Wales, Massachusetts
A Short History of Wales
From a 1726 hill settlement called South Brimfield, to a new name given for a local benefactor, to a library that outgrew the shelves of a general store, Wales has always decided its own course in a room full of neighbors.
South Brimfield Becomes Wales
Europeans first settled this hill country around 1726, on the southeastern edge of what was then Hampshire County. The town was officially incorporated on August 23, 1775, under the name South Brimfield, and among its earliest families were the Needhams, the Bullens, and the Mungers, whose corner of town is still remembered as Munger’s Meadow. In 1812 the map was redrawn and the town’s part of the old county became Hampden County, where Wales has sat ever since. The town carried the name South Brimfield until February 20, 1828, when it was renamed Wales in honor of James Lawrence Wales, a local benefactor.
The Library That Outgrew a Store
In 1897 the voters decided their town would have a public library and accepted a gift of one hundred dollars in books from the Commonwealth, then faced the obvious problem: the town had nowhere to put them. So the books sat on shelves in Willis Chamberlin’s general store, where his wife served as the first librarian. It took until 1922, when the town voted five hundred dollars to fix up a room, for the library to get a home of its own. That sequence is a working diagram of how Wales still makes decisions: a need appears, the town meeting votes, and an institution exists. The Wales Public Library still serves the town today.
A Small Town, Steady Across a Century
Wales has stayed small by design. The census counted 1,737 residents in 2000, 1,838 in 2010, and 1,832 in 2020, a town that has held roughly steady while much of eastern Massachusetts filled in around it. What has not changed is the way it governs itself: open fields, an open Town Meeting, and a government run by the neighbors it elects rather than by an appointed manager.
Eight Thousand Acres of Sanctuary
In 1939 Arthur D. Norcross began setting aside land in Wales for wildlife, and the result is a preserve of roughly eight thousand acres of wooded hills, lakes, and streams. The Norcross Wildlife Sanctuary runs off Peck Road, with more than two miles of public trails, and the Norcross Wildlife Foundation that maintains it is headquartered in the town. It has become part of the town’s civic life: in June 2026 the Board of Selectmen voted to support one of the foundation’s conservation proposals.
Sources: Town of Wales (townofwales.net); Wikipedia, Wales, Massachusetts; Norcross Wildlife Foundation (norcrosswildlife.org); U.S. Census Bureau.