Brookline

Brookline is an independent town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, situated approximately four miles west of downtown Boston. With an area of 6.8 square miles, the town is bordered by Newton on its west and Boston on the remaining sides. Despite its geographic position deep within Greater Boston, Brookline has maintained its independence as a separate municipality for more than three centuries. At the time of the 2020 census, the population of the town was 63,191. The town holds the distinction of being the birthplace of President John F. Kennedy and is home to two National Park Service sites. Located four miles from downtown Boston, in Norfolk County, Brookline is one of the largest towns in New England and is primarily a mature suburban, residential community with urban characteristics.

History and Founding

Brookline was once part of the Algonquian territory, and the first European settlement can be dated back to 1638, when the area was part of the colonial settlement of Boston. The early hamlet was known as Muddy River, taking its name from the waterway that marked its boundary with Boston. Brookline's first settlers, Bostonians with land grants for pasturing cattle, lived near a bridge on lower Washington Street, and by 1650 there were 25 families living in Muddy River.

Settled in 1638 as part of Boston, the area was called Muddy River until incorporated as a town in 1705. It was named for a small brook that formed the line of Judge Samuel Sewall's tract, was an early market-gardening area, and administratively became part of Norfolk County in 1793. By the end of the seventeenth century, its inhabitants had built a schoolhouse, laid out three major roads, obtained exemption from paying taxes to Boston, and were petitioning the Massachusetts General Court for independence. After three attempts, a petition to be a separate town, signed by 32 freeholders, was granted on November 13, 1705, and the Muddy River hamlet was formally incorporated as the Town of Brookline.

Two small rivers (brooks) once bordered the northern and southern areas of the town, lending it its name. The northern one, Smelt Brook, separated it from the adjacent town of Brighton, while the southern Muddy River marked its boundary with Boston.

By the 1800s, Brookline had evolved from a rural farming community into a fashionable destination for Boston's wealthy elite. By the 1800s, Brookline was coming into its own as a prominent suburb that attracted "a galaxy of the rich and famous," as historian Kenneth T. Jackson put it in Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. Cabots, Lowells, Gardners, and Olmsteds were among the elite who would eventually call Brookline home.

In 1810, the Boston and Worcester Turnpike, now Massachusetts Route 9, was laid out, starting on Huntington Avenue in Boston and passing through the village center on its way west. Steam railroads came to Brookline in the middle of the 19th century, and the Boston and Worcester Railroad was constructed in the early 1830s, passing through Brookline near the Charles River. With the arrival of the Boston and Albany Railroad in 1847, the community's hub moved to Brookline Village, which has been the town's civic and commercial center ever since, home to the police and fire stations, public library, and courthouse.

The introduction of electric streetcar service transformed Brookline into one of the nation's earliest commuter suburbs. Much of Brookline was developed into a streetcar suburb, with large, brick apartment buildings sprouting up along the new streetcar lines. This rapid growth between 1890 and 1910 built out much of the town's residential fabric and drew a population of professionals from Boston.

The Annexation Debate of 1873

Throughout its history, Brookline has resisted being annexed by Boston, in particular during the Boston–Brookline annexation debate of 1873. The question of whether to join the expanding city of Boston came to a head that year, with residents deeply divided over the town's future. In 1871, several residents petitioned the state Legislature to join Brookline with Boston, which had recently annexed Roxbury in 1868 and Dorchester in 1870. According to historian Ronald Dale Karr, state lawmakers agreed to the request — provided that Brookline and Boston voters approved.

Brookline's final tally, per the Brookline Independent, was 299 votes in favor of annexation and 706 against. Three other communities — Brighton, West Roxbury, and Charlestown — also went to the polls that day for a vote on annexation and chose differently. "On the same day that Brookline said no, they all said yes," said Brookline Historical Society President Ken Liss. "That didn't take effect until 1874, but with Brighton and West Roxbury joining Boston, that's kind of what made Brookline sort of an island."

The neighboring towns of West Roxbury and Hyde Park had connected Brookline to the rest of Norfolk County until they were annexed by Boston in 1874 and 1912, respectively, putting them in Suffolk County. Brookline is now separated from the remainder of Norfolk County. This geographic anomaly — an independent town entirely surrounded by a major city — has made Brookline unique in the American urban landscape.

Neighborhoods and Landmarks

Brookline encompasses several distinct neighborhoods, each with its own character and commercial identity. Coolidge Corner, which is located at the crossing of Beacon Street and Harvard Street, is one of Brookline's two primary retail districts, the other being Brookline Village. The name Coolidge Corner derives from the legacy of the Coolidge family and the general store they built at Harvard and Beacon Street. Today the corner is easily identified by its distinctive tower, the S.S. Pierce building, which serves as a highly visible landmark, and the neighborhood is the commercial heart of Brookline.

Coolidge Corner was home to just one store — Coolidge & Brother — from the 1850s to the 1890s. Following the widening of Beacon Street in 1887–88 and the arrival of the S.S. Pierce store a few years later, a major new shopping district took root. Almost all of the existing buildings in this still thriving commercial area were built between 1890 and 1930.

The town is home to two National Park Service sites of major historical significance. The John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site is the birthplace and childhood home of John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States. The house is at 83 Beals Street in the Coolidge Corner neighborhood of Brookline, Massachusetts. The Kennedy home was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and was established as a National Historic Site on May 26, 1967. The voice of the late Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, JFK's mother and daughter of Boston Mayor "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, greets visitors through a recording at 83 Beals Street. Bought in 1914, it was the Kennedys' first homestead and also the scene of the birth and very early years of the future president.

The second National Park Service site is dedicated to landscape architecture. Frederick Law Olmsted relocated to Brookline in 1883 to be closer to his frequent collaborator, architect H. H. Richardson, who was based close by. Fairsted was adapted from a Federal farmhouse and barn from the early 19th century and used by the Olmsted firm for decades until finally being acquired by the National Park Service in 1980. When Olmsted designed the Emerald Necklace of parks and parkways for Boston in the 1890s, the Muddy River was integrated into the Riverway and Olmsted Park, creating parkland accessible by both Boston and Brookline residents.

The Brookline Reservoir Gatehouse, which was built in 1848, was designed to keep Boston's water supply flowing if the main supply was disrupted. In 2015, the National Park Service declared the Brookline Reservoir and Gatehouse a National Historic Landmark.

The Country Club, an exclusive sporting club in the town, was the first private club in the United States formed exclusively for outdoor activities. It is most famous as a golf club; it was one of the five clubs that formed what is now the United States Golf Association and has hosted the U.S. Open three times and the Ryder Cup Matches once.

Integral to Coolidge Corner's charm is the Coolidge Corner Theatre, a fine Art Deco cinema that opened in 1933 and was converted from a Universalist church built in 1906. With four screens, including the plush main auditorium, it is a venue for new Hollywood releases, classic movies, and independent and foreign films.

Demographics and Economy

In 2023, Brookline had a population of approximately 62,800 people, with a median age of 35 and a median household income of $140,631. The five largest ethnic groups in Brookline are White (Non-Hispanic) (66%), Asian (Non-Hispanic) (17.6%), Two or More Races (6%), Black or African American (Non-Hispanic) (2.94%), and Hispanic (2.2%). As of 2023, 27.2% of Brookline residents were born outside of the United States, which is approximately twice the national average of 13.8%.

The town is home to a large number of professionals and academics and includes a large community of Russian immigrants and a prominent Jewish culture. Brookline's largest and busiest commercial district is at the intersection of Harvard and Beacon Streets and is the kind of downtown area that most towns aspire to. Coolidge Corner is bustling and has an interesting food scene, with the densest collection of kosher restaurants in the Boston area.

Housing costs in Brookline rank among the highest in Massachusetts. Restrictions on housing supply have led housing prices in Brookline to skyrocket in recent decades. In 2023, the median sale price for a single-family home in Brookline was $2.51 million, and the median condo price was $927,500.

Government and Civic Life

Since 1916, Brookline has been governed by a representative town meeting, which is the town's legislative body, and a five-person select board, the town's executive branch. Fifteen town meeting representatives are elected to three-year terms from each of the town's 17 precincts. From 1705 to 1916, the town was governed by an open town meeting and a select board.

Brookline has a history of forward-looking civic action. Brookline residents were among the first in the country to propose extending the vote to women. Benjamin F. Butler, in his 1882 campaign for governor, advocated the idea. In more recent decades, the town has continued to take progressive stances on policy. In 2017, a Brookline Town Meeting voted to recognize Indigenous Peoples' Day instead of Columbus Day. In 2019, Brookline banned the distribution of carry-out plastic bags at grocery stores and other businesses. In 2021, Brookline banned the sale of tobacco and e-cigarettes to anyone born after January 1, 2000, in Article 8.23 of the town bylaws, expanding on Massachusetts' existing prohibition on the sale of tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21.

Brookline is serviced by the MBTA Green Line via the B, C, and D lines, providing direct connections into downtown Boston and making the town one of the most transit-accessible communities in Greater Boston. Indicative of civic pride, the town built the country's first public baths and gymnasium on Tappan Street in 1896. For more than 150 years, the Public Library of Brookline has served a variety of local residents, including the Kennedy clan, Emmy- and Tony-winning actress Jane Alexander, TV personalities like Conan O'Brien, and sports luminaries like Patriots' owner Bob Kraft.