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Cities and Towns · January 6, 2020 · By James Lantos

Town of Brookline, Pt. 1

6 minute read

"Entering Brookline, est. 1705" town sign

Brookline was just another one of those leafy low-profile towns surrounding greater Boston. Until 1960. That year, JFK was elected president. It soon became common knowledge that he and two of his sisters were born in the neocolonial mansion at 83 Beals Street, now a national historic landmark managed by the National Parks Service. I remember walking along Harvard St. as a child and stumbling upon the sign leading to this home. I told my father later that I had been to JFK’s house! He laughed. In 1920, the Kennedy family moved to a larger house on Abbotsford Road, where Bobby and Teddy were born.

(You can take an auto tour of JFK’s life in Brookline and elsewhere by visiting another post on this site: Famous Bostonians: John F. Kennedy. )

While the Kennedy name has done a lot to put Brookline on the map, there’s more to see here particularly when it comes to road history – my forte. I’ve done a lot of driving through the town over the years and I’ve had time to think about its roads and their history.

Brookline is along one of the various main paths from where I live in Waltham, to or from Boston or Logan Airport. These are the most frequented destinations of all Boston rideshare drivers. The town also lies at the crossroads of several historic roads that passed through the region during colonial times, I’ve learned.

Having spent a few years of my youth in Brookline, I know the town first hand. In the late 1970s, I lived near Brookline Village in a big modern apartment complex called the Brook House. It is now a condo collective located near where Rt. 9 (aka the Worcester Turnpike, Boylston or Washington Street depending on your perspective), intersects with US-1 (aka the Veterans Parkway, Riverway or Jamaica Way). I’ve come to learn this is actually an ancient juncture for travelers in and out of Boston.

The Emerald Necklace
The Emerald Necklace

These days, the intersection borders the famous Emerald Necklace, a string of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmstead that connects the Jamaica Pond with the Charles River. The “brook” that makes up the town name is actually the Muddy River, which is a dividing line on between Boston and Brookline on most of its path. The Muddy flows through the pieces of the Emerald Necklace, and there is a nice walking/biking path that traverses the length of the path too. There used to be another brook that marked the other border of Brookline dividing it from its neighbor, Brighton. But this waterway was covered up sometime in the 1800s, so I’ve read.

Town Seal
Town Seal

Brookline is a distinguished suburb, along the same lines as Wellesley, Newton or Lexington. It has expensive and elegant homes, and a multitude of apartments that tend to line major thoroughfares such as Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue. It is the home of professionals, academics, finance people, doctors and the like, people who have, for lack of a better term, a decent income.

Besides JFK, there is a hefty Wikipedia list of Brookline residents past and president I posted at the end of this article. One side of the town borders Boston University. Another with Boston. And other towns that border are Newton, West Roxbury and Cambridge. I’ve taken many a cool shortcut through the town with the help of the GPS app Waze. I’ll discuss more about the roads of Brookline in coming articles.

View of Boston from Larz Anderson Estate
View of Boston from Larz Anderson Estate

Brookline Heights, up on the hilly southern side off of Rt. 9, has some spectacular old world mansions and estates. It also is home to the more prominent and famous residents. Nearby is the Larz Anderson estate, home to a Gilded Age diplomat who was ambassador to the UK, Belgium, and Japan around the turn of the 20th century. Anderson was an avid collector of horseless carriages and early motorcars. His estate houses an auto museum onsite, and the grounds also afford a beautiful panoramic view of Boston.

John Henry, owner of the Red Sox, is reputed to live in the area. Tom Brady and supermodel wife Gisele Bundchen also live nearby. Tom had a mansion built on a five-acre parcel of land purchased from Pine Manor, a liberal arts college located next door. It’s recently been reported that the place may be up for sale:

I’d never really been up to this section back when I was living in the area during my junior high years. But I’ve had a chance to ferry a bunch of Uber and Lyft passengers through here. On one ride, a rider took the time to point out where Robert Kraft, the owner of the Patriots, lives. It is a full block long collection of buildings and structures. Huge. I wasn’t able to figure out where Brady lives although one rider pointed to a street that he lived down.

Here’s a select list of notables I pulled from Wikipedia who either live in or are from Brookline. This is starting to sound like one of those guides to the Hollywood stars and starlets.

Filed under: Cities and Towns, Brookline

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