Boston investors, seeing the potential of the town and its proximity to the city, provided the capital to develop 18th century Milton as an important industrial site with an iron slitting mill, paper and sawmills and the first chocolate factory in New England in 1764. Benjamin Crahore began making pianos in 1800 in what is thought to be the first piano factory in the country.

In 1809 the first public health drive in the country was held in Milton to inoculate residents against smallpox. Situated at the head of a tidewater, the town became a commercial trading center where goods from the interior could be exchanged for West Indian goods. Prosperous Bostonians, including Governor Hutchinson, followed their investments and moved to Milton, creating an early estate district which grew side-by-side with 125 farms.

Also increasing the town's population were immigrants from Ireland, Nova Scotia and Scotland drawn to the jobs the community offered. Harvard University built a stone tower on Big Blue, the tallest hill on the coast between Maine and Florida, to mark the meridian in alignment with its observatory in Cambridge.

Milton Mass is located in Eastern Massachusetts, bordered by Randolph on the south, Canton on the west, Boston on the north, and Quincy on the east. Milton is 8 miles southwest of Boston, 13 miles north of Brockton, and about 220 miles from New York City.