It consists of the large group of 18th to 21st century agricultural and estate properties with farmland, gardens, residences, and landscapes of the Hunnewell and Welles families.

The origin of the Hunnewell estates dates to 1763 when Samuel Welles (1725-1799) made his first purchase of Indian lands in Natick and West Needham (later Wellesley).

The properties descended to Samuel's granddaughter Isabella Pratt Welles and her husband, successful railroad financier and businessman, landscape designer, and horticulturalist H. Hollis Hunnewell (1810-1902), and continued with their adult children and the following generations.

[3] At their peak during the early 20th century 'American Country Place' era, there were twenty contiguous Hunnewell estates along Washington Street and Pond Road in southwest Wellesley.

Then, consistent with the closure of the Wellesley College campus to the public in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the lakeside path on the properties was also temporarily closed.