street. They include Charlesbank Apartments (276-unit highrise that became a limited equity
co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...
), Back Bay Manor (270 units, now known as CityView at Longwood), and Franklin Square Apartments (formerly Back Bay Towers – 146 units, now known as The Longwood). This project was one of Boston's earliest redevelopment projects not funded by federal renewal monies. Eastward across St. Alphonsus Street is Mission Main, one of the nation's oldest public housing developments. The original thirty-eight 3-story brick structures built between 1938 and 1940 were demolished in the mid-1990s and replaced with 535 new apartments with a mix of subsidized and market-rate units. Breweries included A.J. Houghton (1870–1918) at 37 Station Street, American Brewing Co. at 251 Heath Street(1891–1934)—now American Brewery Lofts, 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 often referred to as The Pickle Factory and is in planning for conversion to housing. From 1916 through the early 1950s, Gordon College, related to the Ruggles Street Baptist Church formerly on Ruggles Street, was on Evans Way in the Fenway on the edge of Mission Hill. When Gordon moved out of the neighborhood near the Museum of Fine Arts and relocated to Wenham, Massachusetts, Wentworth Institute of Technology bought the land. The 7-story Alice Heyward Taylor Apartments were completed in 1951; since that time, they have been completely renovated. In the late 1960s,
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
, through straws, thus concealing the purchases from the neighborhood, 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 to convince Harvard to rebuild. The tower sits on the site of the House of the Good Shepard, once a large and prominent
orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusi ...
. The gates to the complex and the brick wall along Huntington survive from this era. Also in the 1960s the federal government proposed to extend
Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...
into the center of Boston and began buying property and demolishing houses along the Boston and Providence Rail Road. This area, once known as Pierpoint Village after the Pierpoint family and their mills (the earliest of which began in the 1650s), was a stop along the
Boston & Providence Railroad The Boston and Providence Railroad was a railroad company in the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island which connected its namesake cities. It opened in two sections in 1834 and 1835 - one of the first rail lines in the United States - with ...
in the 1840s, and was once a vibrant commercial area with the 749-seat Criterion Theatre, a Woolworth's, and some restaurants catering to market
taste The gustatory system or sense of taste is the sensory system that is partially responsible for the perception of taste. Taste is the perception stimulated when a substance in the mouth biochemistry, reacts chemically with taste receptor cells l ...
s. In 1962, the Mission Hill public housing development had 1,024 families (all white), while the Mission Hill Extension project across the street had 580 families (of which 500 were black), and in 1967 when the Boston city government under
Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
John F. Collins (1960–1968) agreed to desegregate the developments, the projects were still 97 percent white and 98 percent black respectively. The Interstate project was shelved by the governor in 1971 after freeway revolts. 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. In November 2007, the MBTA awarded Mission Hill Housing Services rights to develop a new 10-story
mixed-use Mixed use is a type of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning classification that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions ...
building on what is known to the Boston Redevelopment Authority (now the Boston Planning and Development Agency – BPDA) as "Parcel 25", across from the Roxbury Crossing subway station. By the early 1970s, the area was deemed dangerous and most
White people White is a Race (human categorization), racial classification of people generally used for those of predominantly Ethnic groups in Europe, European ancestry. It is also a Human skin color, skin color specifier, although the definition can var ...
and affluent
Black people Black is a racial classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin and often additional phenotypical ...
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 Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...
, Wentworth Institute of Technology and the
School of the Museum of Fine Arts The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is a dedicated art school within Tufts University, a private research university in Massa ...
, which has a large studio building in the neighborhood. The Mission Hill Artists Collective now hosts Open Studios 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 condominia to take advantage of the fantastic views of the city and proximity to the Longwood Area, the
MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...
and downtown Boston.


21st century

In 2020, Boston was reported to be the third most "intensely gentrified" city in the United States, listing Mission Hill as one neighborhood undergoing gentrification. One cause of this gentrification is the expansion of nearby universities, such as
Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...
and Wentworth Institute of Technology. Between 2013 and 2017, the median home value rose from $172,377 to $324,100, and the median household income fell from $23,764 to $16,094.


Attractions


Community organizations

* The Tobin Community Center is located at 1481 Tremont Street, Boston, Massachusetts. This community center is for Mission Hill and other neighborhoods in the area. This center as stated on the Timothy Smith Network is for social, educational, recreational, and cultural purposes. There are thirty-eight Boston Centers for Youth & Families facilities. The Tobin Center provides programing for children, youth, adults, and families. Most of the programming provided is coed, but it requires a membership. The Tobin Community Center is open all seven days of the week. Some but not all of their programming is free, but participating in programs requires a (free) membership. * Mission Hill Main Streets (MHMS) is a non-profit organization that helps rejuvenate local businesses, residents, and community organizations. They provide professional support to businesses on operations and property upkeep. Their recently revised (2014) website lists their goals: "Revitalize the Mission Hill commercial area, Increase merchant participation in the Main Street organization and in the life of the Mission Hill community, Provide Mission Hill merchants with technical assistance and with financial and design assistance for storefront renovations, Reduce negative health impacts – noise, clutter, trash, smells – of how business is done, Continuously improve the appearance, healthfulness, safety, and functionality of the Mission Hill business districts and the Mission Hill host community, Work with schools, students, employee groups, neighborhood organizations, and the local District Courts on community services projects throughout the area." The director, Richard Rouse, a former Suffolk County sheriff, writes a monthly column in the ''Mission Hill Gazette'' about neighborhood news and the group's accomplishments. They help small businesses stay presentable and solvent in Mission Hill and support the equitable development of a stable presence in Mission Hill. They provide direct financial help to businesses for physical changes, including design and repairs. Residents can refer businesses for help in making their shops look more appealing. * The Parker Hill Branch Library of the
Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also Massachusetts' Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse''), meaning all adult re ...
is open Monday through Saturday, providing year-round children's programs, often collaborating with the Tobin Community Center, the Mission Hill Health Movement, and Mission Hill Artists Group (displaying work by local artists). *The Mission Hill Health Movement (MHHM) works ''For a Healthier Hill.'' From 1968 to 1970, when it was founded (in July 1970), MHHM acted as the Community Health Committee of Parker Hill-Fenway Area Planning Action Committee (APAC), through the local office of the Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD), when it negotiated with the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Harvard Community Health Plan (HCHP) for neighborhood-based coverage by Harvard Community Health Plan. That agreement included the first Medicaid/Medicare HCHP eligibility with sliding scale premiums for Mission Hill residents, and a local primary care outreach/advocacy office with its neighborhood residents in meaningful staff positions. It was instrumental in founding the Fenway Community Health Center. It conducted with neighborhood staff a neighborhood-based door-to-door lead paint testing program and coordinated with the Boston Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH), later (after a series of complex mergers) the Boston Public Health Commission, to offer the first neighborhood-based free flu shots for elderly. It helped establish at Hennigan School a preschool program integrating special needs students into mainstream classes and set up for Mission Hill children the "SWISH" school-based dental care program with
fluoride Fluoride (). According to this source, is a possible pronunciation in British English. is an Inorganic chemistry, inorganic, Monatomic ion, monatomic Ion#Anions and cations, anion of fluorine, with the chemical formula (also written ), whose ...
rinses, scheduling Mission Hill 'Swish Moms' to work with and assist Harvard Dental School staff. Current MHHM Programs include: Seasonal Farmers Markets at Roxbury Crossing subway station on the orange line, and Brigham Circle trolley station on the E green line; the Gore St Community Garden; Mission Hill Noise Study with the Boston University Community Noise Lab; Mission Hill Walks! (Walking Group); Video-What I want my Doctor to Know (Filming Spring 2021); COVID-19 response with facemasks and food support; and Annual Mission Hill Health and Wellness Fair. * Between the Parker Hill Branch Library of the
Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also Massachusetts' Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse''), meaning all adult re ...
and Mission Church is Sheehy Park, where young people play, the annual MHHM Mission Hill Community Health, Wellness, and Fitness Fair is held in the Fall and students gather to chat and study after school.


Healthcare

World class teaching hospitals are found in the adjacent Longwood Medical Area, which is sometimes treated administratively by the city as part of the Mission Hill neighborhood. Some of their buildings have been built inside the residential portion of Mission Hill. A community relations function of Brigham and Women's hospital supports the Mission Hill community, addressing issues of health care, employment, social programs, and services through outreach to schools, housing developments, youth-serving organizations, and other service groups in Mission Hill and elsewhere in Boston. Residents may also find their medical home in one of the neighborhood health centers, such as the Whittier Street Health Center. The Mission Hill Health Movement is a community-based organization addressing an array of health conditions and other issues of residents of the Mission Hill community and surrounding neighborhoods, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, mental illness and depression, exercise and energy levels, personal and social responsibility for health, and access to health care. They sponsor the twice-weekly Mission Hill Farmers markets throughout the months of June to November, the annual community health fair (with Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences) and a summer food fair in September, and low-cost fresh produce and bread distribution, the $2 bag program, with Fair Foods of Dorchester. At the Tuesday and Thursday farmers' markets, local farmers sell their freshly picked produce. MHHM sponsors several self-help health programs, including a walking group, a Women's Health Group, and a Diabetes Self-Management Group to educate newly diagnosed and current diabetics and pre-diabetics about how to live responsibly with it, to improve overall health and ease the responsibilities of living day-to-day with chronic diabetes. In 2011, the Mission Hill Main Streets, Tobin Community Center, Mission Hill Health Movement, and Sociedad Latina sponsored the first Mission Hill healthy food festival. Longwood-based hospitals, such as Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and
Boston Children's Hospital Boston Children's Hospital (formerly known as Children's Hospital Boston until 2013) is the main pediatric training and research hospital of Harvard Medical School, Harvard University. It is a nationally ranked, freestanding acute care children ...
, schools such as Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and the Whittier Street Health Center, tabled at this festival to field questions and distribute informative literature. The Boston Collaborative for Food & Fitness, Boston Vegetarian Society, Cooking Matters, and Sociedad Latina also offered helpful information. Each Spring, the Mission Hill Health Movement sponsors a community health fair, convening 20-40 local institutions, organizations, and neighborhood businesses during 2011, and now 66 such exhibitors in 2015, providing health information, screening tests, and health-supporting food. They also provide a "FEET FIRST" walk on Thursdays at 10 am, rain or shine, at 1534 Tremont Street, exploring the colorful and visually interesting Mission Hill neighborhood and contiguous areas, walking through the Fens, the Rose Garden, Jamaica Plain, and back. "Walks will terminate at the Brigham Circle Farmers Market from mid-June until the end of October."


Green energy

Several small and medium-sized developers, architects, and contractors have presented to the Community Alliance of Mission Hill their plans for zero carbon, zero net energy (ZNE), passive energy, or other green-oriented construction.


Education

The Fenway High School is a Boston public pilot school. This school is located at 67 Alleghany St, Boston, MA 02120. Founded in 1983, Fenway became one of Boston's six original pilot schools in 1994. It is devoted to providing a high-quality, personalized education to students from all over the city of Boston. There is no academic admission requirement. The table above is an estimation from the American Community Survey during the years of 2007–2011. Inside the adjacent Longwood Medical Area are the
Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...
,
Harvard School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school at Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. It was named after Hong Kong entrepreneur Chan Tseng-hsi in 2014 following a US$350 ...
, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and educational programs run by the Harvard teaching hospitals. Also adjacent to Mission Hill/Longwood are the
Colleges of the Fenway The Colleges of the Fenway (COF) is a consortium of five colleges located in or near the Fenway neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The association promotes collaboration among its member schools to enhance the variety of educational program ...
, Wentworth Institute,
Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...
, and the
School of the Museum of Fine Arts The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is a dedicated art school within Tufts University, a private research university in Massa ...
.


Newspapers

* ''Mission Hill Gazette''


Neighborhood groups

* Alice Heyward Taylor Tenant Task Force (of the 165 units at Alice Heyward Taylor Apartments) * Boston Redevelopment Authority neighborhood site * Community Alliance of Mission Hill – The Mission Hill Beautification Task Force is an ad hoc subgroup of CAMH, seeking to cultivate among the neighborhood's residents and users an ethic or ethos of fair use and responsibility, cleaning up &maintaining the progressive culture of responsibility for safe, lovely, and health-supporting surroundings and the promotion of green residences and other construction in the neighborhood. * Mission Hill Artists Collective – * Mission Hill Health Movement – sponsor of twice-weekly farmers' markets, extremely low cost fresh produce and bread distribution with ($2 bag of produce with Fair Foods of Dorchester), and an annual community health fair in Sheehy Park on Tremont Street, in mid-April * Mission Hill Main Streets – * Mission Hill Neighborhood Housing Services – MHNHS manages many multi-unit properties in Mission Hill and invites community members to review its work in its annual meeting in the Spring. * Mission Main Tenant Task Force, Smith Street * Roxbury Tenants of Harvard * Sociedad Latina, Tremont Street * Mission Hill Arts Festival


See also

* Basilica and Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
City of Boston's web page regarding Mission Hill neighborhood, including four data-filled resources
* District 8, Boston * Kostachuk Square * MTA * National Register of Historic Places listings in southern Boston


References


External links

* Th
Sociedad Latina, Inc. records, 1968–2007 (bulk 1985–1999)
are located in the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA. * Th
Carmen A. Pola papers, 1970–2006 (bulk 1975–2000)
are located in the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA. * Th
Roxbury Tenants of Harvard (Jeane Neville) records, 1962-2021
are located in the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA. * An early planning study
Fenway-Parker Hill area: its problems and potential, Boston, Massachusetts: preliminary report of the Sponsors' Committee
is available at the MIT or Harvard libraries, Cambridge, Massachusetts. * Archived papers from the development of the Charlesbank Apartments, 650 Huntington Avenue, are stored in boxes in
Harvard Graduate School of Design The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urba ...
(GSD) in
Harvard Square Harvard Square is a triangular plaza at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue (Boston), Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street (Cambridge, Massachusetts), Brattle Street and John F. Kennedy Street near the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, C ...
, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ground was broken in 1960 for three 24-story multi-unit residential highrises, but redesign of two of the three buildings was forced by residents protesting the height; only Charlesbank is 24 stories high. * City of Boston
Landmarks CommissionMission Hill Triangle Architectural Conservation District
1985 {{BostonMA Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Historic districts in Suffolk County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Boston Neighborhoods in Boston Roxbury, Boston Streetcar suburbs