Happy New Year! December 31st - January 1st

December 31, 2023 - January 1, 2024
One year of This Week in Brookline History (TWIBH)
This brings to an end my weekly postings of This Week in Brookline History. I have more stories of Brookline's past to tell, just not enough to keep doing four stories a week.

My other blog, which I've been doing since 2009, is called Muddy River Musings. Those posts, which are generally longer and more sporadic, will continue. (You can sign up to receive them by email, if you have not already done so.) 

I want to end TWIBH by wishing everybody a Happy New Year. But rather than just saying it myself, I'll let some 90 years of Brookline businesses do it for me. 

Check out the slideshow at https://bit.ly/brooklinenewyear23-24 or click on the image below to see how local businesses from the 1910s to the 1990s greeted the new year.

December 24 - December 30th

December 30, 1933

December 28, 1772 - Formation of Committee of Correspondence
December 27, 1896 - Hawaiian queen takes sleigh ride
December 30, 1933 - Coolidge Corner Theatre opens
December 25, 1962 - Old Brookline gymnasium burns

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.

Part of the resolution passed by Brookline Town Meeting

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.

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 about 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.

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."

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.

The Brookline Gymnasium is at left soon after its completion in 1908 and during the 1962 fire that left it in ruins. (Click image for larger view)

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.

December 17th - December 23rd

December 19, 1922 

December 20, 1886 - Town proposes widening of Beacon Street
December 19, 1922 - Amy Lowell objects to laws
December 18, 1941 - WWII Observation Tower on Corey Hill
December 17, 2021 - Corey Hill stable fire

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.

Plans for widening Beacon Street, as laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted's firm.

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."

These regulations are just a few of the many passed by Town Meeting in 1922 regarding the use of public ways.

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.

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.

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 list 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 

December 10th - December 16th

 

December 15, 2013

December 15, 1915 - Last Town Meeting under the old format
December 12, 1928 - Dedication of Temple Ohabei Shalom
December 15, 1972 - Selectman deny Elks liquor license renewal
December 15, 2013 - Dedication of the Brookline Teen Center

December 15, 1915
Last Town Meeting under the old format
Brookline's Town Meeting met for the last time under the old open town meeting format where all eligible citizens -- then men only -- could vote on warrant articles. The town had voted in November to change to a town meeting in which town meeting members are elected by voters to represent their districts in the town's legislative body.

This map published in the Brookline Chronicle showed the nine precincts created in December 1915 for the change to representative town meeting

There were few major items in the warrant for this last meeting under the old format. The meeting, reported the Brookline Chronicle, "was characterized by a small attendance, intelligent debate, a degree of timidity and inclination to temporize, and solutions in the main conservative."

Brookline was the first town in Massachusetts to change from open town meeting to representative town meeting. Read more about the change in this Muddy River Musings post.

December 12, 1928
Dedication of Temple Ohabei Shalom

Temple Ohabei Shalom, the oldest Jewish congregation in Massachusetts, dedicated its grand new synagogue on Beacon Street in Brookline. It was the second synagogue built in Brookline, joining the Kehillath Israel temple built earlier in the decade.

The congregation, founded in Boston in 1842, built its first synagogue in the South End in 1851. By the 1920s, many of the leaders and members of the congregation had moved to Brookline. Ohabei Shalom built its temple center building, adjacent to the Beacon Street synagogue site, in 1925. 

December 15, 1972
Selectman deny Elks liquor license renewal
The Brookline Elks lodge on Kent Street was denied a renewal of its liquor license because of a clause in the national Elks organization restricting membership to whites only. The Brookline lodge had voted with most Massachusetts lodges earlier in the year to support the removal of the clause, but that recommendation had been rejected by the national organization.

A similar denial of a liquor license for an Elks lodge in Maine had been upheld by that state's Supreme Court, but was being appealed to the United States Supreme Court. That court rejected the appeal in April 1973, and the national Elks organization repealed the discriminatory clause later that year.

The Elks lodge building was constructed in the 1840s as the home of Ginery Twitchell, president of the Boston & Worcester Railroad. It passed through several owners who used it as a rental property from the 1880s to 1966 when it was purchased by the Brookline Elks club. The building, sold to a developer in 2021, is now under threat of demolition.

December 15, 2013
Dedication of the Brookline Teen Center

The Brookline Teen Center was dedicated with a grand opening as the culmination of an eight-year effort to provide a place for local teens after school. The development of the center, in a former automobile garage, was led by then-Brookline High School social worker Paul Epstein. (See the before and after pictures at the top of this post.)

The new center included a gym, a studio for yoga and aerobics, a game room, a classroom, a small stage, and a social recreation room with pool and foosball tables. Local teens were actively involved in the design of the $3.7 million center, which was funded through private fundraising. 

The initial design of the center retained some elements of the old auto garage, including an auto body repair sign on the wall and yellow parking space markings on part of the floor.

December 3rd - December 9th

December 7, 1939

December 6, 1686 - A measure of local governance
December 3, 1860 - Town Meeting rejects purchase of land for park
December 7. 1939 - Disappearance of Barbara Newhall Follett
December 4, 2010 - Ice rink named for hockey star Jack Kirrane

December 6, 1686
A measure of local governance
Muddy River, a hamlet of Boston, requested and was granted release from Boston taxes on the condition that the residents maintain their own roads, provide care for the poor, and raise a schoolhouse within one year. 

This description of Muddy River appeared in John Josselyn's 1674 Account of Two Voyages to New-England

The population of Muddy River had grown since the 1630s when colonists were first given grants of land in the area that later became Brookline. The 1686 decision by Boston also called for the hamlet to "maintaine an able readinge and writinge master" for the school and to choose three men to manage local affairs.

Muddy River would become independent as the Town of Brookline in 1705. 

December 3, 1860
Town Meeting rejects purchase of land for park
Town Meeting narrowly rejected a proposal to purchase one or more of several parcels of open private land for public use. The vote was 130 against the proposal and 115 in favor.

The proposal came from a committee appointed to identify parcels that could "provide a suitable spot for a training field, and to furnish the several schools with sufficient playground, that the pupils may not be driven into the streets or be tempted to trespass upon private property."

Eleven years later, the town agreed to purchase one of those parcels -- now Cypress Field -- as well as today's Brookline Avenue Playground. These are widely considered to be the first examples in the United States of private land purchased for public parks.

These aerial views show today's Brookline Avenue Playground, left, and Cypress Field, right, which were purchased by the town in 1871, 11 years after an earlier proposal was rejected.

December 7. 1939
Disappearance of Barbara Newhall Follett

Barbara Newhall Follett, who had been a child prodigy in the 1920s with two novels published by the time she was 16, left her Kent Street home (shown at the top of this post) after a fight with her husband and was never seen or heard from again. The mystery of her disappearance has never been solved.

Follett's first novel, The House With No Windows, was written when she was 9 and published two years later, in 1927. "It is hard not to wax enthusiastic over this wonderful little book," wrote the New York Times in its review; the Saturday Review of Literature called it "almost unbearably beautiful." (The publicity photo of her at her typewriter at the top of this post is from that year.)

In 1929, not long after publication of her second novel, Follett ran away from an unhappy family life and reportedly attempted suicide. She married Nickerson Rogers of Brookline in 1934 when she was 19. She was 25 when she disappeared.

December 4, 2010
Ice rink named for hockey star Jack Kirrane
The town skating rink at Larz Anderson Park was named the Jack Kirrane Ice Skating Rink in honor of the longtime Brookline firefighter who was captain of the 1960 United States hockey team that won the gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games in Squaw Valley, California.

Jack Kirrane and his family are surrounded by local officials of his hometown in a 1960 celebration of the U.S. gold medal victory at the Olympics. (Boston Globe photo) 

Kirrane, who had been the youngest member of the 1948 U.S. Olympic hockey team, was the oldest member of the 1960 team that upset both of the favorites -- Canada and Russia -- on the way to winning the gold medal. 

Kirrane, who joined the fire department after serving in the army during the Korean War, took a four-month, unpaid leave of absence from the department to take part in the 1960 Olympics. He retired in 1990 after 36 years in the department. He passed away in 2016 at the age of 88.

November 26th - December 2nd

November 30, 1944

December 1, 1924 - Elimination of Beacon Street stops protested
December 1, 1935 - New Coolidge Corner post office
November 30, 1944 - Storm damages S.S. Pierce tower
December 1, 2013 - Plastic and Styrofoam ban goes into effect

December 1, 1924
Elimination of Beacon Street stops protested
The planned elimination of almost half of the streetcar stops on Beacon Street in Brookline drew howls of protest from town officials, residents, and businesses. The Boston Elevated, operator of the system, stuck to its plans for several months before restoring most of the eliminated stops.

Headlines in the Brookline Chronicle captured the ongoing protests against the Beacon Street cuts.

Officials of the Boston Elevated said the changes would save the system $20,000 a year in power consumption and other costs while cutting the time required to cover the distance from Kenmore Square to Cleveland Circle. (The time saving was later shown to be no more than five minutes along the length of the route in Brookline.)

The restoration of the eliminated stops left the Beacon Street route largely as it is today. Although some of the stops have been moved slightly, the only pre-1924 stops that were not restored were those at Centre Street and Strathmore Road.

December 1, 1935
New Coolidge Corner post office

Brookline's new central post office, on Beacon Street in Coolidge Corner, opened for business. The building, designed by Brookline architect Maurice Meade, had been dedicated two days earlier.

The new facility replaced the old post office, located in the northern half of the first floor of the Harvard Street building at the corner  Babcock Street. (That space is now occupied by Zaftig's, Jin's and Nail Monster.)

All incoming and outgoing mail would be processed centrally at the new post office. The existing Brookline Village post office (in the space now occupied by Starbucks and MyEyeDr.) would be replaced by a smaller branch office with more limited services.

November 30, 1944
Storm damages S.S. Pierce tower

A fierce storm with powerful winds knocked loose the cupola atop the tower of the S.S. Pierce store in Coolidge Corner. Traffic was diverted as the dome "teetered back and forth for several hours," as described in the Brookline Chronicle.

The storm shifted the cupola seven inches out of plum, reported the paper, just two inches less than it was designed to withstand without coming off the tower completely.  Crowds gathered the next morning to watch as steeplejacks tried to right the cupola. (The Boston Globe described as "a literal 'leaning Tower of Pisa.'")

The top of the tower, built in 1898 with an open observation deck beneath the cupola, was replaced the following year by a new top, without the open deck, that still stands today.

The tower of the S.S. Pierce Building before and after the original cupola with an open deck was replaced after the 1944 storm.

December 1, 2013
Plastic and Styrofoam ban goes into effect 
A partial ban on plastic bags and polystyrene containers, passed by Town Meeting in November, went into effect for Brookline businesses. Stores could apply for a six-month waiver to allow time to shift over to new, more environmentally-friendly forms.

“People want to comply, but it’s going to take a little time,” Public Health Commissioner Alan Balsam told the Boston Herald.  “I wouldn’t be surprised to see dozens of waivers, and the reason is they haven’t found a substitute for what they’re using, or they have a large inventory (of their current containers or bags) to get rid of.”

Town officials offered workshops to help local businesses comply with the new regulations. Brookline was the first community in Massachusetts to ban plastic bags. Today, 159 Massachusetts cities and towns, representing two-thirds of the state's population, have enacted at least partial bans.

This 2013 display in the window of Dorados Tacos was part of a training for food permit holders as Brookline implemented new polystyrene and plastic bag regulations (Town of Brookline Annual Report, 2013) 

November 19th - November25th

November 24, 1898

November 22, 1896 - Booker T. Washington speech
November 24, 1898 - Washington Square firehouse
November 23, 1933 - Federal work programs in Brookline
November 25, 1963 - Day of mourning. Crowds at JFK birthplace

November 22, 1896
Booker T. Washington speech
Booker T. Washington, principal of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, gave a speech on "Negro Education in the Black Belt of the South" at the Harvard Church (now United Parish) in Brookline. It was one of several talks he gave in the Boston area about the school he had led since 1881.

Booker T. Washington (Photo credit: Schomberg Centre for Research in Black Culture - New York Public Library Archives)

Washington had also appeared at the Union Building in Brookline two days earlier, giving what the local paper described as "a brilliant address on 'democracy and education.'" He spoke again at the Harvard Church in 1901. 

In 1903, Washington gave a commencement speech at Brookline High School, encouraging the graduating students to assist the nation's Black population and avoid prejudice. "You cannot hurt a member of my race without degrading the bluest blood," he said. "We are all tied together."

November 24, 1898
Washington Square firehouse
Brookline's newest firehouse -- then under construction -- was introduced in an illustrated article in the Boston Globe. The station, on Washington Street just south of Beacon Street, is now the oldest firehouse still in use in town.

The station was built to serve the rapidly growing area of northwest Brookline, which had seen many new houses built in the wake of the widening of Beacon Street. Designed by architect Fred Crosby, it featured a dormitory for the firefighters, electrically operated doors and alarms, and a stable. (The fire engines were horse-drawn.)

Firefighters with their horse-drawn fire apparatus posed in front of the new Washington Street firehouse (Click image for larger view)

The large Italianate tower of the building was used to hang hoses for drying after their use. The building was later modified to accommodate more modern fire apparatus.

November 23, 1933
Federal work programs in Brookline

The Town launched a series of projects funded by the Roosevelt administration's Civil Works Administration (CWA) and designed to provide work for the unemployed and civic improvements amid the hard times of the Great Depression.

Brookline Chronicle, November 30, 1933

Projects included new sewage and drainage systems, improvements at the almshouse and contagious hospital, and construction of watertight vaults for town clerk and building department documents in Town Hall. 

"Multiple benefits will result from participation by the town in the new plan [reported the Brookline Chronicle]. Aside from providing work that will relieve the local unemployment situation and its attendant curtailment of buying power, it will directly aid merchants of the town as it is the intention to purchase from Brookline dealers as much as possible of the materials and incidentals required for the projects."

November 25, 1963
Day of mourning. Crowds at JFK birthplace
A large crowd gathered at the birthplace of John F. Kennedy on Beals Street for a memorial service three days after Kennedy's assassination in Dallas. President Lyndon Johnson had declared the day a national day of mourning.

November 25, 1963 (Photo credit: Kehillath Israel)

The crowd for the ceremony, led by clergy from local churches and synagogues, swelled to more than 2,000 people when members of the Kehillath Israel congregation, just down the street from the house, joined in at the end of their own memorial service.

The house, where Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, is now a National Historic Site maintained by the National Park Service and open to the public.