Waban 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 Newton most commonly refers to: * Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist * Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton Newton may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Newton'' (film), a 2017 Indian film * Newton ( ...

in Middlesex County,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

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 primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Geography and history

Waban is bordered by the Charles River and Route 9 to the south, and Route 16 to the west. Waban was once a heavily forested area which developed as an agricultural village in the 19th century. By the 1860s, it was known for its orchards, farms and nurseries. The

Cochituate Aqueduct The Cochituate Aqueduct was an aqueduct (water supply), aqueduct in Massachusetts that brought water to Boston from 1848 to 1951. History The aqueduct formed a key link in Boston's first major water supply system. Its genesis dates to 1845, wh ...

, now partly converted to a walking trail, was built in 1846-48 and ran through the village. Development in Waban accelerated after 1886 with the opening of the rail station by the Boston & Albany Railroad as part of the

Highland Branch The Highland branch, also known as the Newton Highlands branch, was a suburban railway line in Boston, Massachusetts. It was opened by the Boston and Albany Railroad in 1886 to serve the growing community of Newton, Massachusetts. The line was ...

extending to Riverside. Waban is now served by 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 in ...

Green D Line.

Origin of name

The village of Waban was named for

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 there i ...

, who is thought to be one of the first members of the

Massachusett The Massachusett were a Native American tribe from the region in and around present-day Greater Boston in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name comes from the Massachusett language term for "At the Great Hill," referring to the Blue Hills ...

tribe converted to Christianity in 1646. Although he may have lived closer to Nonantum, a hill two miles away, this area alongside the Charles River did provide hunting and fishing grounds. To explain why the village took on this name in 1886, Dr. Lawrence Strong, in his history of the town, later wrote:

My father, William Chamberlain Strong, was very active in securing the right-of-way for the Boston and Albany Railroad at the time the Newton Circuit Road was built. The location of a station here marked a potential village, and a name was required. My father had previously lived on Nonantum Hill in Brighton, where Waban, the Chief of the Indian tribe Nonantum, had his wigwam, and where Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, preached. A memorial marks this spot today. So the name "Waban" for the new village easily suggested itself to my father. I am told Waban, or Wabanoki, means "east" in the Indian tongue. The spelling of the name cannot be held to coincide with its pronunciation. I believe the pronunciation is correct and the correct spelling would be either Wauban or more probably Waughban.

Education and health care

Waban has two elementary schools, Angier, named after Albert E. Angier (1897-1918), who was killed fighting in World War I, and Zervas, (formerly the Beethoven School) named for Dr. Frank Zervas, a school principal. The original Waban School opened in 1900, was renamed the Angier School in 1921, and was replaced by a state-of-the-art schoolhouse in 2016. The

Newton-Wellesley Hospital Newton-Wellesley Hospital (NWH) is a community teaching medical center located in Newton, Massachusetts on Washington Street. It is affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School. Founded in 1881, part of its ca ...

is on the western edge of Waban and serves a wide population.

Notable buildings and open space

Notable buildings in Waban include: * The Staples-Craft-Wiswall Farmhouse, now the home of th
Suzuki School of Newton
* Waban Hall (1890) * Th
Parish of the Good Shepherd
(1896) * The Strong Building (1896) * Th
Union Church in Waban
(1912) * Th
Waban Library Center
(1930) An area on Beacon Street near where the shopping area of Waban now stands was originally the site of a working farm for the indigent. The first librarian was Dr. Fanny McGee, also one of the first women physicians, earing her Doctor of Medicine degree from Tufts Medical School in 1897. The library gained a permanent home when the branch library was built in 1930. The village was one of two in Newton to retain its branch library, the last of sixteen original branches closed by June 2008. In September 2009, the Waban branch library re-opened as the Waban Library Center, a community-based facility run by the Waban Improvement Society.
Waban Common
a community-maintained, landscaped public green space adjoining Beacon Street, was created in 2017, by reimagining and merging two traffic islands in conjunction with the construction of the new Angier School.

Zip code ranking

In the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'''s 2013 study of the most affluent and well-educated zip codes in America, Waban (02468) ranked third in the nation. The study was based on an index of the percent of college graduates and median household income in each of America's zip codes. It ranked only behind

Kenilworth, Illinois Kenilworth is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, north of downtown Chicago. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 2,514. It is the newest of the nine suburban North Shore communities bordering Lake Michigan, and is one of ...

and

Short Hills, New Jersey Short Hills is an unincorporated community located within Millburn Township, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. It is a popular commuter town for residents who work in New York City. As of the 2020 United States Census, the CDP's pop ...

, making it the most affluent zip code in the state.

Notable people

Harry C. Bentley Harry C. Bentley (18771967) was the founder and namesake of Bentley University. Harry Clark Bentley was born in Harwinton, Connecticut on February 28, 1877. He attended Robbins Preparatoy School in Connecticut and Eastman Business College in New Y ...

(1877-1967) founder of

Bentley University Bentley University is a private university focused on business, accountancy, and finance and located in Waltham, Massachusetts. Founded in 1917 as a school of accounting and finance in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, Bentley moved to Waltham in ...

, had Master Builder Charles Train build the house at 1700 Beacon Street and lived there with his wife, Belle. *

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

(1803-1882), resided on Woodward Street in 1833-34 *

Atul Gawande Atul Atmaram Gawande (born November 5, 1965) is an American surgeon, writer, and public health researcher. He practices general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a professor in the Departmen ...

, surgeon, writer, global and public health advocate *

Roger Kellaway Roger Kellaway (born November 1, 1939) is an American composer, arranger and jazz pianist. Life and career Kellaway was born in Waban, Massachusetts, United States. He is an alumnus of the New England Conservatory. Kellaway has composed commissio ...

(born 1939), Grammy-winning pianist, composer *

Jack Lemmon John Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor. Considered equally proficient in both dramatic and comic roles, Lemmon was known for his anxious, middle-class everyman screen persona in dramedy pictures, leadin ...

, born in an elevator at

in Waban *

Robert Morse Robert Alan Morse (May 18, 1931 – April 20, 2022) was an American actor, who starred in ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'', both the 1961 original Broadway production, for which he won a Tony Award, and its 1967 film adaptati ...

, Tony award-winning actor *

Ric Ocasek Richard Theodore Otcasek (March 23, 1944 – September 15, 2019), known as Ric Ocasek, was an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He was the primary co-lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, songwriter, and frontman for the rock ...

, music producer and vocalist for

The Cars The Cars were an American rock band formed in Boston in 1976. Emerging from the new wave scene in the late 1970s, they consisted of Ric Ocasek ( rhythm guitar), Benjamin Orr (bass guitar), Elliot Easton (lead guitar), Greg Hawkes (keyboards), ...

. Resident of Waban during the 1980s *

Fritz Richmond John B. "Fritz" Richmond (July 10, 1939 – November 20, 2005) was an American musician and recording engineer. Richmond was a washtub bassist and was also a professional jug player. Richmond, born in Newton, Massachusetts on July 10, 1939, was ...

, folk musician, played jug and washtub bass in the

Jim Kweskin Jim Kweskin (born July 18, 1940, Stamford, Connecticut) is an American folk, jazz, and blues musician, most notable as the founder of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, also known as Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band, with Fritz Richmond, Geoff Muldaur, Bob Si ...

Jug Band *

Mark Sandman Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fin ...

, rock and roll musician, singer, and songwriter, member of the groups

Treat Her Right Treat Her Right was an American rock group, formed in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, in 1985. The band originally featured Mark Sandman on "low guitar," Billy Conway on cocktail drum, David Champagne on guitar, and Jim Fitting on harmon ...

and

Morphine Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a analgesic, pain medication, and is also commonly used recreational drug, recreationally, or to make ...

* Henry Lawrence Southwick (1863-1932), author, actor and 3rd President of

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...

from 1908-1932 *William Chamberlain Strong (1823 -1913), horticulturalist, civic leader, developer *

Cass Sunstein Cass Robert Sunstein (born September 21, 1954) is an American legal scholar known for his studies of constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, law and behavioral economics. He is also ''The New York Times'' best-selling author of ...

, legal scholar, author, and federal agency leader *

Jason Varitek Jason Andrew Varitek (; born April 11, 1972), nicknamed Tek, is an American professional baseball coach and former catcher. He is currently the game planning coordinator, a uniformed coaching position, for the Boston Red Sox. After being traded a ...

, catcher, Boston Red Sox, 2004 and 2007 World Series Champion *

Ben Wanger Ben Wanger (born April 7, 1997) is an American-Israeli professional baseball pitcher for the Lancaster Barnstormers of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. He also plays for Team Israel. Playing for the Yale Bulldogs he led the Ivy Lea ...

(born 1997), American-Israeli baseball pitcher, Team Israel

References

External links

Waban Improvement SocietyWaban Area Council
{{authority control Villages in Newton, Massachusetts Villages in Massachusetts 1646 establishments in Massachusetts