Orient Heights

Well into the 20th century, Italian and English were still spoken in roughly equal amounts in Orient Heights.

In more recent years, an increasing Portuguese-speaking population has appeared, and nearly a third of the residents have South American ancestry.

The beach underwent renovations in the late 1990s as a new public bathhouse and refreshment stand was added, as well as a new pedestrian walkway over the tracks of the Blue Line onto Bennington Street.

It was designed by Jewish-Italian sculptor Arrigo Minerbi, who wanted to show his gratitude to the Catholic Church for having shielded him and his family from the Nazis during World War II.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's Blue Line runs through the neighborhood, which is serviced by the Orient Heights and Suffolk Downs stations.

No MBTA buses service the Suffolk Downs station, which with the closing of the Suffolk Downs racetrack and a lack of associated bus routes has the lowest ridership of any heavy rail transit station in the MBTA system.