[5] Before its incorporation, Belmont was an agrarian town, with several large farms servicing Boston for produce and livestock.

The reclamation of a large dump and quarry off Concord Avenue into sites for the Belmont High School and the Clay Pit Pond is a lasting example of environmental planning.

[citation needed] The John Birch Society was headquartered in Belmont from its founding in 1958 until its relocation to Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1989.

The building at 395 Concord Avenue later became the headquarters of the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), which is expanding and renovating its facility as of 2019[update].

Originally the two railroads each had their own separate trackage through town, but in 1952 the Central Mass tracks were removed between Hill's Crossing and Clematis Brook (Waltham),[8] and rail traffic was rerouted over the Fitchburg line.

In 1907, a stone arch bridge, elevated embankment, and station building were constructed such that the track runs over the road.

[citation needed] At Waverley, the grade was lowered so that the tracks ran under Trapelo Road, though the platform did not have an enclosed structure there.

The one-room Wellington Hill Station was built in the 1840s as a private school, not far from its current location in Belmont Center.

When the railroad decided to replace the station with a larger structure, the building was moved to the Underwood Estate and used as a summer house.

Belmont is bordered by Cambridge on the east, Arlington on the north, Lexington on the northwest, Waltham on the west, and Watertown on the south.

The Environmental Protection Agency fined Cambridge Plating Company, now operated by Purecoat North LLC, in 2002 following various violations[11] and in 2004 after a fire that led to an accumulation of toxic wastewater.

[26] Belmont has been referred to as a "Mormon enclave"[27] due to the location of the Boston Massachusetts Temple of the LDS Church at the highest elevation in the town.

The prominent gold statue of the Angel Moroni atop the Temple was originally designed by Cyrus Dallin in nearby Arlington, Massachusetts.

Belmont High is noted for its college placement, strong athletics, academics, music, and theater arts; a typical class size of about 320 students.

The Boston Globe and Boston.com publish a Belmont Your Town website that provides local news and information.

[32] The Belmont Media Center (BMC) was founded in 2005[33] as a local non-profit, public-educational & government access TV station mandated to provide and make available to Belmont residents a variety of media production & editing classes, locally produced TV programming, and video/TV equipment, studios and facilities.

On the northern border, Route 2 generally outlines Belmont's boundary with the neighboring town of Arlington.

Nearby in Cambridge lies Alewife Station, the western terminus of the Red Line; providing a connection to Boston and the entire metropolitan rapid transit system.

Due to its proximity to Harvard and MIT universities, amongst others, Belmont has had several Nobel Prize winners in residence at one time or another.