Hello Winter Hill neighbors! [stickied post]

[mem_winterhill]

Welcome to the Winter Hill discussion forum. Some members of our community are eager to have a place to post interesting news, chatter, events, or any sort of discussion related to living in the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, MA. This is an outgrowth of the Winter Hill Neighborhood Association's (WHNA) outreach efforts.

Mission statement (6/16/17): The WHNA's mission is to bring together all residents of Winter Hill to protect and improve upon the things we love about our neighborhood and to have a say in its future by building unity among neighbors. 

This is modeled on the successful community forum of Davis Square: https://davis-square.dreamwidth.org/ Thanks to Ron Newman for help in learning about the features of community forums and for wise moderation advice.

We hope to collect useful information about community issues, businesses, services, and sometimes just gossip or interesting tidbits related to our neighborhood.

Other Winter Hill relevant links:
Facebook group: http://bit.ly/WHNAfacebook 
Google groups (mailing list): http://bit.ly/WHNAGoogleGroup
This forum: http://bit.ly/WHNAforum

WHNA is currently holding regular meetings on the first Wednesday of each month, 7pm, often at the St. Polycarp community room or the Mystic Activity Center. But sometimes the meeting will be held in other neighborhood locations. We'll post the current meeting details prior to each meeting. 

I am Mary Mangan, current admin, and we'll see how this goes! Feel free to offer comments, suggestions, guidance, or any other thoughts you have on how this community should evolve. Off we go!

History of Winter Hill

[mem_winterhill]

The other day I saw this summary of Winter Hill historical tidbits. I didn't think it would be of huge interest to everyone on the mailing list, so I didn't send it around. But it's the kind of thing that I think is fun to post to a forum like this.

The Somerville Times Historical Fact of the Week – July 12 Eagle Feathers #133 –A Walk Up Winter Hill, By Bob (Monty) Doherty.

I did not know there was a Leonard Nimoy connection to the Hill.

For more detailed historical features of this area, I would recommend a couple of books. Paul Revere's Ride, by David Hackett Fischer, includes the very famous 1774 Powder Alarm that involved Redcoats coming over our hill and removing the gunpowder stores at the Powder House. And, of course, it also covers Revere's ride on the famous night.

Ten Hills Farm: The Forgotten History of Slavery in the North, by CS Manegold, focuses on early history of the region including the Isaac Royall House that is down Main Street just over the line in Medford. 

Edit to add: on Thanksgiving in 2017, this map was being circulated about native lands and languages that I thought was fascinating. Check out our region, add layers to the area with the checkboxes for territories, languages and treaties: https://native-land.ca/