The numbers at right refer to the numbers on the map below.

First settled in 1630 as a part of Watertown, Newton was incorporated as a separate community (Cambridge Village) in 1688. In 1691, it was renamed Newton, receiving its city Charter in 1873.  Located 8 miles west of Boston, Newton is a diverse community of 13 "villages", each of which retaining their own distinctive neighborhood feeling and architecture.  UPPER FALLS is one of the six founding villages of Newton, and is believed to be the only village retaining the name acquired prior to Newton's separation from Cambridge in 1688 (early high- way records of 1685 and 1687 refer to "Upper Falls"). 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 early 19th century. In those early days, the village occupied a wide territory, including Newton Highlands (until 1865) and Waban (which became a separate village in 1891). Although grants of land were made within its borders as early as 1634, its first permanent settlers were John and Rebecca Woodward in 1681.

The first industrial venture in the village (the first on the Charles River in Newton) was John Clark's sawmill, erected on the east bank in 1688. This was soon followed, in 1710 and 1715, by a grist mill and a fulling mill (fulling is a process of pounding and shrinking woolen cloth). Upper Falls' role as the leading manufacturing village in Newton was quickly established.
In 1782, Simon Elliot of Boston completed the purchase of the mill site, and the older mills were joined by four snuff mills, an annealing shop, a wire mill, a screw factory and a blacksmith shop. These buildings remained here until 1823, when a company formed by Thomas Handasyd Perkins (Elliot's son-in-law) replaced them with a large cotton mill, under the name Elliot Manufacturing Company. Perkins was a noted Boston merchantman - the principal benefactor in the building of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the McLean Hospital, the Mass. General Hospital, and the Perkins Institute for the Blind. The superintendent of the new company, Otis Pettee, was among the first inventors and manufacturers of cotton machinery in America. The first building on the site was a foundry, built under Pettee's supervision. Not only was most of their cotton machinery built here but also that of other early cotton mills, such as the Boston Mfg. Co. of Waltham, and the Jackson Mills in Nashua, NH.
Cotton manufacturing continued here until 1884 when, after a brief interim in 1886, silk manufacturing in various forms took over, continuing with but one exception (a venture in wool manufacturing) until 1962. At that time, through various transactions, the buildings were acquired and adapted for the variety of commercial enterprises one sees in them today, and eventually became known as Echo Bridge Park.

At this point, the Charles River begins one of its two rapid descents within the village, dropping a total of about 23 feet. The river is said to have originally been named "Quinobequin - the river that circles around," by the Pumkapoag tribe of the Algonquin Indians, who speared salmon and took shad and alewives from tidal waters below a natural dam in this area. Above the dam, fresh water fish were caught. Indian braves, bunching their canoes together, worked their way downstream using branches of saplings to sweep the river before them. Opposite this point, squaws stood on a submerged wall across the river, holding a net of woven reeds into which the fish were driven. The netted fish were dragged to the shore where they were cleaned and smoked over open fires and then packed away in caves for winter food. When these fishing grounds were sold, a clause in the deed (which was contained in all subsequent deeds) gave this tribe perpetual fishing rights. Later, when John Smith was mapping the coast of New England he renamed the river the "Charles," in honor of Charles I of England.

In 1893, both sides of the river were landscaped, creating a beautiful park which is now know as Echo Bridge Park, Newton's first park on the river. A colorfully lighted bridge, built in two sections, spanned the river from the Newton side leading to a broad stair- case that ascended the rocky bank on the far side. A two-storied orchestra and refreshment stand fronted on a natural amphitheater containing rows of seats, surmounted by a dance pavilion 40 x 100 feet in size. Swings and merry-go-rounds entertained the children. It is said that more than 5,000 people came here on pleasant Sunday afternoons. In the evenings the grounds were illuminated including "the immense granite arches of Echo Bridge, the falls, and the beautiful winding Charles River."