Needham, Massachusetts was first settled in 1680 and officially incorporated in 1711. Originally part of the Dedham Grant, Needham and was named after the village of Needham Market in Suffolk, England, a neighbor of the English town of Dedham. By the 1770s settlers in the western part of the town who had to travel a long distance to the meeting house on what is now Central Avenue sought to form a second parish in the town. Opposition to this desire created conflict, and in 1774 a mysterious fire destroyed the extant meeting house. Some time afterwards the West Parish was formed. In 1881 the West Parish was separately incorporated as the town of Wellesley, Massachusetts. The following year, Needham and Wellesley high schools began playing an annual football game on Thanksgiving, now the second-longest running high school football rivalry in the United States (and longest such contest on Thanksgiving). (It was about this time that the basic American football rules which differentiate the game from rugby were established.)

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During the great religious division among churches descended from the Puritan congregations that took place in New England in the late 18th century and early 19th century, the First Parish in Needham became Unitarian, like many others in eastern Massachusetts, following the lead of the divines at Harvard University. Self-defined orthodox Congregationalists had to form a separate church, though for a period they may have attended the church in Dedham which remained Congregationalist.

Needham is home to Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, chartered in 1997. In the Needham Public School system, there are five elementary schools (Broadmeadow, Eliot, Hillside, Mitchell, and Newman, a converted junior high school), one middle school (Pollard), and one high school, Needham High School. There are also several private schools, including Saint Joseph's and Saint Sebastian's.

In addition to Dedham and Wellesley, Needham is bordered by the is bordered by the town of Dover and the city of Newton and the West Roxbury section of Boston.