Milton Historical Society to host Patriots Day open house on April 14th

Colonial re-enactor Michel LePage to portray patriot Dr. Joseph Warren

The Milton Historical Society is hosting its annual Patriots Day open house on Sunday, April 14th, 2019 from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. at the Suffolk Resolves House, 1370 Canton Ave., Milton, MA. The event is free and light refreshments will be available. Colonial re-enactor Michel LePage will portray patriot Dr. Joseph Warren.

Both the house and Dr. Warren played a key role in America’s independence. On September 9, 1774, representatives from Boston and other Suffolk County towns met in Milton at the home and tavern of Daniel Vose located near 40 Adams Street to craft a response to the Coercive Acts. Dr. Warren drafted a series of resolutions, known as the Suffolk Resolves, that were passed by a unanimous vote of the Suffolk County towns. Paul Revere then delivered the Suffolk Resolves to Philadelphia, where the First Continental Congress endorsed them on September 17, 1774.

Dr. Warren had been a physician from Massachusetts who played a leading role in American patriot organizations in Boston in the early days of the American Revolution, eventually serving as President of the revolutionary Massachusetts Provincial Congress. Dr. Warren enlisted Paul Revere and William Dawes on April 18, 1775, to leave Boston and spread the alarm that the British garrison in Boston was setting out to raid the town of Concord and arrest rebel leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Dr. Warren participated in the next day’s Battles of Lexington and Concord, which are commonly considered to be the opening engagements of the American Revolutionary War. Warren served in the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775 as a private soldier and was killed in combat when British troops stormed Breed’s Hill in Charlestown, MA.

The Suffolk Resolves House, built in 1765, was so named because Milton was once in Suffolk County before the boundaries were redrawn, and it is where Dr. Warren wrote and edited the Resolves. The Resolves were an important predecessor document to the Declaration of Independence. The Suffolk Resolves House is now the headquarters of the Milton Historical Society.

To prevent the Suffolk Resolves House demolition in 1950, Dr. and Mrs. James Bourne Ayer moved it from its original location on Adams Street (where Citizens Bank now is, next to the Milton trolley stop) to its present location on upper Canton Avenue. The Ayers had it restored by William Morris Hunt 2nd and later gave it to the Milton Historical Society.

The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 23, 1973.

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The Milton Historical Society is a nonprofit organization, founded in 1904 to collect, preserve, publish and exhibit artifacts and records relating to the town of Milton. For more information about the Milton Historical Society, or to become a corporate sponsor or a member, please check out its website at www.miltonhistoricalsociety.org.