Wellesley Hills Is Adding an Evening, One Address at a Time Along Washington Street

This summer, the counter at Maugus Cafe closed at 5pm every day of the week. Since early October, the same counter has had Select Board approval to stay open until 10pm, seven nights a week. The town's long-planned redesign of Wellesley Square is still in design. The Town expects to ask Town Meeting for construction funding in 2027 or 2028. A mile or so east, the short stretch of Washington Street facing Sprague Clock Tower Park is getting its evenings sooner, through a reopened diner, a restored library and a church concert series, each setting its own hours.

The Maugus license is the clearest marker

The Maugus Restaurant has been on Washington Street, across from Clock Tower Park, since the 1930s. It changed hands in 2025 and came back this year as Maugus Cafe under owner Kostas Saranteas. The renovation kept what regulars would look for first. In its July visit, The Swellesley Report found the counter stools and booths still in place and the red carpet gone. A new counter with stools now looks out over Washington Street. The coffee comes from Atomic Coffee Roasters. The menu leans Mediterranean, with dishes like a Spanakopita Style Omelette and a Souvlaki Bowl alongside the breakfast and lunch standards.

The soft opening ran through the summer. The grand reopening came on Friday, Oct. 9, timed for after school was back in session. That same week, as The Swellesley Report covered, the Select Board approved amendments to the cafe's common victualler and all-alcohol licenses. Those changes cover dinner service and some special events after 5pm.

The before-and-after hours tell the story:

The license sets the outer limit. It doesn't set the schedule. The cafe has said dinner on select days is planned for the coming months and has not yet announced those days or a dinner menu. Until it does, plan a November visit around breakfast and lunch, and check the cafe's site before heading over after work.

Two late nights at the library down the street

Ninety addresses down, at 210 Washington Street, the Wellesley Hills Branch Library reopened on Oct. 6 after four months closed for an interior refresh. The Georgian Revival building has been a library since March 20, 1928, so its 100th anniversary is now within sight.

The branch has come back before. Budget pressure closed it in 2005, and private donations reopened it in 2008. This refresh followed the same pattern. According to The Swellesley Report's account of the reopening, Nancy Lee led the seed funding and major backing, with large contributions from Keith Higgins, the Wellesley Free Library Foundation and other private donors. A permanent plaque now credits Lee, next to a grandfather clock she gave the branch. Even the land has a neighborhood story. The same Swellesley Report article cites a 1928 Wellesley Townsman report that Isaac Sprague, the man the clock tower park is named for, donated it.

Interior designer Richard Eustice of Atlantic House, Ltd. worked on the building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He told The Swellesley Report:

"You just don't see architectural details like this in your normal daily life anymore. Libraries are one of the few places this kind of detail still exists."

The plaster friezes had been painted pink at some point and are now back to their original white. The original reading tables are still in the main room, on a new carpet in Arts and Crafts colors. Under that carpet are the library's original 16-by-16 cork tiles from 1928. The Children's Room has a new mural by Jason Sawtelle of BlackBeak Studios.

The detail that ties the branch to the rest of this block is its schedule. Hills is open until 8pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays and until 5pm on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. It's closed Sundays and Mondays. In November, the branch closes on Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, and on Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 26. The day before Thanksgiving it keeps its usual Wednesday hours, 10am to 5pm. The branch's page posts any further changes.

Saturdays at 4, across from both

Across Washington Street at 207, Wellesley Hills Congregational Church runs its Saturdays at 4 concert series. Two concerts are scheduled for November:

• Saturday, Nov. 14, 4pm: Mission Ammonia, a program of new works for voice and chamber ensemble featuring soprano Sonja Dutoit Tengblad.
• Saturday, Nov. 21, 4pm: New England Baroque. General admission is $30; students and seniors pay $20.

A 4pm start gets out around dusk in late November. For years, that's about when everything else on this block had already closed. With Maugus licensed until 10pm and the library open until 8 two nights a week, the block now has more reasons to stay after dark than it had a season ago.

The rest of the stretch, address by address

The smaller changes along this stretch of Washington Street point the same way. Each one gives the block another reason for a visit.

• 268 Washington St.: Liliko, the Asian convenience store that opened this summer, received a take-out common victualler license from the Select Board in October. It is adding a hot-water station and microwave so customers can prepare packaged food on site and take it with them.
• 332 Washington St., Suite 10: Gaya Beauty & Spa opened in June, offering facials and microneedling.
• 251 Washington St.: Pvolve was preparing a fitness studio here with a winter opening target as of August. That is a plan, not an opening date.
• 278 to 390 Washington St.: Middlesex Savings told customers it plans to move west along Washington Street. As of July, no move date had been announced.

None of these needed a town project to happen. Over the same months, the Wellesley Square Improvement Project has been gathering public input on the Central and Washington Street corridor. The Town's schedule shows refined design alternatives in early December and a preferred design in late January 2027. Back in August, we looked at the restaurants filling in around the Square ahead of that plan.

Saturday, Nov. 21, as a Hills day

Most of November's dates line up on one Saturday, which makes it the easiest way to see the whole block:

1. 10am: Breakfast at Maugus Cafe, 300 Washington St.
2. 11am to noon: Hills Branch Book Chat at 210 Washington St. Participants bring books of their own choosing, and there's no assigned reading.
3. Early afternoon: Wellesley Marketplace at Wellesley High School, 50 Rice St. The Wellesley Hills Junior Women's Club runs it with more than 200 local businesses and food vendors, and proceeds go to scholarships and community grants.
4. 4pm: New England Baroque at Wellesley Hills Congregational Church, 207 Washington St.

Two more town-wide dates finish the month. The Wellesley Turkey Trot leaves from Linden Square on Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 26, with the 5K at 8am and the kids' fun run at 8:45am. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society's Festival of Trees opens Nov. 25 at the Garden at Elm Bank and runs through Dec. 28. It's open Wednesdays through Sundays and closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas. For more on the town beyond this one block, our Wellesley neighborhood page has the wider picture.

If you own a home within walking distance of Clock Tower Park, these changes are part of your daily routine, and they're also part of how your house compares with others in town. Jamie Grossman has followed Wellesley's villages for more than 30 years and can tell you what the Hills block's evening hours mean for your property. Request a personalized home valuation and we'll go over it with you.