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Decorative drawing: a small American settlement seen from a low hill. Not a photograph of this place.

Winter Hill, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Somerville City. It lies in ZIP code area 02145. It stands on Winter Hill. The Survey maps it on the Boston North quadrangle.

Winter Hill within Middlesex County

Then and now

1893 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 96 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Winter Hill, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Winter Hill, surveyed 1893

Topographic sheets covering this place

46 sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

In the county-history sources

55,107 words on this township

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880 names this settlement in its chapter on Somerville City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The early inhabitants of Somerville were mostly farmers, and many of them large producers of milk. A few were engaged in alewife fishery at the proper seasons. Brickmaking M-as a branch of industry Oldened after the Eevolution, and has been since continued. At the time of the Eevolution the population of the Somerville territory could not have been more than two hundred and fifty. The houses numbered a few more than thirty, and were principally on the Cambridge, Winter Hill, and Milk Eow roads.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

The land between these highways was divided into large farms, and held in comparatively few hands. Winter, Prospect, Spring, Central, and Walnut hills were pasture-lands, with an occasional growth upon them, mostly of red cedars. The now populous East Somerville was a farming tract. North of the Winter Hill road the fields stretched out to the marshes adjacent to the Mystic Eiver, in an expanse unbroken except by the farm at Ten Hills. Mount Benedict was under cultivation, and was termed " Ploughed Hill." It was said to have been so named because it had been customary to plough it in a circle around the hill, turning the furrows always down the slope. AVillis' Creek (the Miller's Eiver of later times) took its rise at the base of Spring Hill, and flowed with pure and pellucid stream through the meadows to the Charles Eiver.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

Hill, having passed over the Cambridge Road between nine and ten o'clock on the previous night, the Americans retreated to these heights, and soon afterwards began the erection of a line of defences in and about them, which finally made the former almost impregnable, and the latter even more strongly protected. The forces occupying the hills of Somerville constituted the left wing of the army besieging Boston. The first of the line of fortifications were earthworks in the vicinity of Everett Street. Patterson was at that time at the fort indicated as No. 3. There were other defences on the opposite side of the Cambridge Road connected with the citadel on Prospect Hill. This hill, " ilount Pisgah," as it was sometimes styled, embraced two eminences, the eastern being what is now called Prospect Hill, the western being the present Central Hill. Both were fortified, - the former with a strong citadel, and the latter with a redoubt near the present High-School building. The two heights were connected by a rampart and fosse. Greene's command of three or four thousand Rhode Island troops was stationed at these defences. Here Putnam, July 18, 177.5, raised the flag bearing on one side " An Appeal to Heaven," and on the other, three vines and the motto, " Qui transtulit sustinet," now upon the Connecticut state seal. The new union flag of the colonies, with its thirteen stripes, was first flung to the breeze from this height, January 1, 1776. There were works in the valley between Central and Winter hills, but all traces of them have long since disappeared. The principal defence on the latter eminence was in the form of an irregular pentagon, situated just at the junction of the Medford and Arlington roads. It was provided with bastions and a deep fosse, and was further protected with earthworks a hundred yards to the front.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Somerville City - it names this place 17 more 17 times.

Fires near this place

85 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 85 fires within 5 miles of Winter Hill between 2015 and 2020, burning about 114 acres in total. None started naturally. 30 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Arson/incendiarism30
Missing data/not specified/undetermined22
Recreation and ceremony13
Debris and open burning12
Smoking6
Equipment and vehicle use1
Misuse of fire by a minor1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
4 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 September 2018Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBROOKLINE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 1,684 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,684 specimens collected within 10 miles of Winter Hill between 1898 and 1975: 735 Animalia, 514 Plantae, 371 Fungi, 27 Protozoa, 17 Bacteria, 12 Chromista, 8 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A B Seymour, A B. Proper and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Image SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
Specimen of Trientalis borealis Raf.Trientalis borealis Raf.1900A. P. Chute
Aglaospora profusa (Fr.) De Not.1898Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Bulbostylis capillaris, not of this specimenBulbostylis capillaris var. crebra Fernald1898C. H. KnowltonBoston.
A photograph of the species Cantharellus cinnabarinus, not of this specimenCantharellus cinnabarinus (Schwein.) Schwein.1898not recordedNewton.
A photograph of the species Cantharellus infundibuliformis, not of this specimenCantharellus infundibuliformis (Scop.) Fr.1898not recordedMelrose.
A photograph of the species Cladonia coccifera, not of this specimenCladonia coccifera (L.) Willd.1898Francis P DanielsCambridge
A photograph of the species Cladonia rangiferina, not of this specimenCladonia rangiferina (L.) Weber1898Francis P DanielsArlington Heights
A photograph of the species Cordyceps capitata, not of this specimenCordyceps capitata (Holmsk.) Link1898Conant, [?] F.Middlesex Fells
A photograph of the species Crataegus coccinea, not of this specimenCrataegus coccinea L.1898NoneHarvard University Arboretum
A photograph of the species Ctenidium malacodes, not of this specimenCtenidium malacodes Mitt.1898not recorded
A photograph of the species Acanthis flammea, not of this specimenAcanthis flammea flammea (Linnaeus, 1758)1900ZAPPEY, W RROSLINDALE
A photograph of the species Acer carpinifolium, not of this specimenAcer carpinifolium Siebold & Zucc.1900A. K. HarrisonHarvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.

All 1,684 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 13 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 13 workings within 5 miles of Winter Hill: 9 plants, 2 past producers, 1 unknown, 1 producer. 10 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Lead, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Gypsum-Anhydrite. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
(Facility) Vulcan Smelter--Chelsea, Ma.Copper, LeadPlant
C. J. MabardySand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Syncor Prdts Co--Malden, Ma.SilicaPlant
Us Gypsum Co--BostonGypsum-AnhydritePast Producer
Whittemore Prdts Inc--BostonPerlitePlant
Malden QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
Malden QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
(Facility) Cambridge Smelter CoLeadPlant
General Metals & Smelting--BostonLeadPlant
Industrial Serv. Centers--CambridgeIronPlant

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Somerville0.6 miles46
Ten Hills0.6 miles46
Spring Hill0.8 miles46
East Somerville1.0 miles46
West Somerville1.3 miles46
Wellington1.4 miles46
Avon Hill1.5 miles46
Cambridge1.5 miles46

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 612854. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.