The Village of Waban was named for a 17^th century leader of the Massachusett people, who had lived in this area for generations. The image, a real estate advertisement from the 1891 Newton City Directory, depicts Waban in a stereotypical way. This was common at the time, when Native people were romanticized as symbols of nostalgia for the country’s pre-industrial past.*

Followers of Waban were the first local Native people to convert to Christianity at the urging of Puritan evangelist John Eliot. They formed a short-lived Christian village, called Nonantum, in 1646 in what is now Newton Corner. In 1651, colonial authorities moved Waban and his followers away from Nonantum to form the new "Praying Town" of Natick. Visit the online exhibit, "I Heard That Word" to learn more about this period in Newton's Indigenous and colonial history. 

By the time the village of Waban was developed in the 19^th century, European Americans had begun to romanticize Native people. Streets, villages and geographical features in late-19^th-century New England were commonly given Native names. There are other examples in the village of Waban, including these street names: Agawam, Annawan, Metacomet, and Quinobequin.

When the railroad station opened in 1886, resident William Chamberlain Strong put forward the name “Waban” for this stop on the Circuit Line, now the Green MBTA line.

*Historic Newton posts this image for its historical content, not because it condones the advertisement.