The Town of Wilmington is a suburban industrial town occupying 17.2 square miles of the watershed of the Ipswich River. The town was part of an unstable Colonial frontier during Queen Ann’s War. The Baldwin apple is supposed to have been discovered in Wilmington in the 1790’s on Butters Farm. After some bitter disputes with other communities over whether that was the case, a bronze plaque duly commemorates the discovery. The Middlesex Canal was completed in Wilmington in the early 19th century and residents were able to ship their produce to market.
Wilmington is situated in the northeast part of Middlesex County, and is bounded south by Woburn and Burlington, west by Billerica and Tewksbury, north by Andover and east by Reading and North Reading. It is sixteen miles north from Boston and the same distance west from Salem. The beautiful scenery of the town is epitomized by Silver Lake, a popular summer destination for visitors and residents.
Today, the town of Wilmington, with a population a little over 22,000 as of the 2010 census, is a vibrant bedroom community with services second to none in the area. In addition to the police, fire, library and school departments, the town supports an active senior center, a recreation department, veteran’s services, a town museum and all the other services that keep a town viable.