Wellesley, Massachusetts

Wellesley is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. Part of Greater Boston, Wellesley 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 the distance from Needham, Massachusetts into Wellesley and is adjacent to Wellesley’s Babson College.

Wellesley was settled in the 1630s as part of Dedham, Massachusetts. It was subsequently a part of Needham, West Needham. In 1880, West Needham residents voted to secede from Needham, naming the new town was after the estate of local benefactor Horatio Hollis Hunnewell (1810-1902), a banker, railroad financier, philanthropist, amateur botanist and one of the most prominent horticulturists in 19th-century America.

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, with more than 66 percent of households having at least one individual holding an advanced degree beyond a bachelor’s degree. Forbes.com recently ranked Wellesley #2 on its list of “America’s Most Educated Small Towns,” of all towns in the U.S. Neighborhoods include: Wellesley Farms, Wellesley Fells, Wellesley Hills (02481), Wellesley Lower Falls, Wellesley Square (02482), Babson Park (02457), Overbrook and Sheridan Hills.