Belmont is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

Middlesex County, Massachusetts Middlesex County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,632,002, making it the most populous county in both Massachusetts and New England and the 22nd most populou ...

, United States. It is a western

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and is part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, its population was 27,295, an increase of 10.4% from 2010.

History

Belmont was established on March 18, 1859, by former citizens of, and on land from the bordering towns of, Watertown, to the south; Waltham, to the west; and

Arlington Arlington most often refers to: *Arlington, Virginia **Arlington National Cemetery, a United States military cemetery *Arlington, Texas Arlington may also refer to: Places Australia *Arlington light rail station, on the Inner West Light Rail in S ...

, then known as West Cambridge, to the north. The founders desired a dry township (alcohol is now legal to purchase in Belmont). The town was named after ''Bellmont'', the estate of the largest donor to its creation, John Perkins Cushing, after which Cushing Square is named. After Cushing's estate nearly burned to the ground, it was converted to a Belmont Public Library branch. The easternmost section of the town, including the western portion of Fresh Pond, was annexed by

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

in 1880. The annexation was the result of a dispute over a

slaughterhouse In livestock agriculture and the meat industry, a slaughterhouse, also called an abattoir (), is a facility where livestock animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a mea ...

licensed in 1878 and situated next to Fresh Pond; Cambridge wished to protect Fresh Pond (part of its

water supply network A water supply network or water supply system is a system of engineered hydrologic and hydraulic components that provide water supply. A water supply system typically includes the following: # A drainage basin (see water purification – sour ...

) by removing neighboring buildings. Before its incorporation, Belmont was an agrarian town, with several large farms servicing Boston for produce and livestock. It remained largely agrarian until the turn of the 20th century, when trolley service was introduced and roads were improved, making it more attractive as a residential area, most notably for the building of large estates. Belmont's population grew by over 70 percent during the 1920s. Other commercial enterprises in Belmont included clay mining and waste management. The reclamation of a large dump and quarry off Concord Avenue into sites for the Belmont High School and the

Clay Pit Pond Clay Pit Pond, also known as Claypit Pond, is a pond in the Boston suburb of Belmont, Massachusetts, Belmont in Middlesex County, Massachusetts situated between Cambridge and Concord Turnpike, Concord Avenue and Belmont High School (Belmont, MA), ...

is a lasting example of environmental planning. With the introduction of

automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...

s and

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...

s, Belmont continued its transition to a commuter-based suburb throughout the 20th century. The

John Birch Society The John Birch Society (JBS) is an American right-wing political advocacy group. Founded in 1958, it is anti-communist, supports social conservatism, and is associated with ultraconservative, radical right, far-right, right-wing populist, and ...

was headquartered in Belmont from its founding in 1958 until its relocation to

Appleton, Wisconsin Appleton () is the county seat of Outagamie County, Wisconsin, United States, with small portions extending into Calumet County, Wisconsin, Calumet and Winnebago County, Wisconsin, Winnebago counties. Located on the Fox River (Green Bay tributary ...

, in 1989. The building at 395 Concord Avenue later became the headquarters of the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), which is expanding and renovating its facility .

Railroad history

Belmont was once served by two railroads, the

Fitchburg Railroad The Fitchburg Railroad is a former railroad company, which built a railroad line across northern Massachusetts, United States, leading to and through the Hoosac Tunnel. The Fitchburg was leased to the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1900. The main l ...

and the

Central Massachusetts Railroad The Central Massachusetts Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts. The eastern Train station#Terminus, terminus of the line was at North Cambridge Junction where it split off from the Lexington and West Cambridge Railroad, Middlesex Central B ...

, both of which later became part of the

Boston & Maine Railroad The Boston and Maine Railroad was a U.S. Class I railroad in northern New England. It was chartered in 1835, and became part of what was the Pan Am Railways network in 1983 (most of which was purchased by CSX in 2022). At the end of 1970, B&M ...

system. Originally the two railroads each had their own separate trackage through town, but in 1952 the Central Mass tracks were removed between Hill's Crossing and Clematis Brook (Waltham), and rail traffic was rerouted over the Fitchburg line. Presently, 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 ...

operates the

Fitchburg Line The Fitchburg Line is a branch of the MBTA Commuter Rail system which runs from Boston's North Station to Wachusett station in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The line is along the tracks of the former Fitchburg Railroad, which was built across nort ...

through Belmont as part of its

MBTA commuter rail The MBTA Commuter Rail system serves as the commuter rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's (MBTA's) transportation coverage of Greater Boston in the United States. Trains run over of track on 12 lines to 142 stations. It ...

service. Passenger service on the line terminates at

Wachusett station Wachusett station is a commuter rail station on the MBTA Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line. It is northwest of the intersection of Massachusetts Massachusetts Route 2, Route 2 and Massachusetts Route 31, Route 31 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. It ser ...

in Fitchburg. The station stops at Belmont Center and Waverley were once

level crossings A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line or the road etc. crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The te ...

, and pedestrian and vehicle traffic had to cross directly over rails on public roads. In 1907, a stone

arch bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its structural load, loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either si ...

, elevated embankment, and station building were constructed such that the track runs over the road. At Waverley, the grade was lowered so that the tracks ran under Trapelo Road, though the platform did not have an enclosed structure there. A second historic railroad station building exists in Belmont, though it is not obvious. The one-room Wellington Hill Station was built in the 1840s as a private school, not far from its current location in Belmont Center. It was then used by the Fitchburg Railroad from 1852 to 1879. When the railroad decided to replace the station with a larger structure, the building was moved to the Underwood Estate and used as a summer house. In 1974, the station was donated to the Belmont Historical Society. It was restored and moved to its current location in 1980. As of 2024, plans are underway to construct the

Belmont Community Path The Mass Central Rail Trail (MCRT) is a partially completed rail trail between Northampton, Massachusetts and Boston along the Right-of-way (transportation), right-of-way (ROW) of the former Central Massachusetts Railroad#HistoricMassachusettsCen ...

, a

rail trail A rail trail or railway walk is a shared-use path on a Right of way#Rail right of way, railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed but may also share the rail corr ...

across Belmont, using the abandoned

right-of-way A right of way (also right-of-way) is a specific route that people, animals, vehicles, watercraft, or utility lines travel, or the legal status that gives them the right to do so. Rights-of-way in the physical sense include controlled-access h ...

along the existing Fitchburg Line tracks. When completed this trail will be part of the

Mass Central Rail Trail The Mass Central Rail Trail (MCRT) is a partially completed rail trail between Northampton, Massachusetts and Boston along the right-of-way (ROW) of the former Massachusetts Central Railroad and former Central Massachusetts Railroad. It currently ...

Present day

Belmont remains a primarily residential suburb, with little population growth since the 1950s. It is best known for the mansion-filled Belmont Hill neighborhood, although most residents live in more densely settled, low-lying areas around the Hill. There are three major commercial centers in the town: Belmont Center in the center, Cushing Square in the south, and Waverley Square in the west. Town Hall and other civic buildings are in Belmont Center. Large tracts of land from former farms and greenhouse estates form public or publicly accessible areas such as Rock Meadow, Habitat, portions of the

McLean Hospital McLean Hospital () (formerly known as Somerville Asylum and Charlestown Asylum) is a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. McLean maintains the world's largest neuroscientific and psychiatric research program in a private hospital. It i ...

tract and various town fields.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the town has an area of 4.7 square miles (12.2 km²), of which 4.7 square miles (12.1 km²) is land and less than 0.1 square miles (0.1 km²), or 1.06%, is water. Belmont is bordered by

on the east,

on the north, Lexington on the northwest, Waltham on the west, and Watertown on the south.

Environmental concerns

In 2002, Middlesex County was ranked in the worst 10% of polluted counties in the United States in terms of air and water pollution. Two companies that ranked in the top 10 for polluters in the county were

Polaroid Corporation Polaroid Corporation was an American company that made instant film and cameras, which survives as a brand for consumer electronics. The company was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land, to exploit his Polaroid (polarizer), Polaroid polarizing polyme ...

in Waltham and the Cambridge Plating Company in Belmont, which is several hundred feet from Belmont High School. The

Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency may refer to the following government organizations: * Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland), Australia * Environmental Protection Agency (Ghana) * Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) * Environmenta ...

fined Cambridge Plating Company, now operated by Purecoat North LLC, in 2002 following various violations and in 2004 after a fire that led to an accumulation of toxic wastewater. The chemicals released were

trichloroethylene Trichloroethylene (TCE) is an organochloride with the formula C2HCl3, commonly used as an industrial metal-degreasing solvent. It is a clear, colourless, non-flammable, volatile liquid with a chloroform-like pleasant mild smell and sweet taste.

and

dichloromethane Dichloromethane (DCM, methylene chloride, or methylene bichloride) is an organochlorine compound with the formula . This colorless, volatile liquid with a chloroform-like, sweet odor is widely used as a solvent. Although it is not miscible with ...

, both of which have been shown to cause cancer. These chemicals are released into the air so it is difficult to trace them and to determine the source, as there are also several other industries in the area that release the same pollutants.

Climate

In a typical year, Belmont, Massachusetts temperatures fall below for 195 days per year. Annual precipitation in Belmont is typically per year (high in the US) and snow covers the ground 52 days per year, or 14.2% of the year (high for the US). The humidity is below 60% for approximately 25.4 days, or 7% of the year.

Demographics

, there were 27,295 residents of the Town of Belmont, and in 2021 there were 17,640 registered voters. In 2020, the racial make up of the town was 69.6%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 1.9%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.05% Native American, 18.5% Asian, and 4.7% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 4.7% of the population. Pending the release of the 2020 Census results, in 2010 6.3% of the population were under the age of five, 24.6% were under the age of eighteen, and 15.8% were 65 years of age or older; 53% were female. The median household income was $114,141. The 2000 census listed 9,732 households, out of which 31.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.9% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 8.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.7% were non-families. 25.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 3.01. In 2010, 20% of the residents of Belmont were born outside of the United States. In 2000 this percentage was 15%.Sacchetti, Maria. "A melting pot stretches out to the suburbs." ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

''. September 15, 2010. p
2Archive
. Retrieved on September 23, 2014. Belmont has been referred to as a "

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

enclave" due to the location of the Boston Massachusetts Temple of the LDS Church at the highest elevation in the town. The prominent gold statue of the

Angel Moroni The angel Moroni () is an angel whom Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, reported as having visited him on numerous occasions, beginning on September 21, 1823. According to Smith, the angel Moroni was the guardian of the gold ...

atop the Temple was originally designed by

Cyrus Dallin Cyrus Edwin Dallin (November 22, 1861 – November 14, 1944) was an American sculptor best known for his depictions of Native Americans. He created more than 260 works, including the ''Equestrian Statue of Paul Revere'' in Boston; ''the Angel ...

in nearby

Arlington, Massachusetts Arlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is six miles (10 km) northwest of Boston, Massachusetts, Boston, and its population was 46,308 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History Europe ...

Points of interest

* Redtop, home of

William Dean Howells William Dean Howells ( ; March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American Realism (arts), realist novelist, literary critic, playwright, and diplomat, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of ...

* Edwin O. Reischauer Memorial House * Boston & Maine Railroad Station, now known as the

Commuter Rail Belmont stop, now owned by the

Lions Club Lions Clubs International, is an international service organization, currently headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois. , it had over 46,000 local clubs and more than 1.4 million members (including the youth wing Leo clubs, Leo) in more than 200 ge ...

Boston Massachusetts Temple The Boston Massachusetts Temple is the 100th operating temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The intent to build the temple was announced on September 30, 1995, by church president Gordon B. Hinckley during th ...

of the

LDS Church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian restorationist Christian denomination and the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. Founded during ...

William Flagg Homer House Homer House, or the William Flagg Homer House, is a historic house on Pleasant Street in Belmont, Massachusetts, United States, built in 1853 by a wealthy Boston merchant, and used by his nephew, artist Winslow Homer, as the setting of several ...

Government

The executive branch of the town government consists of a three-person

Select Board The select board or board of selectmen is commonly the executive arm of the government of New England towns in the United States. The board typically consists of three or five members, with or without staggered terms. Three is the most common num ...

elected by the residents. The Select Board appoints a Town Administrator who is in charge of daily operations. The legislative branch is a

representative town meeting A representative town meeting, also called "limited town meeting", is a form of municipal legislature particularly common in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and permitted in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Representative town meetings function ...

, with eight districts each electing 36 representatives, plus

ex-officio An ''ex officio'' member is a member of a body (notably a board, committee, or council) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. The term ''List of Latin phrases (E)#ex officio, ex officio'' is Latin, meaning literally 'from the off ...

members and a Town Moderator to run the annual meeting. Belmont is part of the 24th Middlesex District (for the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into ...

), the 2nd Middlesex and Suffolk District (for the

Massachusetts Senate The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the st ...

), and

Massachusetts's 5th congressional district Massachusetts's 5th congressional district is a congressional district in eastern Massachusetts. The district is represented by Katherine Clark of the Democratic Party. Massachusetts's congressional redistricting after the 2010 census changed ...

(for the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

Education

Belmont is served by the

Belmont Public Schools Belmont Public Schools is a school district that serves Belmont, Massachusetts, United States. The district is highly regarded for the excellence of Belmont High School, the emphasis on the arts, and the quality of all-around education. The dist ...

, governed by an independently elected school committee. There are four public

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

s in Belmont: the Mary Lee Burbank, Daniel Butler, Winn Brook, and Roger Wellington schools. The Mary Lee Burbank School was founded in 1931. Two other public elementary schools, Payson Park and Kendall, were closed in the 1970s and 1980s, respectively. The former closed after being destroyed by fire, the latter closed due to population shifts and was converted to an arts center, which was later also destroyed by fire. There is one public upper elementary school, the Winthrop L. Chenery Upper Elementary School, which was rebuilt on the same location after an electrical fire damaged the auditorium in 1995. There is one public middle school, located near the High School, the Belmont Middle School. There is one public

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

, the Belmont High School. Belmont High is noted for its college placement, strong athletics, academics, music, and theater arts; a typical class size of about 320 students. Belmont High regularly feeds 5-10 students into Harvard University on an average given year. , ''U.S. News & World Report'' gave Belmont High School a gold medal and named it the 100th best public high school in the United States and the second best in the state of Massachusetts (after

Boston Latin School The Boston Latin School is a Magnet school, magnet Latin schools, Latin Grammar schools, grammar State school, state school in Boston, Massachusetts. It has been in continuous operation since it was established on April 23, 1635. It is the old ...

Belmont Hill School Belmont Hill School is an all-boys day and optional five-day boarding school in Belmont, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. The school enrolls approximately 470 boys in grades 7–12, separated into the Middle School (Forms I-III, or grades 7� ...

is a private, non-sectarian high school, grades 7–12.

Belmont Day School Belmont is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a western suburb of Boston and is part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, its population was 27,295, an increase of 10.4% from 2010. H ...

is a private, non-sectarian Pre-K–8 school. There are several smaller private schools.

Media

The ''Belmont Citizen-Herald'' is a weekly newspaper covering Belmont, and published on Thursdays, and is available online, as well. The ''Citizen-Herald'' was formed in 1988 by merging the ''Belmont Citizen'' (founded in 1920) and the ''Belmont Herald'' (founded in 1930). The ''Boston Globe'' and ''Boston.com'' publish a ''Belmont Your Town'' website that provides local news and information. The Belmontonian is an independently operated hyper-local news website. ''Belmont Patch'' also provides online local news. The Belmont Media Center (BMC) was founded in 2005 as a local non-profit, public-educational & government access TV station mandated to provide and make available to Belmont residents a variety of media production & editing classes, locally produced TV programming, and video/TV equipment, studios and facilities. In 2017, BMC programs are available to Belmont subscribers of

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

and

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

, and BMC also carries live programming. and on-demand programs

Infrastructure

Transportation

Roads

Major roads in the town are Concord Avenue, which bisects the town from east to west; Common Street and Pleasant Street (Route 60) which travel north-south through Belmont; and Trapelo Road and Belmont Street, which run along the southern edge of the town. Belmont is served directly by two state route designated highways. Running close to the middle of town is

Route 60 The following highways are numbered 60: International * Asian Highway 60 * European route E60 Australia * Bruxner Highway * Dawson Highway (Rolleston to Gladstone) – Queensland State Route 60 Brazil * BR-060 Canada * Alberta Highway 6 ...

, locally known as Pleasant Street. On the northern border, Route 2 generally outlines Belmont's boundary with the neighboring town of

. Despite the small size of the town, Belmont has 5 signed exits on Route 2. Nearby major highways include

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...

/ MA-Route 128, Route 16, Route 3, and Route 20.

Public transit

Belmont is served by the

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority 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 ...

's Fitchburg Commuter Rail line, and its bus and

trackless trolley A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

lines. Two

MBTA Commuter Rail The MBTA Commuter Rail system serves as the commuter rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's (MBTA's) transportation coverage of Greater Boston in the United States. Trains run over of track on 12 lines to 142 stations. It ...

rail stations, Waverley and Belmont Center, are located in the town. Belmont is roughly 16 minutes away from the

rail line Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Railway track or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film *Rails (film), ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini *Rail ( ...

's terminus at

North Station North Station is a commuter rail and intercity rail terminal station in Boston, Massachusetts. It is served by four MBTA Commuter Rail lines – the Fitchburg Line, Haverhill Line, Lowell Line, and Newburyport/Rockport Line – and the Amtr ...

, Boston. Nearby in

lies

Alewife Station Alewife station is a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) intermodal transit station in the North Cambridge neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is the northwest terminal of the rapid transit Red Line (part of the MBTA s ...

, the western terminus of the Red Line; providing a connection to Boston and the entire

metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ar ...

rapid transit system.

Health care

, a

psychiatric hospital A psychiatric hospital, also known as a mental health hospital, a behavioral health hospital, or an asylum is a specialized medical facility that focuses on the treatment of severe Mental disorder, mental disorders. These institutions cater t ...

and research center located in Belmont. It is the setting of the novel '' Girl, Interrupted'', which was made into a 1999 movie.

Notable people

Due to its proximity to Harvard and MIT universities, amongst others, Belmont has had several

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

winners in residence at one time or another. Notable past and present residents include people in the following categories:

Business

* John Perkins Cushing, China trader * Stephen P. Mugar, founder of the Star Market chain, philanthropist

Politics and government

John Deutch John Mark Deutch (born July 27, 1938) is an American civil servant and physical chemist. He was the United States Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1994 to 1995 and Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from May 10, 1995, until December 15, 1996 ...

, former Director of Central Intelligence *

Martin Feldstein Martin Stuart Feldstein ( ; November 25, 1939 – June 11, 2019) was an American economist. He was the George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University and the president emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He s ...

, former chairman of the

Council of Economic Advisers The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is a United States agency within the Executive Office of the President established in 1946, which advises the president of the United States on economic policy. The CEA provides much of the empirical resea ...

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (May 27, 1923 – November 29, 2023) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 56th United States secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 and the 7th National Security Advisor (United States), natio ...

, former Secretary of State *

Empress Masako is Empress of Japan as the wife of Emperor Naruhito. Born in Tokyo, Masako was educated at Belmont High School in Massachusetts before attending Harvard College, earning a B.A., ''magna cum laude'', in economics. She also studied law at t ...

, of Japan *

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and retired politician. He served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Utah from 2019 to 2025 and as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 ...

, and his wife

Ann Romney Ann Lois Romney ( Davies; born April 16, 1949) is an American author and philanthropist. She is married to politician and businessman Mitt Romney. From 2003 to 2007, Romney was First Lady of Massachusetts during her husband's tenure as governor ...

– former

Governor of Massachusetts The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The governor is the chief executive, head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonw ...

, 2012 Republican presidential candidate, Senator from Utah * Dorothy Stoneman, activist, founder of YouthBuild USA

Arts and music

Winslow Homer Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter and illustrator, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters of 19th-century America and a preeminent figure in ...

(1836–1910), painter *

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...

landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manage ...

Walter Piston Walter Hamor Piston, Jr. (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976), was an American composer of classical music, music theorist, and professor of music at Harvard University. Life Piston was born in Rockland, Maine at 15 Ocean Street to Walter ...

, composer * Billy Rath (1948-2014), bassist of

The Heartbreakers The Heartbreakers (sometimes referred to as "Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers) were an American punk rock band formed in New York City in 1975. The band spearheaded the first wave of punk rock. History Johnny Thunders (vocals/guitar) and Jer ...

* Phil Wilson, jazz trombonist and arranger

Media

Sebastian Junger Sebastian Junger (born January 17, 1962) is an American journalist, author and filmmaker who has reported in-the-field on Dirty,_dangerous_and_demeaning, dirty, dangerous and demanding occupations and the experience of Light_infantry#United_Sta ...

(born 1962), author, journalist, documentary filmmaker * David E. Kelley, TV producer and writer *

Leo Monahan Leo Monahan may refer to: *Leo Monahan (artist) (born 1933), American artist *Leo Monahan (sportswriter) Daniel Leo Monahan (December 13, 1926 – March 27, 2013) was an American sportswriter. He became a full-time journalist in 1950, and had a ...

(1926–2013), American sports journalist *

Addison Powell Addison Powell (February 23, 1921 – November 8, 2010) was an American actor whose numerous television, stage and film credits included ''Dark Shadows'', '' The Thomas Crown Affair'' and ''Three Days of the Condor''. He was best known for playi ...

, actor *

Jean Rogers Jean Rogers (born Eleanor Dorothy Lovegren; March 25, 1916 – February 24, 1991) was an American actress who starred in serial films in the 1930s and low–budget feature films in the 1940s as a leading lady. She is best remembered for ...

, actress

Sports

* Emily Cook, American freestyle skier * William Chandler Haskins, competed in the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

Maxie Long Maxwell Washburn Long (October 16, 1878 – March 4, 1959) was an American athlete, winner of 400 m at the 1900 Summer Olympics. Biography Long won three AAU titles from 1898 to 1900 and IC4A title in 1899 in 440 yd (402 m), 1899 an AAU tit ...

, gold medalist in athletics at

1900 Olympic Games The 1900 Summer Olympics (), today officially known as the Games of the II Olympiad () and also known as Paris 1900, were an international multi-sport event that took place in Paris, France, from 14 May to 28 October 1900. No opening or closin ...

Paul Mara Paul Richard Mara (born September 7, 1979) is an American former professional ice hockey defenceman, former head coach of the Boston Pride in the PHF (formerly NWHL), and current Assistant Coach of the Hartford WolfPack in the AHL. Additionally ...

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in New York City. The Rangers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team plays ...

defenseman *

Becca Pizzi Rebecca Pizzi (born 1980) is an American marathon runner from Belmont, Massachusetts. In 2016 she was the first American woman to complete the World Marathon Challenge, a series of seven marathons on seven continents in seven consecutive days, ...

, American marathon runner *

Patrick Rissmiller Patrick Rissmiller (born October 26, 1978) is an American former professional ice hockey winger who played in the National Hockey League for the San Jose Sharks, New York Rangers, Atlanta Thrashers, and the Florida Panthers. He joined the Anahe ...

, New York Rangers hockey forward * Patty Shea, Olympian in field hockey *

Wilbur Wood Wilbur Forrester Wood Jr. (born October 22, 1941) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. In a 17-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he pitched for the Boston Red Sox (1961–64), the Pittsburgh Pirates (1964–65), and the Ch ...

, Major League pitcher–

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...

, and

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

Literature

Gerald Warner Brace Gerald Warner Brace (September 24, 1901 – July 20, 1978) was an American novelist, writer, educator, sailor and boat builder. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England. Biography Early life and ancestors He was born ...

, author and educator * Leah Hager Cohen, author *

, author * Talene Monahon, playwright/actress *

Tom Perrotta Thomas R. Perrotta (born August 13, 1961) is an American novelist and screenwriter best known for his novels ''Election'' (1998) and '' Little Children'' (2004), both of which were made into critically acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated films. Pe ...

, author

Academics

Bernard Bailyn Bernard Bailyn (September 10, 1922 – August 7, 2020) was an American historian, author, and academic specializing in U.S. Colonial and Revolutionary-era History. He was a professor at Harvard University from 1953. Bailyn won the Pulitzer Pr ...

(1922-2020), American historian and professor *

William P. Alford William P. Alford (; born November 26, 1948) is an American legal scholar. He is the Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law and Vice Dean for the Graduate Program and International Legal Studies at Harvard Law School. He is Director of East Asian Lega ...

(born 1948), American professor and legal scholar * VA Shiva Ayyadurai (born 1963), MIT systems scientist and entrepreneur *

Vannevar Bush Vannevar Bush ( ; March 11, 1890 – June 28, 1974) was an American engineer, inventor and science administrator, who during World War II, World War II headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), through which almo ...

(1890–1974), MIT Dean of Engineering, helped create the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

* Clayton M. Christensen,

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

professor and author *

Thomas Vose Daily Thomas Vose Daily (September 23, 1927 – May 14, 2017) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn in New York from 1990 to 2003. He previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Palm ...

, Roman Catholic bishop * Bernard Davis (1916–1994), biologist, lived and died in Belmont *

Wolfgang Ketterle Wolfgang Ketterle (; born 21 October 1957) is a German physicist and professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research has focused on experiments that trap and cool atoms to temperatures close to absolute zer ...

, MIT physics professor (

Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...

, 2001) *

Richard Marius Richard Curry Marius (July 29, 1933 – November 5, 1999) was an American academic and writer. He was a scholar of the Reformation, novelist of the American South, speechwriter, and teacher of writing and English literature at Harvard Universi ...

, Reformationist scholar and novelist *

Susan K. Martin Susan Katherine Martin (born 1942) is an American librarian. She has worked as a university librarian and was executive director of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. Early life Martin was born in Cambridge, Englan ...

, librarian *

Franco Modigliani Franco Modigliani (; ; 18 June 1918 – 25 September 2003) was an Italian-American economist and the recipient of the 1985 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. He was a professor at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Carnegie Mellon Uni ...

, MIT economics professor (Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, 1985) *

Egon Orowan Egon Orowan FRS () (2 August 1902 – 3 August 1989) was a Hungarian-British physicist and metallurgist.Nabarro, F.R.N. and Argon, A. S.Egon Orowan. 1901—1989: A Biographical Memoir" Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 1996. p. 2 ...

, MIT

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and

metallurgist Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

Edwin O. Reischauer Edwin Oldfather Reischauer ( ; October 15, 1910 – September 1, 1990) was an American diplomat, educator, and professor at Harvard University. Born in Tokyo to American educational missionaries, he became a leading scholar of the history and cu ...

, Harvard professor, East Asia scholar, and Ambassador to Japan * Paul A. Samuelson, MIT economics professor (

Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (), commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics(), is an award in the field of economic sciences adminis ...

, 1970) *

Dirk Jan Struik Dirk Jan Struik (September 30, 1894 – October 21, 2000) was a Dutch-born American (since 1934) mathematician, historian of mathematics, and Marxist theoretician who spent most of his life in the U.S. Early life Dirk Jan Struik was born ...

HUAC The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty an ...

victim and MIT mathematician *

Steven C. Wheelwright Steven Charles Wheelwright was the 9th president of Brigham Young University–Hawaii (BYU-Hawaii) from 2007 to 2015. Prior to that appointment, he was a professor and senior associate dean at Harvard Business School. Biography Wheelwright has a ...

professor and president of BYU-Hawaii *

Fred Lawrence Whipple Fred Lawrence Whipple (November 5, 1906 – August 30, 2004) was an American astronomer, who worked at the Harvard College Observatory for more than 70 years. Among his achievements were asteroid and comet discoveries, the " dirty snowball" hy ...

, astronomer *

Norbert Wiener Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964) was an American computer scientist, mathematician, and philosopher. He became a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener late ...

, mathematician *

Robert Burns Woodward Robert Burns Woodward (April 10, 1917 – July 8, 1979) was an American organic chemist. He is considered by many to be the preeminent synthetic organic chemist of the twentieth century, having made many key contributions to the subject, esp ...

, organic chemist (

Nobel Prize in Chemistry The Nobel Prize in Chemistry () is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outst ...

, 1965)

References

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