Littleton, Massachusetts

Littleton is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. It is said that the town was originally intended to be named after British official George Lyttleton, who in acknowledgment sent from England a church bell as a present to the town. Because of the error in spelling (said to be the fault of a newspaper misprint) the gift was withheld by the person in charge of it. Saying that no such town as Lyttleton could be found, he sold the bell.

The minutemen and militia of Littleton mustered at Liberty Square located on the southwest side of town on the Boxborough line (then part of Littleton), in April 1775. They marched from there through what is now Boxborough Depot and over Littleton Rd/Boxborough Rd to Newtown Road (Littleton), up over Fort Pond Hill (stopping briefly at the Choate Farm) and along Newtown Rd (Acton) to Acton Center. From there, they marched along the Isaac Davis Trail to Old North Bridge.

The arrival of Digital Equipment Corp. (now part of Hewlett-Packard) in the 1970s made the town part of the Boston-area high-tech corridor. It built a very large facility on King Street near the Common. In 2007, IBM purchased the King Street facility from Hewlett-Packard and announced it would become its main New England location. Due to its location between Fort Devens and Hanscom AFB, Littleton has become a popular location for military retirees ever since the 1960s.