Milton Hill Historic District is located on a lofty hill located between Milton Village and Algerene Corner, formerly known as Union Square, the junction of Adams and Centre Streets. The district includes Adams and School Streets, Randolph and Canton Avenues and Brook Road and has panoramic views of the marshes and river in the foreground and the harbor beyond are superb. A road was laid out over Milton Hill in 1654 that connected Braintree (now Quincy) and Roxbury; this road was originally known as the "Country Heigh Waye", now known as Adams Street, was the main road between Boston and the South Shore and Plymouth Colony in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Once the center of town life, the meetinghouse was located on Adams Street until 1728. Also a place of fashionable residence, it was once the summer seats of Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson, whose estate was known as "Unquety" (now Hutchinson Street) and that of Royal Governor Jonathan Belcher (now Belcher Circle.) In the nineteenth century, the impressive Greek Revival Forbes House was designed by Isaiah Rogers and built in 1833 at the crest of the hill overlooking Boston Harbor. From the mid nineteenth century to the early 1930's, Milton Hill was built up with significant architect designed houses of wealthy Milton and Boston businessmen. Here was born former United States president George H.W. Bush in 1924.
An interesting feature on Milton Hill are granite milestones on Adams Street that were set up in 1722 (B.7. 1722), 1723 (B.8. 1723) and in 1734 (8 Miles to B. Town House. The lower way. 1734.) by Royal Governor Belcher.
Notable Houses and Other Aspects:
- Moses Whitney House - 126 Adams Street (1819)
- Samuel Glover House - 144 Adams Street (c.1800)
- Dr. Amos Holbrook House - 203 Adams Street (1801)
- Capt. Robert Bennet Forbes House - 215 Adam Street (Isaiah Rogers, 1833)
- The Gooch-Churchill House - 233 Adams Street (1740)
- Nathan Babcock House - 362 Adams Street (1776)
- Cabot-Robbins-Morton House - Morton Road (1795)
- Seth Whitney House - 30 Canton Avenue (1844)
- Hollis House - 239 Randolph Avenue (c.1831)
- Hutchinson Field - Adams Street (owned by Trustees of Reservations)
- Hutchinson's Ha-Ha Wall