January 8th -- January 14th

 

January 9, 1962

January 14, 1882 - Founding of The Country Club
January 14, 1949 - Parking meters introduced to Brookline
January 9, 1962 - Good Neighbors for Fair Housing campaign launched
January 11, 1994 - Fire destroys Young Israel synagogue

January 14, 1882 - Founding of The Country Club
The Country Club, founded in 1882, is one of the oldest such clubs in the United States. Although best known for its world-class golf course, the club began as a site for horse racing.

A six-hole golf course was laid out in 1893. It was expanded to nine holes a year later and to a full 18-hole course in 1899. It is probably best known for the 1913 U.S. Open victory of amateur golfer Francis Ouimet, a former caddy who grew up in a house, still-standing, across Clyde Street from the club.

The Club also has facilities for tennis, swimming, curling, ice skating, hockey, and skeet shooting. Its clubhouse, shown above, includes one room from the original farmhouse on the site.

The 140-year-old club has also been known for its exclusive — and, at least in the past, exclusionary — membership practices. According to the Boston Globe (6/30/2015), “No Jews were admitted until the 1970s, no women (as full members) until 1989, and no blacks until 1994.”

January 14, 1949 - Parking meters introduced to Brookline
Brookline’s first parking meters went into operation the second week of 1949, with 560 meters installed curbside in the Brookline Village, Coolidge Corner, and Washington Square retail districts, and in the former bridle path next to the Beacon Street streetcar tracks.

Image via Brookline Newspaper Archive, Public Library of Brookline

Curbside meters cost one penny per 12 minutes. The bridle path meters took nickels only and were limited to one hour. (An editorial in the Brookline Chronicle called for a two-hour limit, citing luncheon guests, dentist and hairdressing appointments, and suit and gown buying as occasions needing more than one hour.)

The meters brought in $938 the first week they were in use. The principal aim of the meters, however, was to assure adequate parking for customers to help local merchants, rather than added revenue for the town.

January 9, 1962 - Good Neighbors for Fair Housing campaign launched
A new educational campaign of the Brookline Fair Housing Practices Committee went door-to-door in several neighborhoods securing support for a pledge to promote equal opportunity in housing in the town. Individuals who signed the pledge received a “Good Neighbor for Fair Housing” sticker. (Shown above.)

The campaign was part of ongoing efforts by the committee, which was formed in 1959 and involved local civic and religious leaders. (The Boston Globe photo below shows Rev. Joseph Washington of Brookline’s Baptist Church at a 1960 program held at Temple Ohabei Shalom.)

Signers of the 1962 pledge expressed support for ensuring that sales and rentals of residential properties in town were kept free of prejudice against any individuals because of their race, religion, or national origin.

In 1973, the committee voted to change its name to the Committee for Civil Rights and to strive “not only to eliminate segregation and discrimination, but to achieve fill integration and equality in every phase of American life.”

January 11, 1994 - Fire destroys Young Israel synagogue
The Green Street synagogue of one of Brookline’s oldest Jewish congregations, Young Israel, was destroyed in a fire. Although some members of the congregation suspected arson, it was determined that the cause was a malfunction in an electrical panel.

The congregation, which began as Sons of Israel in a house on Fuller Street in the 1920s, decided to rebuild rather than move. Services were held at the Holiday Inn on Beacon Street, the auditorium of the Devotion School, and in a vacant former bank building until the current synagogue opened in November 1996.