Mission Hill Real Estate

Mission Hill covers about three-quarters of a square mile between the Longwood Medical Area, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain and Brookline, much of it on the slopes of Parker Hill. Once part of the old town of Roxbury, it takes its name from the Redemptorist mission that built the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Puddingstone quarries operated here through the nineteenth century, and an 1890s building boom covered the hillside with triple-deckers and brick rows.

Tremont Street and Huntington Avenue are the two commercial streets, meeting near Brigham Circle, where groceries, pharmacies, pubs and takeout spots cluster. The E branch runs down Huntington and South Huntington avenues, sharing the street with cars past Brigham Circle, and Roxbury Crossing on the Orange Line sits at the foot of the hill. Olmsted's Riverway and Olmsted Park are a short walk west.

Many streets here are steep, rising from Tremont Street toward the top of Parker Hill. Ask how a house sits on its slope, since that shapes views, light, parking and how you carry groceries home, and compare a few streets at different heights before you settle on one.