Milton Historic Institutions
The History of Milton Academy
In 1866, the town of Milton decided to establish a public high school, causing Milton Academy to temporarily suspend its operation and to lease its building to the town. In 1885, however, the Academy became active again, thanks mostly to the largesse of businessman John Murray Forbes’s support of the endowment, this time moving its location to the corner of Randolph Avenue and Centre Street in a building which would later come to be named Warren Hall. Although Forbes would be known as the “Founder of the Reestablished Academy,” his son William Hathaway Forbes was chosen the new President of the Board of Trustees. Milton’s population having increased from 1,039 in 1798 to 3,555, the Academy was able to enroll 40 boys and girls and employ four teachers under the leadership of Principal Samuel Thurber.
Recruited by trustee Harriet Ware, Harrison Otis Apthorp became Headmaster in 1887, serving till his retirement in 1904. During his tenure the Academy expanded significantly in population and physical size, enrollment growing to 135 and several new buildings rising on campus, including three boys’ boarding houses, Forbes, Robbins, and Wolcott, a gymnasium, and Wigglesworth Hall, a second schoolhouse constructed next to Warren Hall along Centre Street. In 1898, the school’s centennial year, Apthorp created the school shield and motto “Dare to be True,” which he adopted from a poem attributed to the poet George Herbert.
In 1901, the trustees divided the Academy into separate Boys’ and Girls’ Upper Schools, the Lower School up to Grade 6 remaining coeducational. Soon, Hathaway House, a dormitory for female boarders, was erected as was Ware Hall, a girls’ schoolhouse, directly across Centre Street from Warren and Wigglesworth. For most of the next 70 years, the three schools prospered under one Board of Trustees and Headmaster, who also acted as the Principal of the Boys’ School while the Girls’ and Lower Schools had their own Principals. The Apthorp Chapel and the Robert Saltonstall Gym were added in 1921, and the old gym was renovated and moved across the street to serve the girls on their campus. Although many faculty and older students left to serve their country during the two World Wars, the school carried on, even educating 40 children tuition free, who had been sent to the states from war torn England in the 1940s.
In the 1970s and 80s under the leadership of Headmaster Jerome Pieh, the upper schools gradually merged over a period of 15 years into one coeducational entity. At the same time, the Academy broadened its outreach, diversifying its student body and becoming a truly international school and multicultural community attracting students and faculty from different races and backgrounds. Edwin Fredie, formerly principal of Needham High School, became Milton’s first African American Headmaster in 1991, following Pieh’s retirement, leading the school’s bicentennial celebration in 1998. Robin Robertson, the first female Head of School, took Milton into the 21st century, and Alixe Callen, a 1988 graduate with wide experience leading both independent and public schools, became the second female Head of School after her election in 2023, following the retirement of Todd Bland, who had resolutely guided the school through the painful Covid pandemic toward the end of his 14 year tenure..
Though the enrollment has grown from 135 to 1034 and the modern 125-acre campus, with its state-of-the-art facilities in the arts. sciences, and athletics, looks far different than it did 125 years ago, the Academy’s trustees, administrators, and faculty hold fast to their mission of educating the whole person of each student in their care to “Dare to be True.”
Bibliographical source: Visions & Revisions, A Pictorial History of Milton Academy, copyright 1995 by The Trustees of Milton Academy
In 1797, the Milton Town Meeting voted to create and fund the establishment of a new school that would be governed and managed by an independent Board of Trustees. The following year the Massachusetts legislature granted the necessary charter for Edward H. Robbins, a Milton resident as well as Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, to found a school whose vision would be “the promotion of piety, religion, and morality.” Though Robbins served as president of the Board till 1829, the construction of the first school building adjacent to the First Unitarian Church was not completed till 1807 when 23 students were enrolled and tuition was set at $21. For the next 58 years, one teacher taught Latin, Greek, writing, arithmetic, geography, and astronomy, the enrollment averaging 28 students.
History of Cunningham Park
Celebrating Cunningham Park’s Centennial
Long before Edge Hill Road existed, what today is Cunningham Park was in the latter 19th century part of the 150-acre estate of Edward L. Cunningham. Cunningham had been a business partner with two eminently successful Milton brothers, Robert Bennet Forbes and John Murray Forbes, in Russell and Company. In a tragic incident that accounts almost always misrepresent, Edward died of a gunshot wound in November 1889.
His aunt by marriage (to Rev. Francis Cunningham) was another Forbes sibling, Mary Abbot Forbes. Better known by her married name, Mary A. Cunningham, she died in 1904, bequeathing the bulk of her fortune — some $600,000 (the equivalent more than $6 million today) — to a trust “to be utilized for the benefit of the inhabitants of Milton.” Subsequently, the Cunningham Trust came into being, and its three trustees purchased 100 acres of the late Edward Cunningham’s estate for use as the publicly accessible, but privately owned Cunningham Park, which officially opened in 1905. That same year, the trustees sold Edward’s 1871 mansion and some of the acreage for $1.00 to the Convalescent Home, which had been housed since 1877 at the corner of Canton Avenue and Thacher Street. (The $1.00 was never paid!) At about the same time, a group headed by the renowned physician, Dr. M. Vassar Pierce, “established a small hospital under the same roof.” Thus was born Milton Hospital, which would serve the community from that location for 45 years, until moving to Highland Street in 1950.In 1906, Cunningham’s main barn, located near Edge Hill Road, was converted into what locals simply called the “the Gym,” eventually becoming a center for a variety of activities, including league bowling, movies, and “Canteen” dances for teenagers. In 1920, the swimming pool was built, and was said to have been the world’s largest man-made pool when it opened. (It was renamed for William Caldwell, who devoted more than 40 years to managing the Park.) Then came the bowling green in 1929, two sets of tennis courts, the Girl Scout’s House, and the old skating house — a long wooden structure for ice skaters, gender-divided into two rooms that were heated by large potbelly stoves, and with a deck and bench running the length of the building, which stood at the edge of the large skating pond just east of the swimming pool. For many years, both Milton High School and Milton Academy used the skating pond for hockey.
The skating house is now gone, as are the lower tennis courts, as well as the original pool and the gym — the latter having been replaced by more modern ones. And, after Milton Hospital had moved in 1950, the Convalescent Home was eventually torn down in the 1960s. Yet, all in all, Cunningham Park has changed relatively little in its 100 years. Even the original bathhouse is still in use.
Of course, there have been cosmetic changes, making it a pleasant exercise in nostalgia to tour the old Park, via photographs, as it used to be. Come along with us as seen below:
Pictures to be added later
Milton Fire Department
A Brief history of the Milton Fire Department
The earliest movement toward the creation of an organized fire fighting force in Milton occurred in October 1793 when Milton and Dorchester officials met to create the Fireward Society of Milton and Dorchester. A new fire engine pumper was soon purchased and housed in a small building on the Dorchester side of the river near the present site of the Pierce building, Baker Chocolate apartments in Lower Mills. The firemen named their engine Fountain #1. The volunteer society was composed of an equal number of citizens from both towns. Members were required to meet once a month for training, etc. and respond to any fire in this growing business and residential area. Funds were raised by dues and levying fines on members for missing meetings or fires. About 1840 a new engine house was built in Milton Village near the wharf and an engine kept there. This volunteer organization was called the Ninety's Hose Company and was mainly tasked with responding to fires in Milton Village. As the East Milton section of town grew with the creation of the Granite Railway another firefighting organization was established. In 1827 a new engine was purchased by the town and housed in a fire house built on Adams Street near Squantum Street. The new fire engine was named Danube #2 and like the Fountain was manned by volunteers. In 1846 the town purchased a new engine called the Hydrant. The 1827 engine house on Adams St. was later moved to Granite Avenue near the corner of Bassett St. with the addition of a horse drawn ladder truck named the Granite Hook and Ladder.
During this period, another fire house was built in the western section of town near Mattapan. Like the Fireward Society, the Alert Volunteer Fire Association of Mattapan and Milton was comprised of a number of citizens from both communities. Their engine house was located on the Milton side of the Neponset River not far from the bridge leading into Milton. Like the firemen in Lower Mills and East Milton this was also a volunteer organization and funded by dues, and other fees, etc. Each of these organizations represent the volunteer era of firefighting in Milton and some of their record books and other documents are carefully preserved by the Milton Historical Society. As the nineteenth century progressed and suburban towns of Boston such as Milton grew in population the need for a more centrally organized and professional fire department was recognized. In 1881 the town purchased a new chemical fire engine and built a station house for it in the rear of town hall on Canton Ave. The chemical fire engine was a new trend in firefighting and this was a sign the Milton officials wanted the best in firefighting technology. An even larger fire house was constructed adjacent to the chemical building in 1887 and a steam fire engine was purchased. A new horse drawn engine was also placed here and named Milton Engine 1, Later, an addition was added to the Central Fire Station and a horse drawn ladder truck, Ladder 1 installed.
As the East Milton section of town continued to grow a new fire station was built at the intersection of Granite Ave and Adams St. in East Milton Square in 1893. A modern horse drawn fire engine was purchased and installed there. This was called Milton Hose 2 and later Engine 2. A ladder truck, Ladder 2 was later added. About this same time another station and fire engine were provided in Milton Village near Wharf St and this was known as Hose 3 and later Engine 3. The records of this fire station and engine are vague (no known photographs) and by the 1940's-50's appear to be eliminated from the compliment of the Milton Fire Department. In 1901, land was purchased and a new fire house constructed at the intersection of Blue Hill Ave and Atherton St. as more and more fires were occurring in that growing western section of town. A horse drawn engine was stationed there and this was named Hose 4 and later Engine 4.
By the late 19th and early 20th century the Milton Fire Department had evolved into a mostly paid, professional department led by a Board of Fire Engineers with the chairman of the Board acting as fire chief. Gradually this board was eliminated and the department placed under the leadership of a single fire chief in charge of about 60 firefighters. The department was also supplemented by a call force of approximately 15-20 men. These call men were not volunteers but were on call and paid after responding to fires or otherwise called to duty. Like the full-time members these received the same training as full-time fire fighters and this was often a stepping stone in becoming a full-time member of the department. The last call man was retired from the Milton Fire Department in the 1960's.
All horse drawn fire apparatus in Milton were eliminated by the 1920's replaced by motorized engines and ladder trucks but the horses were sometimes placed back in service during periods of heavy snowfall. In 1953 a new firehouse replaced the 1893 East Milton station at 525 Adams St at Granite Ave. Engine 2 is still housed there but Ladder 2 was eliminated in the 1980's.
In 2024, construction of a new firehouse was completed next to the Central Fire Station behind town hall at 515 Canton Ave. and Engine 1 and Ladder 1 were placed there. Besides these the new station also houses a brush firefighting truck, a small rescue boat and an all terrain vehicle (ATV) as well as the deputy and fire chief's vehicles. The new station includes a modern communications center and fire prevention office and has all conveniences of a modern firehouse. Meanwhile, the 1887 Central Fire Station was renovated and continues to provide the town with a community meeting place and other needs.
A new fire house is currently being constructed on Adams St near the St. Agatha church rectory which will house Engine 2 for many years to come. (Interestingly this new fire station on Adams Street will be located a short distance from the original site of the Danube engine house of 1827). Plans are also currently underway for the rehabilitation and renovation of the Atherton St. firehouse located at 825 Blue Hill Ave.
The Milton Fire Department has a long history and proud tradition of service to the town of Milton since its humble beginnings in 1793 to the present day as the community has grown from a small village into a modern suburb of approximately 30,000 people. To learn more about the history of the Milton Fire Department see also: The History of Milton, Mass. 1640-1887 by Rev. A.K. Teele; A History of Milton by Edward P. Hamilton; and Milton Firefighting by Brian A. Doherty, each available at Milton Public Library. Also, the Milton Historical Society maintains an historic file on the Milton Fire Department.