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Wellesley is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 26,613 at the 2000 census. It is best known as the home of Wellesley College and Babson College. The Hunnewell Arboretum abuts the Wellesley campus, and the Elm Bank Horticulture Center is also located in Wellesley. The public education services of the town are well regarded, especially Wellesley High School. Despite the fact that the town is not actually the wealthiest town in the state (it is behind neighboring Weston, Sudbury and Brookline) it has the reputation of being one of the most affluent and prestigious suburbs of Boston due to Wellesley College and the fact that some of the town's wealthiest neighborhoods are prominently located on its edges. Nonetheless, it is always ranked on the top 5. 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. History
Wellesley was originally part of Dedham, Massachusetts, and was subsequently a part of Needham, Massachusetts called West Needham, Massachusetts. One of the businessmen attracted to the town was Henry Durant, who in 1875 founded Wellesley College, a college for women with a lakeside campus. Durant named the college to honor his next-door neighbor, Horatio Hollis Hunnewell, a wealthy businessman and town benefactor whose mansion was named "Wellesley" in commemoration of his wife, whose maiden name was Welles. By 1880 the pace of life in town was quickening. Suddenly modern life was descending from all sides. There was the first newspaper, bank and telephone, with new churches and homes. Most importantly, the sense of identity which "West Needham" had always felt began to assert itself. Under the leadership of men like Durant and Hunnewell, joining together with town politician Joseph Fiske, Wellesley residents organized themselves and pushed for separation from Needham. There was intrigue and frenzy, with a heated meeting at the town hall (which doubled as the poor farm and which later became the Wellesley Country Club), but finally the men of Wellesley triumphed and on April 6, 1881 the Massachusetts legislature christened the new town of Wellesley, which took its name as a tribute to benefactor Hunnewell. Into the twentieth century, Jews and other minorities were informally blocked from living in certain parts of town. Certain groups such as Italians congregated in separate neighborhoods. Wellesley was home to US District Court Judge Arthur Garrity, who in 1974 ordered the integration of Boston public schools. This led to racial unrest and violence in the city of Boston as well as the picketing of Garrity's Wellesley home. Research Tips
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