Milk Street is a street in the

financial district A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...

of Boston, Massachusetts, which was one of Boston's earliest highways."The New England Magazine" v. 12, Making of America Project (New England Magazine Co., 189

accessed July 4, 2009) The name "Milk Street" was most likely given to the street in 1708 due to a milk market at the location, although Grace Croft's 1952 work "History and Genealogy of Milk Family" instead proposes that Milk Street may have been named for John Milk, an early shipwright in Boston. The land was originally conveyed to his father, also John Milk, in October 1666. One of the first post offices in Boston was founded on the street in 1711, when the first regular postal routes to Maine, Plymouth and New York were established.

Buildings on Milk Street

Old South Meeting House The Old South Meeting House is a historic Congregational church building located at the corner of Milk and Washington Streets in the Downtown Crossing area of Boston, Massachusetts, built in 1729. It gained fame as the organizing point for th ...

at the corner of Milk and Washington where Milk Street begins * Central Wharf and its warehouses, and the

New England Aquarium The New England Aquarium is a public aquarium located in Boston, Massachusetts. The species exhibited include harbor and northern fur seals, California sea lions, African and southern rockhopper penguins, giant Pacific octopuses, weedy s ...

, at the waterfront end of Milk Street *

Flour and Grain Exchange Building The Flour and Grain Exchange Building is a 19th-century office building in Boston. Located at 177 Milk Street in the Custom House District, at the edge of the Financial District near the waterfront, it is distinguished by the large black slate ...

at Milk and India streets *The King Building at 120 Milk Street, built 1894 as a bank and now an apartment building * International Trust Company Building, built 1892–1893, at 39–47 Milk Street *The

John W. McCormack Post Office and Courthouse The John W. McCormack Post Office and Courthouse, formerly the United States Post Office, Courthouse, and Federal Building is a historic building at 5 Post Office Square in Boston, Massachusetts. The twenty-two-story, skyscraper was built betwe ...

occupies a block bounded on one side by Milk Street, which also defines one side of Post Office Square and the block occupied by the One Post Office Square skyscraper

Historical places and former residents

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

's birthplace is on Milk Street. *Boston's historical Newspaper Row district includes 5–23 Milk Street. The defunct ''

Boston Post ''The Boston Post'' was a daily newspaper in New England for over a hundred years before it folded in 1956. The ''Post'' was founded in November 1831 by two prominent Boston businessmen, Charles G. Greene and William Beals. Edwin Grozier bough ...

'' newspaper was headquartered at 15–17 Milk Street. * The United States Post Office and Sub-Treasury Building, demolished 1929, now the site of the John W. McCormack Post Office and Courthouse *

Julien's Restorator Julien's Restorator (c. 1793–1823) was a restaurant in Boston, Massachusetts, established by French-born Jean Baptiste Gilbert Payplat dis Julien.Andrew F. Smith, ed. The Oxford companion to American food and drink. Oxford University Press US, ...

, a pioneering late-18th- and early-19th-century restaurant, was at Milk Street and Congress Street. Julien Hall, now demolished, was built on the site in 1825. * J. L. Cunningham, auctioneer, worked in Corinthian Hall at Milk Street and Federal Street, 1826–1843. * Benjamin Dearborn, mechanical inventor, lived on Milk Street.''Massachusetts Mercury'', January 13, 1797 * Abram French ran a crockery business on Milk Street in the 19th century. * David Claypoole Johnston, artist, kept a studio on Milk Street in the 19th century. * Nineteenth-century engraver Ephraim W. Bouvé's studio was on Milk Street. * Instrument-maker Thomas Appleton (1785–1872), partner of Alpheus Babcock, had his workshops at 6 Milk Street; and a successor company, the Franklin Music Warehouse, was also on Milk Street. *The American Humane Education Society, publisher of ''Black Beauty'' and ''Strike at Shane’s'', had headquarters at 45 Milk Street.

Subway connection

The closest subway stop to Milk Street is State station.

References

Images

Image:1723 MilkSt Boston JohnBonner WilliamPrice.png, 1723 map of Boston, showing Milk St. and vicinity Image:1825 BearOil Wight MilkSt Boston.png, Apothecary, Milk St., c. 1825 File:Boston, as the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It.jpg, ''Boston, as the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It'', 1860 overview photo by J.W. Black, showing Milk Street and vicinity

Buildings on Milk Street

Historical places and former residents

Subway connection

References

Images

Further reading