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Neighborhood Sketch no. 7.
Winter Hill
commencing with
Joseph Adams, farmer, on the righthand side, facing down at the top of
Winter Hill, was the old Adams house, sometimes called the
Magoun house.
In 1840, and for many years afterwards, the nearest house was that of Abby and
Edmund Tufts, on the lower corner of
Broadway and Central street.
Mr. Tufts was a printer, and got out the first directory of
Somerville.
The next house, that of
Chester Adams, was afterward moved to the foot of
Winter Hill.
Mr. Adams drove down to the bank in
Charlestown every morning.
There was no regular public conveyance to the city, but a stage ran from
Charlestown to
Medford, sometimes on Medford Turnpike, and sometimes on Main street (
Broadway), which would occasionally pick up a passenger on the highway.
The next house was on the lower corner of Main and School streets, owned and occupied by
Asa Tufts, a farmer, whose family consisted of a wife and four children.
Later
Mr. Ring built a house below this of
Mr. Tufts, and there was also a double house, occupied by the families of Luther and
Nathaniel Mitchell, brickmakers.
At this time there were brickyards on Main street, and the dangerous clay-pits remained long after the business was abandoned.
The next house was the
Adams house, built for the son of
Joseph Adams, of
Winter Hill.
This house is more than a hundred years old, and to it the
Lady Superior and thirty scholars fled for protection on the night of the burning of the
Ursuline Convent, August, 1834.
On the same side of the street and next below lived the family of
Mr. Griffin.
He was a brickmaker, and in the next house was a family by the name of
Torrey.
From Main street the boats running on the old
Middlesex canal could be plainly seen passing to and fro in summer, while in winter the canal was the resort of skaters from quite a distance.
What stagnation in business must have ensued when navigation was suspended on that great highway of commerce!
There were no houses in 1840 between Walnut and Cross streets.
