The Dorchester-Milton Lower Mills Industrial District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

on both sides of the

Neponset River The Neponset River is a river in eastern Massachusetts in the United States. Its headwaters are at the Neponset Reservoir in Foxborough, near Gillette Stadium. From there, the Neponset meanders generally northeast for about to its mouth at ...

in the Dorchester area of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and in the town of

Milton, Massachusetts Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and an affluent suburb of Boston. The population was 28,630 at the 2020 census. Milton is the birthplace of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and architect Buckminster Fuller. ...

. It encompasses an industrial factory complex, most of which was historically associated with the

Walter Baker & Company The Baker Chocolate Company was an American company that produced chocolate, headquartered in Dorchester, Boston. It was the first company to produce chocolate in the country. Following the deaths of its founders and officers, the company was sold ...

, the first major maker of

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

products in the United States. The industrial buildings of the district were built between about 1868 and 1947. They were listed as part of the district on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1980, with a slight enlargement in 2001. The buildings have been adapted for mixed industrial/retail/residential use.

Description

Lower Mills Village is located on either side of the

, which demarcates the southern boundary of Boston and the northern boundary of Milton. The river is crossed by Adams Street, which roughly bisects the district. The district is bounded on the south by the

MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...

rail right-of-way in Milton and River, Washington, and Adams Streets in Dorchester. The historic district includes sixteen industrial buildings, all but one of which were directly associated with Water Baker & Company. Most of the buildings are constructed of brick, with numerous additions and ells. They are stylistically diverse, having been built between 1868 and 1947, reflecting styles from the Second Empire to the Queen Anne, Romanesque Revival, and utilitarian modern.

History

Native Americans had lived near this area for thousands of years. Members of the historic

Massachusett The Massachusett were a Native American tribe from the region in and around present-day Greater Boston in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name comes from the Massachusett language term for "At the Great Hill," referring to the Blue Hills ...

tribe in this area encountered English colonists in the 17th century. They had occupied parcels of land near what is today the Ventura Street Playground in the

Neponset River Reservation Neponset River Reservation is a Massachusetts state reservation along the Neponset River in the towns of Milton and Dorchester, near where the river flows through an estuary into the Boston Harbor. It is adjacent to the Dorchester-Milton Lower ...

and

Dorchester Park Dorchester Park is a historic park bounded by Dorchester Avenue, Richmond, Adams and Richview Streets in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The park was designed by Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot, and constructed in 1891, as part ...

. In the early 1630s

Israel Stoughton Israel Stoughton (c. 1603 – 1644) was an early English colonist in Massachusetts and a colonial commander in the Pequot War. Returning to England, he served as Parliamentarian officer in the First English Civil War. Life Born in England, a yo ...

acquired land to build a grist mill for grinding corn. Later chocolate factory buildings were built on that site. site. In 1637 early settler John Whipple, an apprentice to Stoughton, settled on land near Butler and Bearse streets.Whipple, ''Captain John and Sarah Whipple'', https://www.whipple.org/charles/johnandsarah.pdf pg. 13 Chocolate-making in the immediate area has a history dating to the mid-18th century, when Dr. James Baker and John Hannan established the business in 1765. The company they founded grew to national prominence in the first half of the 19th century under Walter Baker, James Baker's grandson. Additional expansion took place in the late 19th century, when a major portion of the present complex was built beginning in 1868 under the leadership of Henry Pierce; it continued under his successor, H. Clifford Gallagher. In 1926 the company was acquired by

General Foods General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the United States by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The company changed its name to "General Foods" in 1929, after several corporate ...

, which continued to manufacture chocolate under the Baker name on these premises until 1965. That year it consolidated operations at a plant in upstate

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Dorchester, Boston Milton, Massachusetts Historic districts in Norfolk County, Massachusetts Historic districts in Suffolk County, Massachusetts Neponset River National Register of Historic Places in Norfolk County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Boston Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

Description

History

See also

References