Wellesley, Massachusetts

Wellesley, Massachusetts
—  Town  —
Wellesley Square
Seal
Wellesley Location in Massachusetts
Coordinates: 42°17′47″N 71°17′35″W
Country	United States
State	Massachusetts
County	Norfolk
Settled	1660
Incorporated	1881
Government
• Type	Representative town meeting
• Board of Selectmen	List of Selectmen Katherine L. Babson, Jr. Terri Tsagaris, Vice Chairman Barbara D. Searle, Chairman Owen H. Dugan Ellen F. Gibbs, Secretary
Area
• Total	10.49 sq mi (27.2 km2)
• Land	10.18 sq mi (26.4 km2)
• Water	0.31 sq mi (0.8 km2)
Elevation	141 ft (43 m)
Population (2010)
• Total	27,982
• Density	Bad rounding here2,700/sq mi (Bad rounding here1,000/km2)
Time zone	Eastern (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	Eastern (UTC-4)
ZIP code	02481, 02482, 02457
Area code(s)	339 / 781
FIPS code	25-74175
GNIS feature ID	0618332
Website	www.wellesleyma.gov

Wellesley (pron.: /ˈwɛlzliː/) is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of Greater Boston. The population was 27,982 at the time of the 2010 census. It is best known as the home of Wellesley College, Babson College, and a campus of Massachusetts Bay Community College. Olin College, an engineering school, has a campus that spans from Needham, Massachusetts into Wellesley and is adjacent to Wellesley's Babson College.

History

Wellesley was settled in the 1630s as part of Dedham, Massachusetts. It was subsequently a part of Needham, Massachusetts called West Needham, Massachusetts. On Oct 23, 1880, West Needham residents voted to secede from Needham and the town of Wellesley was later christened by the Massachusetts legislature on April 6, 1881. The town was named after the estate of local benefactor Horatio Hollis Hunnewell.

Wellesley's population grew by over 80 percent during the 1920s.

Historic district

The town designated Cottage Street and its nearby alleys as the historic district in its zoning plan. Most houses in this district were built around the 1860s and qualify as protected buildings certified by the town's historic commission.

Geography

Central Street in Wellesley Square, looking west

Wellesley is located in eastern Massachusetts. It is bordered on the east by Newton, on the north by Weston, on the south by Needham and Dover and on the west by Natick. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 10.49 square miles (27.2 km²), of which, 10.18 square miles (26.4 km²) is land and 0.32 square miles (0.83 km²) is water.

Neighborhoods

• Wellesley Farms
• Wellesley Fells
• Wellesley Hills (02481)
• Wellesley Lower Falls
• Wellesley Square (02482)
• Babson Park (02457)
• Overbrook
• Sheridan Hills

Recent construction

The town's historic 19th century inn was demolished to make way for condominiums and mixed-use development in 2006. The Wellesley Country Club clubhouse, which is the building where the town was founded, was demolished in 2008. The town's pre-World War II high school building is being torn down & replaced, and the entire 1960s-style Linden Street strip-mall has been replaced by "Linden Square" – a shopping district that includes a flagship Roche Bros. supermarket, restaurants, cafes, clothing stores, along with a mixture of national chains and local shops.

Demographics

See also: List of Massachusetts locations by per capita income

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
1890	3,600	—
1900	5,072	+40.9%
1910	5,413	+6.7%
1920	6,224	+15.0%
1930	11,439	+83.8%
1940	15,127	+32.2%
1950	20,549	+35.8%
1960	26,071	+26.9%
1970	28,051	+7.6%
1980	27,209	−3.0%
1990	26,615	−2.2%
2000	26,613	−0.0%
2010	27,982	+5.1%
= population estimate. Source: United States Census records and Population Estimates Program data.

The Census Bureau has also defined the town as a census-designated place with an area exactly equivalent to the town.

As of the census of 2000, there were 26,613 people, 8,594 households, and 6,540 families residing in the town. The population density was 2,614.1 people per square mile (1,009.4/km²). There were 8,861 housing units at an average density of 870.4 per square mile (336.1/km²). According to a 2007 Census Bureau estimate, the racial makeup of the town was 84.6% White, 10.0% Asian, 2.2% Black, 0.01% Native American, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 1.4% from other races, and 1.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.4% of the population.

There were 8,594 households out of which 39.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 67.2% were married couples living together, 7.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.9% were non-families. 20.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.70 and the average family size was 3.14.

In the town the population was spread out with 25.1% under the age of 18, 13.9% from 18 to 24, 22.9% from 25 to 44, 24.2% from 45 to 64, and 13.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 77.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 71.1 males.

In the 2007 estimate, the median income for a household was $125,814, and the median income for a family was $155,539. The per capita income in the town was $61,332. Males had a median income of $100,000 versus $53,007 for females. About 2.4% of families and 3.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.0% of those under age 18 and 2.1% of those age 65 or over.

According to Boston Magazine's yearly "Best Places To Live", Wellesley ranks first in the United States in percentage of adults who hold at least one college degree.^{[citation needed]} Over 66% of the households have at least one individual holding an advanced degree beyond a Bachelor's Degree.^{[citation needed]} In 2009, Wellesley ranked #2 in "America's Most Educated Small Towns" according to Forbes.com.

Government

Wellesley Town Hall

The town government has been run by town meeting since the town's founding.

Since Proposition 2½ limited property tax increases to 2.5% per year in 1980, the town has had to ask residents for a number of overrides to maintain funding for certain programs. Although the main 2005 override passed, a simultaneous supplemental override to preserve certain specific programs and services failed by 17 votes. The 2006 override passed with a large majority. Wellesley also receives funding from the state government. Local roads have been repaved several times in the 1990s and 2000s.

Wellesley opened its new Free Library building in 2003, which is part of the Minuteman Library Network. Due to the structure of budget override votes and perhaps the size of the new main branch of the library, the two branch libraries—one in Wellesley Hills, which was purpose-built to be a branch library in the 1920s, another in Wellesley Fells—closed in the summer of 2006. The branch libraries reopened in September 2008.

Services

Wellesley residents receive all major services from their local town government, with the exception of residential trash pick-up.

Municipal light plant

Wellesley is serviced by the Wellesley Municipal Light Plant (WMLLP). It is one of only a handful of municipal light plants in the state of the place; Massachusetts.

Recycling and disposal

Residents of Wellesley cart their own refuse to Wellesley's Recycling and Disposal Facility (RDF), a town-operated multi-use waste recycling site, where items are sorted by type, recyclability and potential reuse. Old books and magazines are available for town residents to take, which have their own shelving section.

The RDF also has a "Take it or Leave it" area where residents leave items they no longer want but that are in good repair. In 2004, the Town had to discontinue the "Take it or Leave it" because of funding cutbacks. However, within six months town residents reinstated it by means of a volunteer system. The section reopened with volunteers on duty at all times to organize the goods and ensure that only usable items were left there.

Education

Residence halls at Wellesley College

The town is known for possessing the second greatest concentration of residents with advanced degrees in the country. The public education services of the town are very well regarded, especially Wellesley High School; in 2007 it was ranked 70th best public high school in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, earning a Gold Medal. The following year, the high school's accreditation was placed on warning status by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Commission on Public Secondary Schools.

Wellesley's public school system is nationally well regarded. In 2008, Wellesley High School was ranked 70th best public high school in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report, and on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test the district regularly scores higher than the state average. The school system also contains a middle school and seven elementary schools (Bates, Upham, Schofield, Fiske, Hardy, Hunnewell, and Sprague.)

The town contains a private elementary school, Tenacre Country Day School, and Dana Hall School a preparatory school for girls which is for soccer sport.

Wellesley also contains the main campus of 3 colleges, Wellesley College (attended by Hillary Clinton), a women's liberal arts college, Massachusetts Bay Community College, a two-year public college, and Babson College, a business college. According to Forbes.com, Wellesley College is the 6th best college in the country. According to US News & World Report, Babson College is the number one college in the country for entrepreneurship, receiving this distinction for the past fourteen years. In addition, The Financial Times ranked Babson College as the 5th best U.S. college for providing custom executive education programs. Part of main campus of Olin College, a private engineering school, is located in Wellesley, although its main entrance is located in Needham.

Transportation

Commuter Rail train at Wellesley Hills

Wellesley has had rail service to Boston since 1833. These days rail service is provided through Wellesley's participation in the MBTA, which offers a total of 17 weekday Commuter Rail trains inbound towards Boston & outbound towards Framingham & Worcester. Wellesley's stations are (east to west) Wellesley Farms, Wellesley Hills, and Wellesley Square. The Wellesley Farms station is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. MWRTA bus service also runs along Walnut Street, Cedar Street, and Route 9.

The highways Interstate 95 in Massachusetts/Massachusetts Route 128, Massachusetts Route 9, Massachusetts route 16 and Massachusetts route 135 run through Wellesley.

For elders and people with disabilities there is a specific MBTA-based service, The Ride, which offers free or low-cost door-to-door service by appointment.

From nearby Riverside MBTA Station in Newton, commuter express buses run to downtown Boston, Newton Corner and Central Square, Waltham. This is also a station for Greyhound Lines and Peter Pan Bus Lines with frequent service to Boston, New York City, and other destinations.

Wellesley's Council on Aging contracts out a daily low-cost minibus service offering elderly access to several local medical facilities and the Woodland MBTA station. Further afield is the Springwell Senior Medical Escort Program / Busy Bee Transportation Service for rides to medical & non-medical services in the area. There is also a monthly minibus to the Natick Mall.

For Amtrak service the nearest stations are west in Framingham, east in Boston at Back Bay and South Station, and south in Route 128 Station in Westwood.

Those affiliated with Wellesley College can take advantage of their bus services to Cambridge & Needham. Wellesley College & Babson College also both offer discounted Zipcar service.

Economy

Wellesley is home to the headquarters of many local, national and global businesses including, but not limited to, BCC Research, Benchmark Senior Living, Blank Label Apparel, Eagle Investment Systems, EPG Incorporated, GrandBanks Capital venture capital firm, Livingston and Haynes PC, Roche Bros., and Sun Life Financial.

Top employers

According to Wellesley's 2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:

#	Employer	# of Employees
1	Sun Life Financial	1,661
2	Wellesley College	1,200
3	Babson College	850
4	Harvard Pilgrim Health Care	490
5	Roche Bros.	330
6	Massachusetts Bay Community College	250
7	Dana Hall School	250
8	Wellesley Country Club	220
9	Biogen Idec	210
10	Towers Watson	200

Culture

Wellesley's Wonderful Weekend

Each year the weekend before Memorial Day, The Town of Wellesley sponsors the annual Wellesley's Wonderful Weekend which includes the annual Veterans' Parade and Fireworks. The fireworks display is one of the most elaborate and spectacular shows that is done by local or town government in the United States. It is put on by Atlas Fireworks of Jaffrey, New Hampshire who also put on the Jaffrey Festival of Fireworks. On Sunday, May 18, 2008, The Beach Boys performed in a concert on the Wellesley High School athletic fields in front of an estimated 10,000 town residents and fans. The funds for the performance, an estimated 250 thousand dollars, were made as a gift by an anonymous donor and lifelong fan of the band.

The Wellesley Symphony Orchestra

The Wellesley Symphony Orchestra presents classical, pops, and family concerts at Mass Bay Community College at its Wellesley Campus.

Religious institutions

The town of Wellesley is home to several religious institutions. There is one temple, Temple Beth Elohim, and several churches: Wellesley Congregational Church, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, St. Paul's Catholic Church, Christ Church United Methodist, Wellesley Hills Congregational Church (also known as The Hills Church), First Church of Christ-Scientist, St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, The Metrowest Baptist Church, Elmwood Chapel, and Unitarian Universalist Society of Wellesley Hills.

Horticulture

The Hunnewell Arboretum abuts the Wellesley campus, and the Elm Bank Horticulture Center has its entrance in Wellesley, although it is located across a small private bridge over the Charles River and is therefore in the neighboring town of Dover.

Notable people

• Danny Ainge, executive director of basketball operations and general manager of the Boston Celtics
• Emily Greene Balch, professor, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, 1946
• Roger Nash Baldwin, co-founder of American Civil Liberties Union
• Katherine Lee Bates, author of America the Beautiful
• Gamaliel Bradford, poet, biographer
• Dee Brown, former basketball player for the Boston Celtics
• R. Nicholas Burns, former US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, U.S. Ambassador to NATO (2001–2005) and to Greece (1997–2001) and State Department Spokesman (1995–1997)
• Karl E. Case, developer of the Case-Shiller index
• Dan Chiasson, poet and New Yorker critic
• Greg Comella, former professional football player with the New York Giants
• Carl Crawford, outfielder for the Boston Red Sox
• Lucy Cross, brewmaster
• Jane Curtin, comedian, original cast member of Saturday Night Live
• Richard Darman, economist, former head of the Office of Management and Budget
• Dennis Eckersley, former pitcher for the Oakland A's
• Steven Ellis, former pitcher for the Chicago Cubs
• Carl Everett, former center fielder for the Boston Red Sox
• Nicole Freedman (born 1972), Olympic cyclist
• Nate Freiman (born 1986), first baseman for the Oakland Athletics
• Wendell Arthur Garrity Jr., U.S. District Court judge
• Curt Gowdy, sports commentator
• Michael S. Greco, President of American, Massachusetts & New England Bar Associations
• Ed Harding, news anchor for WCVB Channel 5
• Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon Products
• Phil Laak, professional poker player, winner of 2004 World Poker Tour
• Xihong Lin, Harvard Medical Department Professor
• Gregory Mankiw, Harvard Economics Professor
• Daisuke Matsuzaka, pitcher for the Boston Red Sox
• Fred McLafferty, professor, analytical chemist, author, inventor, leading developer of mass spectrometry
• Ossian Everett Mills, founder of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity
• Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America
• Bill Mueller, former third baseman for the Boston Red Sox
• Joseph E. Murray, surgeon, winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1990
• Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-American author
• Joe Nash, retired NFL player for the Seattle Seahawks
• David George Ouellet, Medal of Honor recipient (Posthumously)
• Sylvia Plath, poet and author, The Bell Jar
• Richard Preston and Douglas Preston, best-selling authors
• Aneesh Raman, former CNN Middle East Correspondent, currently a presidential speechwriter at the White House.
• James St. Clair, defense lawyer for Richard Nixon during Watergate
• Jack Sanford, former MLB pitcher, 1957 MLB Rookie of the Year Award recipient
• Billy Squier, rock musician
• Biz Stone, Twitter co-founder, entrepreneur spoke at Wellesley's Babson College commencement in 2011
• Greg Yaitanes, actor, film director, writer
• David G. Walker, CEO of Shreve, Crump & Low Historic Bostonian Jewelry Store
• Rasheed Wallace, retired professional basketball player

External links

• Town of Wellesley
• Recycling & Disposal Facility (Wellesley RDF)
• The Wellesley Townsman
• The Swellesley Report
• Newcomers' Club of Wellesley
• Wellesley Police Photo Division