Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning, spawning what became known as the Waltham-Lowell system of labor and production. The city is now a center for research and higher education as home to Brandeis University and Bentley University. The population was 65,218 at the 2020 United States census. Waltham is part of the Greater Boston area and lies west of Downtown Boston.

Waltham has been called "Watch City" because of its association with the watch industry. Waltham Watch Company opened its factory in Waltham in 1854 and was the first company to make watches on an assembly line. It won the gold medal in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. The company produced over 35 million watches, clocks, and instruments before it closed in 1957.

Waltham borders Watertown and Belmont to the east, Lexington to the north, Lincoln and Weston to the west, and Newton to the south.

History

Waltham was first settled by the English in 1634 as part of Watertown, and was officially incorporated as a separate town in 1738, but the area was inhabited for thousands of years prior to English colonization. At the time of European arrival, Waltham was in a border zone between the territories of the Pawtucket confederation and the Massachusett, with nearby native settlements at Nonantum and Pequosset (Watertown). Early settlers recorded the presence of an "Indian Stockade" near today's Cambridge Reservoir, and an "Indian Hollow" in today's Calvary Cemetery. A native trail through Waltham, the "Old Connecticut Path" saw continued use after colonization and became the basis for present day Route 20.

Waltham is most likely named for Waltham Abbey in the County of Essex, England. The first record of the name is from the articles of incorporation, dated January 15, 1738. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon words, weald or wald "forest" and ham "homestead" or "enclosure." Waltham had no recognizable town center until the 1830s, when the nearby Boston Manufacturing Company gave the town the land that now serves as its central square.

In the early 19th century, Francis Cabot Lowell and his friends and colleagues established in Waltham the Boston Manufacturing Company—the first integrated textile mill in the United States—with the goal of eliminating the problems of co-ordination, quality control, and shipping inherent in the subcontracting based textile industry. The Waltham–Lowell system of production derives its name from the city and the founder of the mill.

The city is home to a number of large estates, including Gore Place, a mansion built in 1806 for former Massachusetts governor Christopher Gore, the Robert Treat Paine Estate, a residence designed by architect Henry Hobson Richardson and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted for philanthropist Robert Treat Paine, Jr. (1810–1905), and the Lyman Estate, a estate built in 1793 by Boston merchant Theodore Lyman I.

In 1857, the Waltham Model 1857 watch was produced by the American Watch Company in the city of Waltham, Massachusetts. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Waltham was home to the brass era automobile manufacturer Metz, where the first production motorcycle in the U.S. was built.

Another first in Waltham industrial history involves the method to mass-produce the magnetron tube, invented by Percy Spencer at Raytheon. During World War II, the magnetron tube technology was applied to radar. Later, magnetron tubes were used as components in microwave ovens.

Waltham was also the home of the Walter E. Fernald State School, the western hemisphere's oldest publicly funded institution serving people with developmental disabilities. The storied and controversial history of the institution has long been covered by local and, at times, national media.

Timeline

1703Grove Hill Cemetery established. 1738Town of Waltham incorporated from Watertown, Massachusetts. 1755Part of Cambridge annexed to Waltham. 1793The Vale (residence) built. 1810Waltham Cotton and Wool Factory Company formed. 1813Boston Manufacturing Company in business. 1820 First Congregational Church founded. Manufacturers' Library active. Waltham Bleachery built. 1827Rumford Institute organized. 1833The Hive newspaper begins publication. 1835Waltham Bank established. 1837Methodist Episcopal Church organized. 1849 Part of Newton annexed to Waltham. Christ Episcopal Church built. 1851Tornado. 1852Baptist Church organized. 1853Waltham Gas Light Company incorporated. 1854American Horologe Company relocates to Waltham. 1856Waltham Sentinel newspaper begins publication. 1857 Waltham and Watertown Railroad constructed. Mount Feake Cemetery established. Waltham Agricultural Library Association formed. 1859Town of Belmont separates from Waltham. 1863Waltham Free Press begins publication. 1865Public Library founded. 1866Emmet Literary Association formed. 1870 Waltham Horological School established. Waltham Foundry Co. established. 1876 Waltham Weekly Record begins publication. Davis & Farnum Manufacturing Company in business. 1879Leland Home for aged women established. 1880Music Hall built. 1881Emery Wheel Company in business. 1882Parmenter Crayon Company chartered. 1884 City of Waltham incorporated. Harrington Block built. 1885 Board of Trade organized. Waltham Hospital founded. Waltham Training School for Nurses established. 1886Robert Treat Paine Estate built. 1888Sesquicentennial. 1890 Population: 18,707. Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded relocates to Waltham. 1891O'Hara Waltham Dial Company organized. 1893 Waltham Evening News begins publication. Waltham Manufacturing Company established. Beaver Brook Reservation and Charles River Reservation established. 1894 Linden Street Bridge constructed. Waltham Bicycle Park opens. 1902Metz Company in business. 1908Company F State Armory built. 1910Population: 27,834. 1915Waltham Historical Society incorporated. 1924Waltham News Tribune newspaper in publication. 1928Middlesex College of Medicine and Surgery relocates to Waltham. 1933First Parish Church rebuilt. 1935Gore Place Society founded. 1936Hovey Players (theatre group) founded. 1938County Courthouse built. 1941Waltham Garden Club founded. 1948Brandeis University established. 1961Rose Art Museum founded at Brandeis University. 1968 Bentley University relocates to Waltham. WBRS on air. 1970Population: 61,582. 1971 Waltham Museum established. Robert Drinan becomes Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district representative. 1975Aerosmith musical group rents Wherehouse. 1976Waltham Mills Artists Association open studios begins (approximate date)Boston Globe - Oct 30, 1996 1980Charles River Museum of Industry established. 1982Parexel International Corporation headquartered in Waltham. 1985Waltham Philharmonic Orchestra formed. 1987Joseph P. Kennedy II becomes Massachusetts's 8th congressional district representative. 1988Global Petroleum Corporation headquartered in Waltham (approximate date). 1995Steinway Musical Instruments, Inc. headquartered in Waltham. 1996 Lionbridge Technologies Inc. headquartered in Waltham. City website online. 1999Waltham Land Trust incorporated. 2003Raytheon Company and Roving Software Inc. headquartered in Waltham. 2004 Jeannette A. McCarthy becomes mayor. Brandeis University's Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism nonprofit established. 2006Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. headquartered in Waltham. 2007 PerkinElmer, Inc. headquartered in Waltham. Waltham Symphony Orchestra formed. 2010Population: 60,632. 2011 A triple homicide occurs on September 11. Watch City Steampunk Festival begins. 2013Katherine Clark becomes Massachusetts's 5th congressional district representative.

Pronunciation

The name of the city is pronounced with the primary stress on the first syllable and a full vowel in the second syllable, , though the name of the Waltham watch was pronounced with a reduced schwa in the second syllable: . At one time, most people would have pronounced it in the British way, "Walthum", but when people came to work in the mills from Nova Scotia, the pronunciation evolved. The local version became a phonetic sounding to accommodate French speakers who could not pronounce it in the British way. In some areas, the city is referred to as "The Waltham".

Geography Waltham is located at (42.380596, −71.235005), about north-west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, and approximately northwest of Boston's Brighton neighborhood. The heart of the city is Waltham Common, which is home to Waltham City Hall and various memorial statues. The Common is on Main Street, which is home to several churches, the Waltham Public Library, and Post Office.

The city stretches along the Charles River and contains several dams. The dams were used to power textile mills and other endeavors in the early years of the industrial activity.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (6.69%) is water.

Neighborhoods Waltham has several neighborhoods or villages, including:

Angleside Banks Square The Bleachery (named after the former Waltham Bleachery and Dye Works) Cedarwood The Chemistry (named after the former Newton Chemical Company) Ellison Park Gardencrest Headyland The Highlands The Island (formerly Morse Meadow Island) Kendal Green (mostly in Weston) Kendall Park Lakeview The Lanes Northeast The North Side Piety Corner Prospectville (defunct in 1894, now under Cambridge Reservoir) Rangeley Acres Ravenswood Roberts Rock Alley The South Side Warrendale West End Wildwood Acres

Adjacent towns It is bordered to the west by Weston and Lincoln, to the south by Newton, to the east by Belmont and Watertown, and to the north by Lexington.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Waltham had a population of 65,218. The median age was 34.5 years. 14.9% of residents were under the age of 18 and 14.6% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 98.3 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 97.0 males age 18 and over.

100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.

There were 25,129 households in Waltham, of which 22.5% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 39.7% were married-couple households, 23.1% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 29.2% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 33.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

There were 26,545 housing units, of which 5.3% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.6% and the rental vacancy rate was 4.7%.

+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 40,672 62.4% Black or African American 4,556 7.0% American Indian and Alaska Native 344 0.5% Asian 7,947 12.2% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 21 0.0% Some other race 6,936 10.6% Two or more races 4,742 7.3% Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 10,719 16.4%

2021 estimates According to 2021 census estimates, the racial makeup of the city was 60.5% White, 7.6% Black or African American, 0.5% Native American or Alaska Native, 11.8% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 5.3% from other races, and 4.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 22.3% of the population.

Income and poverty