Hope All HAd a Good Mother’s Day
Month: May 2025
mr. History Post #12: Winter Hill Gang HQ
It’s a church now, but the building at 12-14 Marshall Street, a landmark in the history of 20th Century organized crime, served as the headquarters for the infamous Winter Hill Gang.
With 12-14 Marshal St. as its headquarters, Winter and James “Whitey” Bulger directed a criminal organization that fixed horse races along the east coast, corrupted the Boston office of the FBI and provided the basis for an academy-award winning film (“The Departed” was loosely based on Bulger’s role as an FBI informant). From the 1970s until 1994 when Bulger fled Boston to avoid law enforcement, the gang rivaled the local Mafia in brutality and profits. And until 1980, when Winter went to jail and the gang moved to Boston, Marshall Street was the crew’s command center.
In 2008, the garage’s infamous trapdoor, which led to a basement where the Winter Hill Gang tortured or disposed of their rivals, was still intact. A significant place in the history of organized crime in the United States.
A Little Back Yard Love going On
Yesterday was a pretty busy day! In the morning some guys we got to replace some of the falling fence panels in the back yard came by to remove the worst of the offenders. These panels are just so old and waterlogged, one even fell down. Those will be getting replaced piecemeal as time goes on. By the end of a week or two they should be done with the work. Good thing I had finally mowed the lawn a few days ago. We then had our previous massage lady come by and pick up the supplies she had left here, by now a few years ago, like her table and heater and bolster, and it was fun to reconnect. Maybe we’ll do a lunch or something in the future. We then hit the town’s garden flowers sale, something that we do every year. It wasn’t as big this year and it was a bit rainy but we got a few things. LD had a bunch of things to do while caught the Celtics game and then we planted the plants we got earlier, but then the sun had come out and it was a nice day.. We then cooked and baked some things as well, and I ordered a pizza. That’s that, a typical Saturday around here.
Mr. History Post #11: The Birth of Reddit!
Mr. History post #11: Birth of Reddit.
Some of you might have seen this elsewhere but anyways in 2005, college roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian created Reddit from their apartment at 265 Elm Street in Davis Square, Somerville.
Today, their creation ranks as the 18th most-visited website in the world!
I grew up just a few blocks from this location and must have walked by it thousands of times, especially during that time, and I never even knew!
Mr. History Post #10: The Powder House
Mr. History post number 10: Powder House – the oldest stone building in Massachusetts, built around 1703! Oh yeah, there was some other pre-revolution history to it, too. Over the years it’s been used to store munitions and even pickles!
May the 4th Be With You!
Started out the day walking a trail in Wellesley that I’d been meaning to do for quite some time but never got around to it until today. We had to be in the area so I decided to take the oppurtunuithy to get some steps in. The Fuller Brook Trail is really beautiful. Such a lovely trial to walk and enjoy.
After that I decided to treat us brunch over at The Cottage.
It was also Somerville Open Studios weekend so I decided to relive visiting the Museum of Modern Renaissance.
A Fun Saturday Sunning, On the Water, and Seafood
First really warm beach day outing of the year, sort of a test run if you will. Saw an interesting rock and then had a late lunch at a place called 135 Ocean which was pretty good.
