Newton Upper Falls is one of the thirteen

villages A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

within the city of Newton in Middlesex County,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The area borders

Needham, Massachusetts Needham ( ) is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. A suburb of Boston, its population was 32,091 at the 2020 U.S. Census. It is home of Olin College. History Early settlement Needham was first settled in 1680 with the purchase of a ...

to the southwest,

Wellesley, Massachusetts Wellesley () is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Wellesley is part of Greater Boston. The population was 29,550 at the time of the 2020 census. Wellesley College, Babson College, and a campus of Massachusetts Bay Communit ...

to the west, the

West Roxbury West Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts bordered by Roslindale and Jamaica Plain to the northeast, the town of Brookline to the north, the cities and towns of Newton and Needham to the northwest and the town of Dedham to th ...

neighborhood of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

to the extreme southeast,

Newton Highlands Newton Highlands is one of the thirteen villages within the city of Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The Newton Highlands Historic District includes residential and commercial businesses back to the late 19th century. ...

to the north and northeast,

Waban Waban (16041685) was a Native American of the Nipmuc group and was thought to be the first Native American convert to Christianity in Massachusetts. Life Waban was born about 1604 at Musketaquid, near the present town of Concord. While ther ...

to the northwest and Oak Hill to the east. The village is served partially by Eliot "T" station, part of the

Green Line D branch The Green Line D branch (also referred to as the Highland branch or Riverside Line) is a light rail line in Newton, Brookline, and Boston, Massachusetts, operating as part of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Green Line. T ...

of the

MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network i ...

, with rapid light rail service inbound into downtown

and outbound to Riverside. Major roads that serve the village are Route 128, and Route 9 (Boylston Street), which provides a direct, 6 mile commute into downtown

. Newton's first mill on the Charles River was built in 1688 in Upper Falls. Over the next 150 years, the water power available at Upper Falls led to the village's steady growth as many more mills were built along that stretch of the river. By 1850 the village had 1300 inhabitants which was 25% of the entire population of Newton. Newton Upper Falls is home to the

Hemlock Gorge Hemlock Gorge Reservation is a state-owned, public recreation area and urban wild comprising on the Charles River in Newton and Needham, Massachusetts. The reservation is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. ...

and

Echo Bridge Echo Bridge is a historic masonry bridge spanning the Charles River between Needham to Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts, and Ellis Street in Newton. The bridge carries the Sudbury Aqueduct and foot traffic, and is located in the Hemlock Gorge R ...

, a large aqueduct turned pedestrian walkway over the

Charles River The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles bac ...

. It is said to be the only village that has retained its original name from when the area was founded in the 17th century. It has over 150 homes on the historic register despite its small area. In 1909, a Roman Catholic church called Mary Immaculate of Lourdes opened in Upper Falls. Sullivan Avenue, an unpaved private road in Newton Upper Falls is the last remaining portion of the ancient highway connecting

and Cambridge with Newton and points west in the 17th century (back then it was called Cambridge Village). Also on Sullivan Avenue is a famous pothole; not the kind you avoid with your car, but a geological anomaly where a boulder that was originally pushed down the cliff by a now extinct waterfall got caught and became round. The boulder spun around in its place carving a shaft over thousands of years. Since then half the shaft collapsed and now all that can be seen is half of a cylindrical shaft through the cliff at the corner of Sullivan and Elliot Streets. A area, including much of the area between Route 9 and Elliot Street, and east from the Charles River to Cottage Street and Hickory Cliff Road, was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1986.

References

External links

The 13 Villages of NewtonDunn Gaherin's - a popular neighborhood pubThe Friends of Hemlock Gorge
{{authority control Villages in Newton, Massachusetts Villages in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Newton, Massachusetts Historic districts in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

See also

References

External links