Early in the 19th century, Newtown was developed as a farming and residential neighborhood. The neighborhood got its name from a grocery store that John and Margaret Webster established there in 1832 on a property that was next to the current location of the Newtown train station. They put up a sign that said “New Town Stores” over their business.

Around the same period, Captain Sylvester John Browne, the father of Thomas Alexander Browne (“Rolf Boldrewood”), constructed “Newtown House” nearby, which has also been identified as the origin of the name. The spacing vanished to form the word Newtown once the name New Town was first formally accepted.