West Newton, Massachusetts

Founded in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1976, the Joanne Langione Dance Center was the first American youth dance school centered on a developmental and avocational model rather than a competitive one. Currently the dance center offers instruction to students between 9 months and 18 years old in classical ballet, modern dance, contemporary dance, jazz, hip-hop and tap dance, with ballet exams administered annually by the American Academy of Ballet. The school stages sixteen public performances each year.The school's toddler dance program, "Playdance," developed upon the cognitive insight that the sequence of music and movement constitute "brilliant neurological exercises" in early childhood, was featured on the PBS Documentary and WCVB series for Lifetime, Your Baby and Child, with Dr. Penelope Leach. The inaugural group of "Playdance" graduates from the school had the honor of being showcased during Bob McGrath's Sesame Street tour in 1988..

West Newton station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Newton, Massachusetts. It serves the Framingham/Worcester Line, and is located inside the Massachusetts Turnpike Exit 16 rotary in the village of West Newton. West Newton has had continuous rail service since 1834. The station consists of a single low side platform serving one of the line's two tracks, with small crossings to access trains on the far track. West Newton is not accessible; a renovation for accessibility is planned.

The Myrtle Baptist Church Neighborhood Historic District encompasses a historic center of the African-American community in West Newton, Massachusetts. The district includes all of Curve Street, where the Myrtle Baptist Church is located, as well as a few properties on adjacent Auburn and Prospect Streets. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

The Webster Park Historic District is a residential historic district in Newton, Massachusetts, encompassing a very early residential subdivision designed by nationally known landscape architect Alexander Wadsworth and laid out in 1844. The district includes Webster Park, a lozenge-shaped park, along with a collection of houses flanking the park and extending eastward along Webster Street. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.The district includes 12 acres (4.9 ha) of a 56-acre (23 ha) subdivision laid out in 1844 after the Boston and Worcester Railroad was built near the area in 1834. This surviving element was the earliest portion of the area to be developed, and has 26 houses, all but three of which contribute to the district's significance. The district was laid out by Wadsworth, best known for his contribution to the landscaping of Mount Auburn Cemetery, on commission for William Porter, a real estate speculator. Most of the houses in the district were built between 1847 and 1870, with Gothic Revival and Italianate styling predominant. Only three houses were built after 1900.The Gothic Revival structures are the most visually significant of the district. There are eight such houses, which are nearly identical in basic structure, having all been designed by Edward Shaw, a Boston architect who had published a popular book on architecture. He was hired by builder John Rollins, who acquired many of the lots laid out by Wadsworth. Although siding has at least partially compromised the integrity of some of these houses, most of them retain at least some original elements of their styling.

The West Parish Burying Ground, also known as the River Street Burying Ground or River Street Cemetery, is a cemetery located at River and Cherry streets in West Newton, Massachusetts, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Established in 1777, the cemetery is owned and maintained by the City of Newton; the Second Church in Newton, its original owner, was known as the West Parish.

The Nathaniel Topliff Allen Homestead is a historic house at 35 Webster Street in the village of West Newton, in Newton, Massachusetts. The Greek Revival house is notable as the home of Nathaniel Topliff Allen (1823–1903), an innovative educator in the mid-19th century. Allen's pioneering work influenced the development of new teaching methods taught at the state normal school (established in Newton, now Framingham State University). The house is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and is currently owned by Newton Cultural Alliance.

West Newton English and Classical School, also known as the Allen School, was a model school in West Newton, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1854 by Nathaniel Topliff Allen (1823–1903), an educator and protege of Horace Mann. Allen was an advocate of women's suffrage, temperance, and the abolition of slavery, and his school, unusual at the time, had a racially integrated, co-educational student body. It offered a kindergarten program based upon the principles of Froebel's Kindergarten System, and included gymnastics in its curriculum, both of which were, in America, educational innovations. The school's coursework included reading, spelling, arithmetic, geography, geology, and bookkeeping. Daily journals kept by students were critiqued every two weeks. The school also taught art, music, dancing and ethics. Students attended lectures by guest speakers such as Theodore Parker, William Lloyd Garrison, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Many of Allen's relatives, including his uncles, brothers, cousins, nieces, and three daughters, lived and taught at the school, and provided lodging in their homes for students.Over the course of its 50 years in existence, more than 5,000 students attended the school. Students came from all over the world, and many graduates, both men and women, went on to have careers in medicine, law, government, and education.

The Dr. Samuel Warren House is a historic house in the West Newton village of Newton, Massachusetts. The oldest part of the house, its southern portion, was built c. 1716 by William Williams, an early settler of the area, and expanded to its present size around 1751. It was originally located near Washington Street, but was moved to its present location in the second half of the 19th century. The building has had a succession of owners prominent in the development of West Newton, including the physician Dr. Samuel Warren and the educator Nathaniel Topliff Allen. It was converted for use as professional offices in 1960.The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

The First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton occupies a prominent location at 1326 Washington Street in the heart of the village of West Newton in Newton, Massachusetts. Architect Ralph Adams Cram designed the church, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. designed the grounds, the cornerstone was laid in 1905, and it was dedicated in 1906; it is one of the village's oldest buildings. The church is in Cram's signature Gothic Revival style, with buttressed walls and a blocky square tower with crenellations and spires. An enclosed courtyard is formed by an office wing, banquet hall, and parish house, which are built to resemble Elizabethan architecture with brick first floor and half-timbered upper level. The Unitarian Society was organized in 1848, and its first building was built in 1860. A Gothic Revival structure later expanded with Stick style decoration, it stood at the present location of the West Newton Cinema. The present building was built on the site of an early experimental normal school (later moved to Framingham and now Framingham State University, and has a stained glass window featuring two Massachusetts education pioneers (and parishioners of the church), Horace Mann and Cyrus Peirce.The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the First Unitarian Church in 1986.

The Putnam Street Historic District is a residential historic district roughly bounded by Winthrop, Putnam, Temple, and Shaw Streets in Newton, Massachusetts. It encompasses a residential area located on the hill just south of West Newton which was developed between the 1860s and 1880s. The 20 properties in the nearly 8-acre (3.2 ha) district are primarily Second Empire, Queen Anne, and Stick style. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

The Joseph L. Stone House is a historic house and carriage barn at 77 and 85 Temple Street in Newton, Massachusetts. The 2+1⁄2-story house, now at 77 Temple Street, has a brick first floor and wood frame upper floors, with a roughly three-part facade. On the left is a projecting section with a gabled roof, and on the right is a rounded two story tower section topped with an octagonal roof. In between is a recessed porch on the second floor, with a projecting gabled dormer above. The walls are sheathed in decorative shingle work, and the porch and porte-cochere are elaborately decorated. The carriage barn, now converted to a residence at 85 Temple, is of similar styling. The house and carriage barn were built in 1881 by Joseph L. Stone, a banker.The buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.