Needham is an affluent town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb of Boston, its population was 28,886 at the 2010 census. Needham was first settled in 1680 with the purchase of a tract of land measuring 4 miles by 5 miles from Chief Nehoiden for the sum of 10 pounds, 40 acres of land, and 40 shillings worth of corn. It was officially incorporated in 1711. Originally part of the Dedham Grant, Needham split from Dedham and was named after the village of Needham Market in Suffolk, England, a neighbor of the English town of Dedham. By the 1770s settlers in the western part... of the town who had to travel a long distance to the meeting house on what is now Central Avenue sought to form a second parish in the town. Opposition to this desire created conflict, and in 1774 a mysterious fire destroyed the extant meeting house. Some time afterwards the West Parish was formed. In 1857 the City of Boston began a project to fill in the Back Bay with landfill by filling the tidewater flats of the Charles River. The fill to reclaim the bay from the water was obtained from Needham Massachusetts from the area of present day Route 128.
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