Spring Hill is the name of a ridge in the central part of the city of Somerville

Somerville, Massachusetts

Somerville is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located just north of Boston. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 75,754 and was the most densely populated municipality in New England. It is also the 17th most densely populated incorporated place in...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, and the neighborhood that sits atop it. It runs northwest to southeast, roughly bounded by Somerville Avenue, Elm Street, Willow Avenue, Highland Avenue, and School Street. Summer Street runs along the hill's crest.

Spring Hill is a drumlin

Drumlin

A drumlin, from the Irish word droimnín , first recorded in 1833, is an elongated whale-shaped hill formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated till or ground moraine.-Drumlin formation:...

, one of many such hills in the Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 area composed of material deposited as glaciers of the Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

 epoch receded. http://erp-web.er.usgs.gov/reports/abstract/2002/cu/02hqgr0036.pdf

Historically agricultural in character, Spring Hill was sparsely developed until the mid-19th century. Present-day Central, Lowell, and Cedar Streets trace their origins to the mid-17th century, but few other roads broke the open space.

In 1843, real-estate speculator George Brastow platted one of Somerville's first residential subdivision

Subdivision (land)

Subdivision is the act of dividing land into pieces that are easier to sell or otherwise develop, usually via a plat. The former single piece as a whole is then known in the United States as a subdivision...

s, on the hill's south side between Central and Belmont Streets. Several original houses from this development remain on Atherton Street and off Harvard Street.

In 1889, a water standpipe (tower) was erected on the hill between Belmont and Lowell Streets, north of Summer Street, to provide adequate water pressure to the growing city.

By the end of the 19th century, the street grid had reached its present form, and the neighborhood filled with predominantly multi-family homes. Growth was fueled by the extension of streetcar lines from Lechmere Square

Lechmere Square

Lechmere Square is located at the intersection of Cambridge Street and First Street in East Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was originally named for the Colonial-era landowner Richard Lechmere, a Loyalist who returned to England at the beginning of the American Revolution. His lands were later seized...

 and industrialization along Somerville Avenue and the Fitchburg Railroad

Fitchburg Railroad

The Fitchburg Railroad is a former railroad company, which built a railroad line across northern Massachusetts, USA, leading to and through the Hoosac Tunnel. The Fitchburg was leased to the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1900...

.

Spring Hill is home to Somerville Hospital

Somerville Hospital

The Somerville Hospital campus is a community teaching hospital located at 230 Highland Avenue in in Somerville, Massachusetts - near Porter Square and Davis Square.It is one of three hospital campuses that are part of Cambridge Health Alliance.-Services:...

, opened in 1891 on Highland Avenue, the Round House

Round House (Somerville, Massachusetts)

The Round House is a cylindrical wood-frame residential structure at 36 Atherton Street in the Spring Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, USA...

, located on Atherton Street, and the Somerville Museum, located on Central Street.

At one time this neighborhood was home to both journalist Howie Carr

Howie Carr

Howard Louis "Howie" Carr, Jr. is an American journalist, author, and conservative radio talk-show host based in Boston with a listening audience rooted in New England.-Radio:...

 and Winter Hill Gang

Winter Hill Gang

The Winter Hill Gang is a structured confederation of Boston, Massachusetts-area organized crime figures, predominantly Irish-American with a small Italian-American faction. It derives its name from the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts north of Boston. Its members have...

 leader Howie Winter

Howie Winter

Howard Thomas "Howie" Winter is an American mobster. He was the second leader of the infamous Winter Hill Gang.-Early life:...

. They lived one street apart, on Madison Street and Montrose Street, respectively. This was revealed in Carr's book about Irish mobster James "Whitey" Bulger, "The Brothers Bulger".