Newton Lower Falls is one of the thirteen
villages
A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village ...
within the city of
Newton in
Middlesex County,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, United States. The commercial area extends across the
Charles River
The Charles River (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ), sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Hopkinton to Boston along a highly me ...
into
Wellesley, where it is known as Wellesley Lower Falls, where a majority of the retail businesses are located.
The Charles River drops 18 feet over less than one-quarter mile at Lower Falls. A series of three small dams with
fish ladder
A fish ladder, also known as a fishway, fish pass, fish steps, or fish cannon, is a structure on or around artificial and natural barriers (such as dams, locks and waterfalls) to facilitate diadromous fishes' natural migration as well as mov ...
s are located along the drop. The primary roads through the village of Lower Falls are Grove Street, Washington Street (Route 16), and Concord Street. The area is now a suburban neighborhood centered on the park at the old Hamilton elementary school (now Lower Falls Community Center), and bordered on the northwest by the Charles River and the Leo J. Martin public golf course. The historic heart of the Lower Falls village,
St. Mary's Episcopal Church, and the adjacent residential area on Grove Street, are listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
as the
Newton Lower Falls Historic District.
Notable people
*
Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851–1938), a famous painter
*
Sarah Fuller, educator and author who taught
Helen Keller
Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. Born in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, she lost her sight and her hearing after a bout of illness when ...
*
Arthur T. Gregorian, Oriental rug merchant
*
Walter Montgomery Jackson (1863–1923), founder of encyclopedia publisher
Grolier
Grolier is one of the largest American publishers of general encyclopedias, including '' The Book of Knowledge'' (1910), '' The New Book of Knowledge'' (1966), ''The New Book of Popular Science'' (1972), '' Encyclopedia Americana'' (1945), '' Ac ...
*
Kay Khan, Massachusetts state representative
*
Anne Sexton
Anne Sexton (born Anne Gray Harvey; November 9, 1928 – October 4, 1974) was an American poet known for her highly personal, confessional poetry, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book ''Live or Die (book ...
, poet
*
Michael Rosbash
Michael Morris Rosbash (born March 7, 1944) is an American geneticist and chronobiologist. Rosbash is a professor and researcher at Brandeis University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Rosbash's research group cloned th ...
, Nobel Prize winner
*
Francis Blake, who worked with
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell (; born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian Americans, Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He als ...
Attractions
Historic landmarks
*
William Curtis House (Newton, Massachusetts), 2330 Washington St.
*
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 ...
, 2014 Washington St. The hospital's campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the "Newton Cottage Hospital Historic District".
*
Newton Lower Falls Historic District
Other
*
Hamilton Playground (aka
Lower Falls Community Center), 545 Grove St. The playground has two hard-surface tennis courts, plus a baseball field, basketball courts, a soccer field, and a softball field.
References
External links
Arthur T. Gregorian, Inc., websiteNewton Lower FallsNewton Lower Falls walking tour
Villages in Newton, Massachusetts
Villages in Massachusetts
{{MiddlesexCountyMA-geo-stub