The current site of Mission Hill in Roxbury, Massachusetts was first settled in 1630 by a group of Puritans led by William Pynchon. [1] Roxbury was sparsely settled rural farmland from its first settlement until the 1800s. A comparative study of historic maps from 1775 until the present highlights the patterns of change over time and the forces that caused them. The greatest influences on the urban development of Mission Hill have been topography, the invention of the trolley, the automobile and suburbanization.

Located between the Muddy River and the Stony Brook, part of Roxbury’s attractiveness derived from its close proximity to a water supply. The undated map, "Boston Harbour, with the Surroundings, &c.," [2] by surveyor John Hills shows an abundance of open land within the floodplain that may have been fertile and convenient to farm because of these nearby resources. The rows of trees present on the Hills map suggest that this area was possibly planted as orchards. The 1775 map titled “Boston Its Environs and Harbour with the Rebels Works,” [3] also shows a different area of dense trees which may have been used for building on the site. The Muddy River and the Stony Brook also influenced industrial development in Roxbury. One of the first establishments near Mission Hill was the Pierrepont Mill. The location of the mill was most likely a result of utilizing the nearby Stony Brook for power and for the ease transportation to and from the mill.