Belmont has had three names. Originally it was an Indian village known as Pequosette. It was renamed Watertown in the 1630s, and eventually separated from Watertown in 1859, taking the name “Belmont” from the estate of its largest landowner and supporter of incorporation John P. Cushing.
In the 1900s, the large number of artists, authors, educators, physicians, and scientists moving to the town doubled its population. As a result, the farming community disappeared.
Belmont today is almost entirely residential and is often known as “The Town of Homes”