Brookline Historical Society

Brookline Historical Society The Brookline Historical Society is a non-profit community organization dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of Brookline's diverse history.

The society's headquarters are located in the heart of Coolidge Corner at the Edward Devotion House, one of Brookline's oldest colonial period structures. The Society also maintains the circa 1780 Widow Harris House as well as the Putterham School located in Larz Anderson Park. Our membership program is active and volunteers are welcome.

This Date in Brookline HistoryFebruary 5, 1916New tuberculosis hospital opensThe triangle of land at the corner of Newto...
02/05/2025

This Date in Brookline History
February 5, 1916
New tuberculosis hospital opens
The triangle of land at the corner of Newton and Grove Streets, adjacent to the Country Club, was far removed from the centers of population of the town. As such, it became the location for a variety of facilities that remained largely out of sight to most residents.

These included an almshouse, opened in 1883 under the management of the Overseers of the Poor, where indigent individuals and families were provided housing. A high service pumping station for the town's water supply was added in 1885. A series of hospitals for treating contagious diseases also occupied the space.

In 1916, a new building specifically for tuberculosis patients was added to the complex. This location continued to be used as a hospital site until the 1950s when a new Brookline Hospital was built (where Goddard House is today) and the land at Newton and Grove Streets was sold to a developer for new housing.

This Date in Brookline HistoryFebruary 1, 1881First list of telephone subscribers distributedLess than five years after ...
02/01/2025

This Date in Brookline History
February 1, 1881
First list of telephone subscribers distributed
Less than five years after Alexander Graham Bell was awarded a patent for the telephone and one year after service came to Brookline, the town's first directory of telephone subscribers was distributed. There were 82 subscribers listed.

Subscribers paid three dollars per month for service within the town, with an additional 15¢ for each call to Boston. (Six dollars a month bought unlimited calls to Boston.) Calls were limited to five minutes. Subscribers could pay extra to have bells attached to their phones.

The Brookline Telephone Exchange connected subscribers through the Holtzer Cabot Electric Company building on Station Street. Four decades later, the Aspinwall telephone exchange building on Marion Street became the first in New England to provide direct dialing without going through an operator.

This Date in Brookline HistoryJanuary 31, 1887Fire at Metropolitan Railway barnA middle-of-the-night fire at the Metropo...
01/31/2025

This Date in Brookline History
January 31, 1887
Fire at Metropolitan Railway barn
A middle-of-the-night fire at the Metropolitan Railway barn at the corner of Walter Avenue and Morss Street in Brookline Village resulted in thousands of dollars in damages to cars of the horse-drawn street railway. Twelve of the 20 cars were damaged, according to the Boston Transcript.

Some 150 to 200 horses in the adjacent brick stable were turned loose and escaped harm. "They wandered around the streets and caused much trouble," reported the Boston Globe, "and until a late hour they had not all been gathered in."

The wooden structure was erected in 1875 to house the horse-drawn cars servicing the Brookline-Roxbury Crossing-Downtown Boston line. It was closed as a car house in December, 1894, with the move to new electrified routes, and was demolished in 1937.

This Date in Brookline HistoryJanuary 27, 2019Martin Luther King Jr. bust installed in Town HallA bronze bust honoring M...
01/27/2025

This Date in Brookline History
January 27, 2019
Martin Luther King Jr. bust installed in Town Hall
A bronze bust honoring Martin Luther King Jr. by world-renowned African American artist John Wilson, a resident of Brookline for 50 years, was installed in the lobby of Town Hall shortly after the annual celebration of MLK Day. More than 200 people, including Wilson's wife, Julia, and other family members, attended.

The bust, a 1982 scale model for a large bust installed in Martin Luther King Jr. Park in Buffalo, was donated to the town by the Committee to Honor John Wilson, which raised funds from community members.

Wilson, who died in 2015, created many works over his long career, including a 1986 bust of MLK in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, the first work of art honoring an African American in the Capitol building.

This Date in Brookline HistoryJanuary 23, 2011Launch of Brookline's Climate Action WeekA joint venture of the volunteer ...
01/23/2025

This Date in Brookline History
January 23, 2011
Launch of Brookline's Climate Action Week
A joint venture of the volunteer group Climate Change Action Brookline and the Select Board's Climate Action Committee, this event kicked off with a ceremony at the Lincoln School, followed by a week of contests, presentations, exhibitions, and workshops.

"The focus is on moving people from understanding climate change as an issue to taking action," Mary Dewart, one of the organizers, told the Boston Globe. The event was an expansion of Climate Action Day, first celebrated in the town a few years earlier.

Both sponsoring organizations had their roots in the early 2000s. The volunteer group -- now known as Climate Action Brookline -- was formed in 2000 and became a founding member of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network. The Select Board's committee, formed in 2008, was an outgrowth of the board's 2002 Local Action Plan on Climate Change.

This Date in Brookline HistoryJanuary 18, 1958Razing of "The Farm" neighborhood approvedThe Brookline Redevelopment Auth...
01/18/2025

This Date in Brookline History
January 18, 1958
Razing of "The Farm" neighborhood approved
The Brookline Redevelopment Authority (BRA) approved its first major urban renewal project: the razing of the working class, largely Irish-American Brookline Village neighborhood known as The Farm, subject to Federal approval under the Housing Act of 1954.

The neighborhood, which took its name from the old Kimball Farm that occupied the site in the mid-19th century, was home to some 230 families occupying mostly two- and three-story wood-frame houses south of lower Washington Street (Route 9) between High Street and Leverett Pond. (See larger view at http://brooklinehistoricalsociety.org/archives/openZoom.asp?SN=832)

BRA chair Francis Cappers said "No family will be required to move until suitable living accommodations are found for it and the Authority will endeavor to relocate displaced families in the same school district and parish."

The project was met with protests and lawsuits by residents, as well as opposition to proposed affordable housing developments nearby that were meant to accommodate families displaced by the razing of their homes. After considerable delay, the neighborhood was replaced by the high-rise, luxury apartment complex known as the Brook House, completed in 1967.

This Date in Brookline HistoryJanuary 6, 1976 Fire at St. Paul’s ChurchThe Gothic Revival St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, b...
01/06/2025

This Date in Brookline History
January 6, 1976
Fire at St. Paul’s Church
The Gothic Revival St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, built in 1852, is the oldest still-standing church building in Brookline. The interior of the sanctuary was devastated by a fire in 1976, leaving only the exterior walls.

The congregation, as described on the church’s website, could have given up what had been lost and move on to other churches, but decided to rebuild the interior.

This Date in Brookline HistoryJanuary 5, 2002 Helicopter accident at Parsons Field Two U.S. military helicopters were pr...
01/05/2025

This Date in Brookline History
January 5, 2002
Helicopter accident at Parsons Field
Two U.S. military helicopters were practicing landing at Parsons Field on Kent Street in preparation for the planned arrival of President George W. Bush three days later. Wind generated by the propellors of one of the Chinook helicopters knocked over a baseball dugout on the field seriously injuring four Brookline firefighters.

Two of the firefighters retired due to fractures and other injuries suffered in the accident. Two others missed several months of work. The planned landing by the president — coming to Boston for a speech — was moved elsewhere.

Five years later, the four firefighters were awarded a total of $3 million in a settlement reached with the Federal government. The town received an additional $800,000 to cover payroll, medical fees, and other costs that resulted from the accident.

This Date in Brookline HistoryJanuary 4, 1925Dedication of Temple Kehillath IsraelKehillath Israel, Brookline’s oldest J...
01/04/2025

This Date in Brookline History
January 4, 1925
Dedication of Temple Kehillath Israel
Kehillath Israel, Brookline’s oldest Jewish congregation, first met informally in 1910 and incorporated in 1917. The congregation met in various homes of members for several years.

Plans for a the KI synagogue were announced in 1922. The cornerstone of the new building, on Harvard Street just north of Coolidge Corner, was laid in 1923.

This Date in Brookline HistoryJanuary 1, 1897Opening of the Brookline Public Bath House The Brookline Public Bath House ...
01/01/2025

This Date in Brookline History
January 1, 1897
Opening of the Brookline Public Bath House
The Brookline Public Bath House on Tappan Street was described as “the first municipal, all-the-year-round bathing establishment in the United States.” (American Journal of Sociology, January 1900).

Designed by architect F. Joseph Untersee, it featured a 24’ by 80’ pool with heated water and heated floors around the edges. Other spaces were soon added, including a hair-drying room for women. (Separate times were set for use of the pool by men and by women.)

The Public Bath building was torn down in the 1950s and replaced by a new pool building, now known as the Evelyn Kirrane Aquatics Center. A remnant of the original building, with the motto, “The Health of the People - The Beginning of Happiness” is embedded in the brick wall of the building.

This Date in Brookline HistoryDecember 30, 1933Coolidge Corner Theatre opensBrookline's first (and now only) movie house...
12/30/2024

This Date in Brookline History
December 30, 1933
Coolidge Corner Theatre opens
Brookline's first (and now only) movie house -- the Coolidge Corner Theatre -- opened for business. The grand opening featured two full-length films, a Disney cartoon, a Coolidge Corner newsreel, and live music.

The theater building had been the Beacon Universalist Church before being transformed at a cost of $100,000, including a $35,000 organ. Designed by architect Ernest Hayward with a red and gold color scheme, it had a seating capacity of 1,400.

The opening had been preceded the previous night by a private gala ceremony. Emelia Sharaf, wife of the developer, told those in attendance that "An institution of this sort is an opportunity to serve the community so that both the building and the entertainment offered will be a matter of civic pride."

This Date in Brookline HistoryDecember 28, 1772Formation of Committee of CorrespondenceBrookline Town Meeting voted to j...
12/28/2024

This Date in Brookline History
December 28, 1772
Formation of Committee of Correspondence
Brookline Town Meeting voted to join Boston in protesting taxes and duties imposed on the colonies by the British government. The town formed a committee to communicate with the Committee of Correspondence in Boston.

The taxes, imposed without any say in the matter by the colonies, were among the "intolerable Grievances" of the town that represented "alarming Steps towards rendering the whole executive Power independent, of the People, and setting up an despotic Government in the Province."

The dispute was part of the growing movement that would lead, in 1775, to the outbreak of the American Revolution.

This Date in Brookline HistoryDecember 27, 1896Hawaiian queen takes sleigh rideLiliuokalani, three years after being dep...
12/27/2024

This Date in Brookline History
December 27, 1896
Hawaiian queen takes sleigh ride
Liliuokalani, three years after being deposed as the last monarch of the independent Kingdom of Hawaii, climbed aboard a sleigh near Coolidge Corner for a ride in the snow through Brookline and Boston.

"It was a bright and beautiful day when the jingling bells and prancing horses acquainted me with the much-praised experience of sleigh-riding, and my kind host had determined that I at least should suffer no inconvenience from the cold, for our sleigh was abundantly provided with robes, and was warmed by a recently invented apparatus," she wrote later in her autobiography.

Liliuokalani had been overthrown in 1893 by a group led by American and other non-native businessmen who took over the government and established the Republic of Hawaii. (It was formally annexed to the United States in 1898.) Read more in this article I wrote in 2017.

One of your neighbors posted in Local Voices. Click through to read what they have to say. (The views expressed in this post are the author’s own.)

This Date in Brookline HistoryDecember 25, 1962Old Brookline gymnasium burnsA Christmas Day fire that started in a first...
12/25/2024

This Date in Brookline History
December 25, 1962
Old Brookline gymnasium burns
A Christmas Day fire that started in a first floor landing destroyed the 54-year old municipal gymnasium on Tappan Street. The building, completed at a cost of $120,000 in 1908, was deemed a total loss.

Scores of families, reported the Brookline Chronicle Citizen, "left their Christmas celebrations to watch firefighters battle the flames which tore through the stairwells and up through the roof." A truck load of sand was dumped for better footing on the stone steps which had turned to sheets of ice from having water sprayed on the building amid freezing temperatures.

The town used makeshift facilities for several years after the fire as local officials debated the costs of a new building and how it would be administered. The current gymnasium was completed in 1968.

This Date in Brookline HistoryDecember 20, 1886Town proposes widening of Beacon StreetTown Meeting unanimously approved ...
12/20/2024

This Date in Brookline History
December 20, 1886
Town proposes widening of Beacon Street
Town Meeting unanimously approved a warrant article authorizing a petition to the state legislature for permission to widen Beacon Street. A vote to refer the proposal to a committee first for further study was defeated.

Henry M. Whitney, the driving force behind the plan, noted that he had already acquired three quarters of the necessary land and would pay half the cost of construction, including the laying out of an electric streetcar line. The plan, said Whitney, would benefit not just those who chose to live on Beacon Street. "[T]here is no one who has business in Boston who will not appreciate the importance of rapid transit to and from the city," he said.

Whitney's plan, approved by the legislature, led to the transformation of Beacon Street in Brookline from a narrow country lane to a grand boulevard.

This Date in Brookline HistoryDecember 19, 1922Amy Lowell objects to lawsCelebrated poet Amy Lowell, a lifelong resident...
12/19/2024

This Date in Brookline History
December 19, 1922
Amy Lowell objects to laws
Celebrated poet Amy Lowell, a lifelong resident of Heath Street, drew local and even national attention when she objected at Town Meeting to a series of new laws under consideration governing use of public byways. Among her complaints were new regulations governing children's play on public streets and sidewalks.

Other restrictions included limits on automobile parking, a 10 mile an hour speed limit for horses -- Lowell didn't think horses should have to go slower than cars -- and a prohibition on using "any noise, gesture, words, or other means [to] willfully frighten a horse in any public way in the town."

In the end, modifications were made, including removing children's sleds and wagons from the prohibition of vehicles on sidewalks. See the full list of new laws on use of public ways in the town report for 1922.

This Date in Brookline HistoryDecember 18, 1941WWII Observation Tower on Corey HillVolunteers from the American Legion s...
12/18/2024

This Date in Brookline History
December 18, 1941
WWII Observation Tower on Corey Hill
Volunteers from the American Legion settled into duties on an observation tower built on top of Corey Hill amid fears of a possible bombardment of Boston in the wake of Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry into World War II.

The tower, with a view over Boston and Boston Harbor, had been built before the U.S. entered the war and had been dedicated in October. It was meant as a key Boston area observation post, one of many up and down the East Coast to be activated in the event of war.

The trained volunteers were civilians operating under military command as part of the Aircraft Warning Service. The tower was dismantled in August 1944.

This Date in Brookline HistoryDecember 17, 2021Corey Hill stable fireA 129-year-old building on the Brookline-Boston bor...
12/18/2024

This Date in Brookline History
December 17, 2021
Corey Hill stable fire
A 129-year-old building on the Brookline-Boston border that began as a stable was devastated in an early morning fire. The building was constructed in 1892 for Eben Jordan Jr. of Jordan Marsh, whose estate covered much of Corey Hill.

The building, sold to H.P. Hood in 1913, served as a distribution center for Hood milk until 1929. Later occupants included two different construction companies, a used Chevrolet dealership, and several others. Since the 1980s it had been known mostly for its dance and music studios.

Tenants at the time of the fire, all of whom lost their spaces, included Music Maker Studios, Brookline Academy of Dance, and Zippah Studios/Zippah Records. The building has since been torn down. Read more about its history at https://brooklinehistory.blogspot.com/2021/12/fire-devastates-129-year-old-former.html

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347 Harvard Street
Brookline, MA
02446

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