Back in 2022, Upper Falls resident Jay Werb came up with a unique idea for an Upper Falls neighborhood event to celebrate the history of the village – A Walk Through Time.
The story of Upper Falls is largely the story of the mills. Much of the housing in the village was built in the 1800s to house the workers from the booming mills in Upper Falls. Today those 1800s mill buildings are still here but they have been repurposed for other uses.
Because of its history, Upper Falls has a look distinct from the rest of Newton. Most of it was built prior to city zoning rules, so the village is full of odd-shaped lots, houses hidden behind other houses, and houses in unusual locations within the lot – right on the street, or inches away from their neighbors.
Much of Upper Falls is now a local historic district containing more than 150 structures, many of which look much as they did in the 19th century.
So Jay Werb’s idea for the event was to create a mile-long free walk with a dozen or so stops along the way. The route would weave through interesting parts of the village, and neighbors would be recruited to be the tour guides. What gave the event a particular charm is the crowd-sourced history from these tour guides. Some of the guides talked about their own houses. One (Paula Kelleher) talked about her uncle, who was the head of quality control in the Gamewell Fire Alarm factory. Lee Fisher told the history of Echo Bridge, etc.
Rather than just sticking to this 1800s history, the event covered Upper Falls history from the year 8000 BC up to 2085. The 8000 BC history was a geologic feature on a cliff on Sullivan Avenue, affectionately known as The Upper Falls Pothole. The 2085 stop was a collection of aliens from the future, just to really confuse and entertain folks.
Before the 2022 Walk Through Time, all the volunteers wanted to know how many people were expected to walk the route. There was just no way to know, since there were no tickets and it had never been done before. It turned out that the event was very popular, and more than 300 people came for the neighborhood tour.
It’s now four years later, and Upper Falls is once again rolling out the red carpet for folks to come to the 2026 Walk Through Time. It will be on Sunday June 7, 1PM – 3PM (rain date: Saturday, June 13).
The walk is a loop so everyone can start anywhere on the loop, but the easiest two places to begin are:
- Echo Bridge Mall (the old mill complex) at the corner of Chestnut and Elliot streets, where there’s plenty of parking
- Pettee Square (Chestnut and Oak streets), but parking may be harder to find, now that the Pettee Square Splash Park is open again for the season.
All are invited!
