Local city information for Milton, MA

Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and part of the Greater Boston area. The population was 26,062 at the 2000 census. Milton is the birthplace of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and architect R. Buckminster Fuller. A distinguished American sculptor and author of art history books, William Ordway Partridge, lived in Milton and maintained his studio there for many years at the end of the nineteenth century. Milton also has the highest percentage of residents citing Irish lineage of any town in the United States per capita - 38%. In 2007, Money Magazine listed Milton seventh on its annual list of the "Best Places to Live" in the United States.In addition to being the 7th Best Place to Live in America, Milton is also the country's windiest city according to Forbes Magazine.


Milton is located between the Neponset River and the Blue Hills. It is bordered by Boston to the north, Quincy to the south and east, and Canton and Dedham to the west. It has water access to Boston Harbor through the Neponset Estuary. Although the first English traders traveled in Milton as early as the 1620s, the earliest permanent settlement occurred in 1634, when colonists created an agricultural community growing barley, rye and Indian corn.

Milton was once part of Dorchester. Referred to as "Unquity", the term used by the Neponset Tribe of the Massachusetts Indians as meaning "Lower Falls," was translated into Lower Mills after the establishment of the Stoughton Grist Mill in 1634. In 1662, "that part of the Town of Dorchester which is situated on the south side of the Neponsett River commonly called 'Unquatiquisset' was established as an independent town and named Milton in honor of Milton Abbey, Dorset, England."

A powder mill established in 1674 may be the earliest in the colonies, taking advantage of the town's water power sites. Boston investors, seeing the potential of the town and its proximity to the city, provided the capital to develop 18th century Milton as an industrial site with an iron slitting mill, paper and sawmills, and the first chocolate factory in New England (the Walter Baker Chocolate Factory) in 1764, which was converted from the old Stoughton Grist Mill. Laying of streetcar lines fueled the rapid expansion of residential development. Between 1870 and 1915, Milton grew into the community it is now: a streetcar suburb with some chocolates, biscuits and market produce to remind residents of the past. By 1929, many of the big estates were broken into subdivisions as the town's residential growth continued. Milton retains many elegant 19th century country houses and estates as well as 19th century workers' housing.

The Suffolk Resolves were signed in Milton in 1774, and were used as a model by the drafters of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The Daniel Vose House, where the Resolves were passed, still stands and it is maintained as the current headquarters of the Milton Historical Society. The house was moved to a new location at 1370 Canton Avenue in West Milton in order to save it from demolition at its previous location in "Milton Village" at Lower Mills. See the external links below.

Two royal governors of Massachusetts, Jonathan Belcher and Thomas Hutchinson, had houses in Milton. The Governor Belcher House dates from 1777, replacing the earlier home destroyed in fire in 1776, and it is privately owned on Governor Belcher Lane in East Milton. Although Hutchinson's house is gone, Governor Hutchinson's Field (maintained by the Trustees of Reservations) today is a wide expanse of greenery on Milton Hill, with a view of the Neponset River estuary and the skyscrapers of Boston six miles away. See the external link.

The town was home to America's first piano factory. Revolutionary Milton is the setting of the opening of the 1940 bestselling historical novel Oliver Wiswell by Kenneth Roberts. The Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory is located in the town, home of the nation's oldest continuously kept meteorological records.

The Granite Railway passed from Quincy to the Neponset River in Milton, beginning in 1826. It is often called the first commercial railroad in the United States, as it was the first chartered railway to evolve into a common carrier without an intervening closure. A centennial historic plaque from 1926 and an original frog switch and section of track from the railway can be found in the gardens on top of the Southeast Expressway (Interstate 93) as it passes under East Milton Square. The frog had been displayed at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.

East Milton Square developed as a direct result of the Granite Railway. Four sheds there were used to "dress" the granite stone prior to it being brought by rail to the wharf for transfer to boats. East Milton Square was originally termed the "Railway Village" and a train station was located there after 1871 when the Granite Railway became a passenger line of the Old Colony Railroad. The Blue Bell Tavern, which was also a hotel, served as the headquarters of the Granite Railway and it was later named the Russell House. It was located on the site of the current United States Post Office in East Milton Square.

In 1801 Josiah Bent began a baking operation in Milton, selling "water crackers" or biscuits made of flour and water that would not deteriorate during long sea voyages from the port of Boston. The crackling sound occurred during baking, hence the name. This is where the American term "cracker" originated. His company later sold the original hardtack crackers used by troops during the American Civil War. The company, Bent's Cookie Factory, is still located in Milton and continues to sell these items to Civil War reenactors and others. See the external link.

Robert Bennet Forbes was a noted China Trade merchant, sea captain, and philanthropist during the Irish Famine. He built a Greek Revival mansion in 1833 at 215 Adams Street on Milton Hill. The Captain Robert Bennet Forbes House is now a National Historic Landmark open for tours. In addition to artifacts from the China Trade period, the museum's grounds include a log cabin replica and a collection of Lincoln memorabilia.

George Herbert Walker Bush was born at 173 Adams Street on Milton Hill on June 12, 1924. He would become the 41st President of the United States, serving from 1989 to 1993, and his son would become the 43rd President. Coincidentally, Adams Street is named for the family of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, who lived on the same street just a few miles south in Braintree, Massachusetts. The Bush Family moved from Milton to Greenwich, Connecticut in 1925. The Victorian house where President Bush was born is now privately owned and not open to the public.

(* Note: The exact year Milton was settled is debated, but it is believed to be sometime before 1640 and after the mid-1630s. The town seal says 1640, as well as several other town monuments.)

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