

(Updated: Sat., July 25) — Mayor Martin Walsh has purchased a stately Victorian home in the Lower Mills and will relocate there from his current home in Savin Hill in the coming weeks. The home at 2 Butler Street— which went on the market just in the last few weeks— is a large, single-family home at the corner of Richmond Street.

Walsh and his longtime girlfriend Lorrie Higgins will move into the two-story home later this summer, the Reporter is told.

The selling price has not been disclosed, but the home was last assessed at $508,600, according to public records.

Walsh currently lives in a two-family house on Tuttle Street in the Savin Hill section of Dorchester. He was born and raised on Taft Street in Columbia-Savin Hill, where his mother still resides. Walsh served as president of the Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association before his 1997 election to the House of Representatives.

On Friday, a source close to the mayor said that he has been looking for a larger home to share with his partner Lorrie for the last several months. Together, they scouted locations in several parts of Dorchester, the source said.

Julie Joyce is the real estate agent who brokered the sale for Boston Bayside Properties.

"The sale will not only be a shot in the arm for our Lower Mills neighborhood now having the 54th mayor of Boston move in, but it will also bring two wonderful new neighbors, Marty and Lorrie," said Joyce, who lives nearby. "[They] are moving into this fantastic house and have big shoes to fill from the current owners, the Ghublikians, who have been a real asset to those of us who live in Lower Mills."

Columbia-Savin Hill has been the mayor's home since birth, but he's always seen Dorchester as one neighborhood, the source said.

Walsh will be the newest, but not the only politician, in the immediate neighborhood. State Senator Linda Dorcena Forry— wife of Reporter publisher and editor Bill Forry—lives just a few doors away on Richmond Street. Walsh's Chief Policy Adviser and political king-maker Joyce Linehan lives a block away on Adams Street.

"Lower Mills, like other areas of Dorchester, is unique," said Jessie Cuddy, who owns Boston Bayside Properties. "It has a suburban feel still rich in industrial history reflected by its cobbled stone streets and the Baker Dam. It’s a strong, vibrant community, has lots of walkable restaurants and shops, an active civic group and a very large merchant’s association.

"Most folks at whatever time of day when you pass them on the street say hello. Particularly over the past few years others are discovering what those of us who live and work here have known. It’s a great place to live," said Cuddy.