Upper Falls is one of the six founding villages of Newton and the only one to retain its name from before Newton’s separation from Cambridge in 1688. The village’s first permanent settlers were John and Rebecca Woodward, in 1681.

Water power, and later the railroad, led to the development of Upper Falls as a manufacturing center in the 1700s and 1800s. Today, many of the village’s structures look much as they did in the early nineteenth century. In those days, Upper Falls occupied a wide territory, including Newton Highlands (until 1865) and Waban (which became a separate village in 1891).