Category: Then and Now

[metaslider id=39627] The present-day evening photo of Cypress Field may look, at first glance, like it’s ready for ice skating. But the white covering is actually a turf blanket, part of the town’s seasonal management of the field that helps it be ready for activities with the return of warmer weather in the spring. A… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: Cypress Field in winter

[metaslider id=37046] In 1936, a former stunt flyer and air taxi operator named Lloyd Seaman, who had lost his plane in an accident, opened an ice cream shop with his wife Rhoda in the one-story commercial building at the southwest corner of Boylston and Cypress Streets. Seaman, who had worked at the Neapolitan Ice Cream… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: Sealey’s Ice Cream and Rifrullo, 1936 and 2024

[metaslider id=36123] In December 1996, Brookline launched its first town government website, shown in a homepage screenshot from July 1997. The site, according to an article in the Brookline TAB, “will provide Brookline residents an on-line forum for the exchange of information and ideas.” (This first town site was built and maintained for the town… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: The Town Website

[metaslider id=33853] The large house behind the stone wall in the older picture was built in the 1750s by members of a religious movement known as New Lights. It served as their meeting house and as the home of their deacon, farmer and shoemaker Elhanen Winchester, and his large family. Heath Street, on the right… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: Looking east down Heath Street from Hammond Street

[metaslider id=31970] The older photo, which is undated, shows a streetcar coming down the tracks on Brookline Avenue on its way from Governor’s Square (now Kenmore Square) to Brookline Village. Connections could then be made to other lines going east to the Back Bay via lower Washington Street, west to Newton via Boylston Street, or… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: Brookline Avenue, from streetcars to buses

[metaslider id=28381] The Candler Cottage, built in 1850, was designed by architect Richard Bond. The sketch of the house appeared that year in the book “American Cottage and Villa Architecture.” The first owners were Susan Candler, a widow, and her brother, Dr. Charles Wheelwright. Wheelwright, a naval surgeon, described the house in a letter. “It… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: The Candler Cottage, 447 Washington Street

[metaslider id=23654] This Brookline Village storefront, in one of the town’s oldest commercial spaces, has been home to many businesses since it first opened in the 1870s. Charles E. Schmalz’s barber shop had the longest tenure, from 1897 to 1943. Another long-term occupant of the space was the municipal credit union, serving town employees, in… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: 238 Washington Street

[metaslider id=20424] This Coolidge Corner apartment building at the corner of Stearns Road and Sewall Avenue, just off Harvard Street, was completed in 1902. Originally called the Stearns Chambers, the name was changed to the Hotel Coolidge in 1904. It was what was known as a residential hotel, containing 49 rental apartments, each with two… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: Stearns Chambers/Hotel Coolidge

[metaslider id=19570] The Brookline Department of Public Works held a ceremony on September 20th to mark the installation of seven electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in the Town-owned parking lot between Kent Street and Webster Place. (The parking lot is behind Starbucks, Caffe Nero, and other businesses. Webster Place is at the back of the… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: Kent Street and Webster Place

[metaslider id=19312] The Pollock School was a residential school for children with Down syndrome and autism run by Dr. Miriam Pollock and her husband Morris from 1934 to 1979. “Their aim was to educate children people thought were ineducable,” the Pollock’s daughter-in-law, Betsy Pollock, told the Boston Globe after Miriam’s death, at 92, in 2002.… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: The Pollock School, 28 Alton Place

[metaslider id=18643] Twenty-two-year-old William F. Foley, after working as a clerk at a Brookline Village grocer, opened his own grocery store in The Point neighborhood in 1895. Twelve years later, Foley, the son of an Irish immigrant, moved his business into one end of a new one-story commercial building at 228 Cypress Street. An ad… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: Foley’s on Cypress Street

[metaslider id=18344] The brick and stone building with the rounded façade at the northwest corner of Boylston and Cypress Streets has been the location of ground floor retail space and three floors of apartments above for 126 years. The building was constructed in 1897 on what had once been part of the Goddard farm. It… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: Boylston and Cypress Streets

[metaslider id=17722] This house on Aspinwall Hill has gone through many changes and many owners since it was constructed as a single-family home in 1896 or 1897. Early residents included Bunkio Matsuki, a Japanese immigrant and dealer in Japanese art and artifacts, and Albert Miller, an executive at the Christian Science Monitor. Later owners, including… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: 111 Winthrop Road

[metaslider id=17509] The poster urging a second term for Herbert Hoover — “Keep Him on the Job” — dates the older photo to 1932. (Hoover would lose to Franklin Roosevelt in November.) The block of one-story retail buildings is largely unchanged, at least physically, in the newer photo, though with different stores and, of course,… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: Beacon Street, West of Summit

[metaslider id=17272] 15 Alberta Road, pictured in 1886 and today, is one of the oldest houses in Brookline. It was built in 1820 by Thaddeus Jackson, the son of a blacksmith, who built it for his son, Thaddeus Jr. By mid-century it was occupied by the Goodnough family as part of their farm. The 1874 atlas shows a… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: 15 Alberta Road, South Brookline

[metaslider id=17160] The three Colonnade Buildings in Brookline Village have been home to businesses and residences for more than a century and a half. As these pictures show, much has changed. Businesses occupying the storefronts have come and gone, and the buildings themselves have been modified. In fact, the right-most building in the newer photo… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: The Colonnade Buildings

When 19th century Bostonians talked about great elm trees, there were three that usually came to mind: the Great Elm on Boston Common; the Washington Elm on Cambridge Common; and the Aspinwall Elm – shown here at left – by most accounts the largest of them all. Half of the tree – where Billy Ward… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: Great Trees Now Gone

Boston was the Hub of bicycling in the United States in the 1880s, and one of the high points in metropolitan Boston—literally and figuratively—for local and visiting riders alike was Corey Hill in Brookline. “Wheelmen” strove to become the first to make it to the top of the hill and, after that barrier was broken… Continue reading Brookline Then and Now: Bicycles on Corey Hill