Wellesley Hills Library and Maugus Cafe Reopen, October 2026

The Wellesley Hills Branch Library reopened on Tuesday, October 6. Maugus Cafe held its grand reopening three days later, on Friday, October 9. Between them, the two buildings have served the village for almost two hundred years combined. The library has been open since 1928, and the restaurant has been in its storefront since the 1930s. The people who renovated them this year could have started fresh, and in both cases they kept the old parts.

That choice matters because of where these two places sit. Maugus is across Washington Street from Clock Tower Park. The library is a few doors from the pumpkin patch at Wellesley Hills Church, and the October 31 Halloween Stroll starts in the park itself. This fall, most of what's new in Wellesley Hills is something old coming back, and nearly all of it is within a short walk of the clock tower.

The library kept its 1928 floor under the new carpet

The Hills branch at 210 Washington Street had been closed for four months before it reopened. The building is Georgian Revival and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been a library since March 20, 1928. It came close to disappearing once already. Budget problems closed it in 2005, and private donations reopened it in 2008.

That pattern of a neighborhood stepping in has been there from the beginning. The Swellesley Report's account of the reopening cites a 1928 Wellesley Townsman report. According to that report, Isaac Sprague donated the land, the Wellesley Hills Women's Club furnished the Children's Room, and taxpayers put in $50,000. This year's refresh followed the same model. Nancy Lee provided the seed money and major backing, and she is now recognized with a permanent plaque and a grandfather clock she gave the branch. Keith Higgins, the Wellesley Free Library Foundation and other private donors also contributed.

The design work went mostly into bringing back what was already there:

The original plaster friezes had been painted pink at some point. They're white again, so the relief work stands out.
The main room's original reading tables are still in place, on a new carpet in Arts and Crafts colors. The library's original 16-by-16 cork tiles from 1928 are underneath it.
The new ceiling fixtures were hand-cast in bronze and alabaster by a Milwaukee firm that specializes in period lighting.
The children's room has new hardwood floors and a storybook mural by Jason Sawtelle of BlackBeak Studios, who also painted the 2018 murals at the Fells Branch Library.

Richard Eustice of Atlantic House, Ltd., the interior designer, described the project this way to 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."

Library Director Jamie Jurgensen told the same outlet that the goal was "a more welcoming environment for study and reading while preserving the building's history." The branch turns 100 in March 2028.

Maugus kept the counter stools and booths

At the other end of the block, Maugus Cafe at 300 Washington Street went through a similar process with a menu attached. The restaurant changed hands in 2025 and reopened a year later as Maugus Cafe, with Kostas Saranteas as owner. When the Swellesley Report visited during the summer soft opening, it found the red carpet gone. The counter stools, the booths and the back room for large groups were all still there. A new counter with stools now looks out on Washington Street, and umbrella tables sit outside.

The menu followed the same approach. The breakfast and lunch classics are still there, with a Mediterranean lean that Maugus has always had to some degree. New items include a Spanakopita Style Omelette with spinach, feta and a phyllo crumble, a Souvlaki Bowl, and a Greek Village Salad. Coffee comes from Atomic Coffee Roasters, made on a new espresso machine.

Maugus held off on the full celebration until school was back in session. The October 9 reopening came with free coffee and 50% off a specially curated menu. The bigger change is the hours. The same week, the Select Board approved amendments to Maugus's common victualler and all-alcohol licenses. That lets the restaurant stay open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, compared with 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends before.

The approval doesn't mean dinner has started. Maugus describes dinner service on select days as planned "in the coming months." For now, the realistic plan is breakfast or lunch with the park out the front window.

Where everything sits

The rest of the village's fall changes are on the same street. Almost all of them sit between number 207 and number 300, and one bank is moving a little farther west.

Address on Washington St.	Place	Status as of mid-October 2026
207	Wellesley Hills Church pumpkin patch	Open daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Oct. 31
210	Hills Branch Library	Reopened Oct. 6
219	Wellesley Theatre Project studio	Peter and the Starcatcher, Oct. 22 to 25
251	Pvolve	Branding on the windows; aiming to open in winter
268	Liliko	Soft-opened in late July
300	Maugus Cafe	Grand reopening Oct. 9; dinner still to come
278 to 390	Middlesex Savings Bank	Moving west to the former Citizens Bank space; date not announced

Liliko is the one truly new business that is already open on this stretch. It's an Asian convenience store carrying Chinese, Japanese and Korean snacks, ramen, sweets, drinks and refrigerated foods. It passed final town inspections and held a soft opening the last weekend of July, according to the Swellesley Report. Pvolve, a fitness studio, is moving into the Marathon Sports block at 251. It's been visible since late September but isn't open yet.

The October calendar around the clock tower

With the library and Maugus open again, the rest of the month's events are close by:

Pumpkin patch, now through October 31. Wellesley Hills Church at 207 Washington Street is running its patch for the 23rd year, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. Last year, local coverage said the pumpkins came through Pumpkin Patch Fundraisers, a family business that works with the Navajo Nation to grow pumpkins in New Mexico. We haven't seen a published list of where this year's proceeds will go, so ask at the patch.
Theatre, October 22 to 25. The Wellesley Theatre Project is staging Peter and the Starcatcher at its studio at 219 Washington Street.
Hills Book Chat, Saturday, October 24, 11 a.m. to noon. This is the branch's monthly in-person book group. Members talk about books they chose themselves, with no assigned reading. The next one is Saturday, November 21.
Halloween Stroll, Saturday, October 31, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Wellesley Recreation Department and the Wellesley Hills Merchants run this free event. It starts at Clock Tower Park, across from Green's Hardware. Children trick-or-treat at Hills businesses, and the park has games and music. Families bring their own bags. The event is also listed on the Town of Wellesley calendar.

Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, and Maugus is between the park and most of the trick-or-treat stops. The stroll ends at 1 p.m., well within Maugus's current weekend hours, which run until 5 p.m.

Library hours

The Hills branch isn't open as many hours as the main library, so the schedule is worth having handy. According to the Wellesley Free Library's Hills branch page, it's open:

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

The branch is closed today, October 12, for Indigenous Peoples' Day, and on Veterans Day, November 11. It has reduced hours on November 25 and is closed on Thanksgiving. The library also lists a drop-in Snuggle-Up Storytime at Hills on Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. It runs in sessions of 8 to 12 weeks with breaks in between, so check the library's calendar before you go.

On the two late nights, Tuesday and Thursday, the library is open three hours past Maugus's current 5 p.m. close. If Maugus starts dinner service in the coming months, that gap could close.

We pay close attention to Wellesley Hills, from what's changing on Washington Street to how those changes show up in people's daily routines. If you'd like to talk about the village, or about where your own home fits into it, David Gordon Group is glad to have that conversation, whether over coffee at Maugus or wherever suits you. Let's Connect.