Victorian Society in America / New England Chapter

Following the tour we will enjoy refreshments at a Medford Street pub.

Tour meets at the Winter Hill Congregational Church, 404 Broadway, at the corner of Central Street.

Directions: Take the No. 89 bus from Sullivan Square Station in Charlestown to the Broadway / Central Street stop.

Admission: $5.00 Members VSA/NE and Somerville residents; $8.00 Nonmembers.

PLEASE join us as we explore two of Somerville’s most interesting neighborhoods. While Winter Hill was host to Somerville gentry beginning in the 1880s, the Hinckley / Magoun neighborhood was the home of hard working families who toiled as laborers, teamsters, Boston & Maine Railroad employees and the like—families who built up the neighborhood in three stages during the second half of the nineteenth century.
         Running up and over Winter Hill, Broadway was part of the route of Paul Revere’s famous Midnight Ride. Still extant near the top of Winter Hill is the late eighteenth century Adams-Magoun that retains its original siting, form, and Late Georgian elements. Much later—by the 1880s—Winter Hill was built up with substantial wooden Queen Anne residences and (here and there) handsome brick town houses.
         Two houses of worship will also be featured during the tour, including the Winter Hill Congregational Church (1891) and B’nai B’rith Synagogue (1919-1925). The former was designed by Hartwell, Richardson and Driver, while the latter represents the early work of Boston apartment building specialist S.S. Eisenberg.
        From Winter Hill, we will stroll westward to Magoun Square and enter the small Hinckley / Magoun neighborhood. Represented within this small enclave are houses that constitute a fascinating urban village within the larger city where siting and the visual dialogue between distinctive structural forms is of primary interest. Hinckley / Magoun highlights will include an early nineteenth century residence that was moved from its original location, mid nineteenth century dwellings tucked away on a cul-de-sac off of Lowell Street as well as the narrow way known as Henderson Street with its modest 1890s houses built by contractor Jacob W. Wilbur.