"You just don't see architectural details like this in your normal daily life anymore," interior designer Richard Eustice of Atlantic House, Ltd. told The Swellesley Report while walking through the Wellesley Hills Branch Library before it reopened. "Libraries are one of the few places this kind of detail still exists."
He was describing one building. The same could be said of the whole Washington Street block around Sprague Clock Tower Park this month. Within about three weeks, the 1928 branch library reopened after a four-month closure, Maugus Cafe held its grand reopening under new owners, and Wellesley Hills Congregational Church started work on a new garden next to its 23rd annual Pumpkin Patch. Each project took an old place and made it usable for another generation. The Hills has done this before, and the library's own history shows it best.
A library the neighborhood has rescued before
The Wellesley Hills Branch Library at 210 Washington Street has served as a library since March 20, 1928. Its beginnings were a community effort. According to a 1928 Wellesley Townsman report cited by The Swellesley Report, Isaac Sprague donated the land, the Wellesley Hills Women's Club furnished the Children's Room, and taxpayers appropriated $50,000. Sprague's name is also on the clock tower park across the street.
The building has nearly been lost before. Budget pressure closed the branch in 2005, and private donations paid for it to reopen in 2008. The 2026 refresh followed the same pattern. Most of the branch's funding comes from taxpayers, but the renovation needed more. Nancy Lee provided the seed money and major backing, and a permanent plaque now recognizes her along with the grandfather clock she gave the branch. Keith Higgins, the Wellesley Free Library Foundation and many private donors also contributed.
The work restored the building more than it redesigned it. Over the decades, someone had painted the original plaster friezes pink. They are white again, and the relief work stands out. The original reading tables are still in the main room, and new carpet in Arts and Crafts colors sits on top of the original 16-by-16 cork tiles from 1928. The new overhead fixtures were hand-cast in bronze and alabaster by a Milwaukee firm that makes period lighting. In the children's room, there is new hardwood flooring and a storybook mural along the wall by Jason Sawtelle of BlackBeak Studios, who also painted the 2018 murals at the Fells Branch Library.
"The goal was to create a more welcoming environment for study and reading while preserving the building's history," Wellesley Free Library Director Jamie Jurgensen told The Swellesley Report. The branch reopened on October 6. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is approaching its 100th anniversary.
These are the branch's regular hours, according to the Wellesley Free Library. The library posts holiday exceptions on the same page.
- Tuesday and Thursday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Wednesday, Friday and Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Sunday and Monday: closed
Maugus kept the stools
Maugus has been at 300 Washington Street, across from Clock Tower Park, since the 1930s. The Papakonstantinou family ran it for nearly 45 years. In 2025 it was sold to Kostas Saranteas, who runs it with his wife, Anna, and their son, Stratis.
The renovation follows the same approach as the library down the street. When The Swellesley Report visited during the soft opening, the red carpet was gone, but the counter stools and booths were still there, and the back room was still set up for large groups. The changes were a new counter with stools facing Washington Street and a few outdoor tables under umbrellas. The restaurant's name is now Maugus Cafe.
The menu is still built on breakfast and lunch, now with more Mediterranean dishes. Coffee comes from Atomic Coffee Roasters, and there is a new espresso machine. The breakfast side has steel-cut oats, Nutella pancakes and six omelettes, including a Spanakopita Style Omelette with spinach, feta and a phyllo crumble. Lunch includes a Souvlaki Bowl and a Greek Village Salad, along with burgers and wraps.
The owners waited until school was back in session to hold the full celebration. The grand reopening was Friday, October 9. That same week, The Swellesley Report reported, the Select Board approved changes to the restaurant's common victualler and all-alcohol licenses. Before the change, Maugus was open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. The approval allows 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. As of the Oct. 7 report, dinner on select days and some evening events were planned for the coming months, with no start date announced. If dinner service starts, Maugus will be open in the evening for the first time since its reopening, across the street from a library that stays open until 8 p.m. two nights a week.
Across the street, a pocket garden and a 23-year-old patch
Wellesley Hills Congregational Church at 207 Washington Street is running its 23rd Pumpkin Patch through October 31, open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. Shoppers can borrow wagons. Proceeds are split between an outside charity and the church's Youth Fellowship, which uses the money for its annual service trip. Parishioner Janeen Hansen, who volunteers every year, told The Swellesley Report in mid-October that "a second truckload of pumpkins is on its way!"
The church is also building something new. Mainstay Landscape is putting the finishing touches on a contemplative garden behind the east side of the church, in a small area The Swellesley Report described as one that had been "crying out for a breath of life." On October 16, the garden was expected to open to the public "in a couple of weeks," which would be around the end of this month.
When it opens, the Hills will have two gardens across the street from each other. The Town of Wellesley and the Wellesley Hills Garden Club maintain Clock Tower Park together, and the park includes a labyrinth. The park carries the Sprague name, as does the land the library was built on, so a donation from almost a century ago still shapes both sides of this stretch of Washington Street.
The newer businesses between the anchors
The restorations get the attention, but other businesses have been opening between them. Here is the block in address order, with each status as last reported:
- 207 Washington St.: Wellesley Hills Congregational Church, with the Pumpkin Patch through Oct. 31 and the garden expected soon.
- 210 Washington St.: Wellesley Hills Branch Library, reopened Oct. 6.
- 251 Washington St.: Pvolve, a fitness studio offering low-impact, resistance-based workouts, was preparing in August to open this winter in the Marathon Sports block.
- 268 Washington St.: Liliko, an Asian convenience market carrying about 1,000 Chinese, Japanese and Korean products, began a soft opening in late July.
- 278 Washington St.: the current Middlesex Savings Bank branch. The bank has said it plans to move west to the former Citizens Bank space at 390 Washington St., near Forest Street. Building papers were filed in June, and no moving date has been announced.
- 291 Washington St.: Sprague Clock Tower Park.
- 300 Washington St.: Maugus Cafe, reopened Oct. 9.
Farther west, Gaya Beauty & Spa opened this summer at 332 Washington St., Suite 10, and Code Ninjas held its grand opening at 386 Washington St. in March.
The newer businesses are filling storefronts and suites between the library, the park, the church and Maugus. Three of those four have been here for close to a century or longer, and all of them are in better shape now than they were in the spring.
Saturday, October 31, on one block
The block's busiest morning of the season is this Saturday. The Halloween Stroll runs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Clock Tower Park, organized by the Wellesley Recreation Department and the Wellesley Hills Merchants. It is free and aimed at children up to age 8. There will be costumes, games and trick-or-treat stops at local businesses, and the Town asks families to bring their own bags. The Swellesley Report's Halloween roundup adds music and other treats in the park.
The same day is the last day of the Pumpkin Patch, which opens at 10 a.m. The library is open on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., so families heading to the Stroll can stop in to see the new mural in the children's room. Maugus is across the park, and under the hours it kept before the Select Board's change, it opened at 7:30 a.m. on weekends.
The library kept its cork floor and Maugus kept its counter stools. If you own in Wellesley Hills and are deciding what your house needs before it goes on the market, Amy Mizner is glad to walk through it with you and give candid advice. Contact Me.
