June 25th - July 1st

July 1, 1994

June 25, 1871 - American Colonization Society meeting
June 29, 1907 - Agnes Nolan marries George M. Cohan
June 26, 1917 - Brookline suffragist arrested at White House
July 1, 1994 - Smoking banned in restaurants

June 25, 1871
American Colonization Society meeting
A meeting of the American Colonization Society, which supported the colony of African Americans in Liberia in West Africa, took place at the Harvard Congregational Church at the corner of Washington and School Streets in Brookline Village.

The Harvard Congregational Church. The cornerstone for a new church, now United Parish, was laid a few weeks after this particular meeting took place.

The meeting was noted in the Society's newspaper, The African Repository. Ministers from the Baptist and Episcopal churches who were scheduled to participate withdrew due to what would be described today as "scheduling conflicts." The meeting was largely focused on Liberia as a wedge for Christianity in Africa.

The Society, formed in the 1820s to encourage migration of free Blacks and enslaved African Americans released from bondage, was controversial almost from its beginning. Abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and Gerrit Smith, though initially supportive, came quickly to see it as a "sham reform" designed to undercut the abolition movement and rights of African Americans in the U.S. 

June 29, 1907
Agnes Nolan marries George M. Cohan
Agnes Nolan, part of a large Brookline family and a member, along with three of her sisters, of George M. Cohan's theater company, became Cohan's wife in a ceremony performed by a justice of the peace in New Jersey. 

This April 1907 article in the Boston Globe announced a planned Fourth of July wedding for George M. Cohan and Agnes Nolan. The wedding ended up taking place a few days earlier than scheduled.

Agnes's sister Alice and Cohan's long-time partner, producer Sam Harris, were the only witnesses. Alice Nolan and Sam Harris would marry later that year, and the two couples would build adjacent homes in Great Neck on Long Island.

Three of the Nolan sisters, daughters of a Brookline post office worker and his wife, had performed together under the stage name of the Merrill Sisters before joining Cohan's company. Agnes Cohan, conforming to the wishes of her husband and her parents, retired from the stage after her marriage. She and Cohan had a son and two daughters. She outlived her husband by more than 30 years, dying at the age of 89 in 1972. 

Read much more about Agnes Cohan in this Muddy River Musings blog post: She Was His "Yankee Doodle Gal" 

June 26, 1917
Brookline suffragist arrested at White House
25-year -old Katherine Morey and her colleague Lucy Burns became the first women arrested at the White House amid ongoing suffrage protests aimed at President Woodrow Wilson. The two women turned Wilson's own words against him with a banner quoting the president's call from a speech about U.S. support for the allies in World War I.

"We will fight for the things we have always held nearest our hearts--for democracy--for the rights of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government."

Katherine Morey after being arrested at the White House

Morey and her mother Agnes had been among 23 women who traveled across the United States the previous year as part of a "suffrage special" in support of the right of women to vote. (See TWIBH April 9th-April 15th for more on that action.)

July 1, 1994
Smoking banned in restaurants
Ten years before a statewide ban went into effect, Brookline prohibited smoking in restaurants in town. The prohibition, passed by Town Meeting the previous November, survived court challenges and efforts to loosen the restriction.

Signs indicating a restaurant was smoke-free, like the one at the top of this post, were provided by the town. The new smoking bylaw also outlined further restrictions that would gradually be phased in. These included prohibitions on smoking in taxis and in hotels, motels, and inns in the town.

A Boston Globe request for feedback on the ban -- "Do you favor a 'no exceptions' ban on smoking in all bars and restaurants [in Masssachusetts]?" -- showed more than 80% in favor of a statewide ban like the one in Brookline. The Globe shared a selection of comments from readers, including the pro and con sentiments shown below.

These comments, and others, appeared in the Boston Globe after Brookline voted to ban smoking in restaurants. Although readers overwhelmingly supported the ban, the two negative comments on the right were the only ones from Brookline residents printed by the Globe.

June 18th - June 24th

June 22, 1917

June 20, 1825 - Lafayette visits Brookline
June 22, 1917 - Marita Bonner graduates from BHS
June 23, 1938 - Cy Young at Old Timers Day
June 22, 1948 - Brookline creates Housing Authority

June 20, 1825
Lafayette visits Brookline
Three days after laying the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument on the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Marquis de Lafayette visited Brookline. The Revolutionary War hero was on his second visit to Massachusetts as part of a year-long triumphant return to America that brought him to all 24 U.S. states.

Lafayette laying the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument. (1880s illustration from Cassell's History of the United States

The then 67-year-old Lafayette rode out to Brookline to have lunch at the home of Thomas Handasyd Perkins. Passing the Ebenezer Heath house (still standing today) he saw Heath's daughters gathered with several of their friends at the side of the road to catch a glimpse of the marquis.

"The General, with that courtesy and urbanity that were so conspicuous in his character, stopped his carriage on his way from Col Perkins' [according to an account written later] and gratified each young lady with a warm shake of the hand. Several kissed his hand, a tribute he insisted on returning, while he affectionately lifted the little ones in the party in his arms and blessed them, repeating with emphasis 'You make me very happy.'"

June 22, 1917
Marita Bonner graduates from BHS
Marita Odette Bonner, who would go on to become a celebrated essayist and playwright associated with the Harlem Renaissance, graduated from Brookline High School. Bonner lived with her family in the apartment building at 221 Harvard Street, at the corner of Stearns Road.

The young woman, who went by the name Marietta at the time, wrote essays for the Sagamore, the student magazine that later became the school newspaper. She was also a talented musician who was selected in a competition to compose the music for the school song of her graduating class at BHS. (The photo at top is from an article in the Sagamore announcing the contest winner.)

Bonner attended Radcliffe College, although she had to commute from home because Black students could not live in campus housing. In 1922, after graduating from Radcliffe, she launched her literary career by winning first prize in an essay contest at the NAACP magazine The Crisis with an essay titled On Being Young--A Woman--and Colored.

Marita Bonner's 1922  essay in The Crisis

June 23, 1938
Cy Young at Old Timers Day
On Brookline Field (now Harry Downes Field) a 71-year old man  wearing a fake beard and mustache took off his hat and coat and threw a ceremonial first pitch to start an old timers baseball game. The wind-up and delivery were familiar to many in attendance, as the septuagenarian hurler was none other than Cy Young.

Cy Young shown at an old timers game in Sharon a few weeks before his appearance in Brookline

Young, the former star pitcher in Boston, Cleveland, and St. Louis, was a recent inductee in the new Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.  Taking the mound, reported the Brookline Chronicle, he

"went through the customary wind-up to the accompaniment of thundering applause and then let go the pitch to officially start the ball game. Before the diamond battle of the year got underway, however, 'Old Cy' mounted the rubber and gave a demonstration of how he used to "burn 'em over" for which he was roundly applauded." 

It's not clear why Cy Young wore a false beard and mustache on Old Timers' Night.  It would not have been to make his presence a surprise, as his participation had been announced in the paper a week before. Perhaps it was simply a nod to the throwback spirit of the event, mimicking the more hirsute fashion of an earlier era.

June 22, 1948
Brookline creates Housing Authority

Town Meeting overwhelmingly approved creation of a housing authority, overcoming the complaints of two members who called the proposal "collectivism and socialism." The vote followed the recommendation of a special committee convened to consider compliance with a new state law that would provide funding for new housing.

"[T]here is a shortage of safe and sanitary housing accommodations  available to families of low-income and particularly to families of veterans of low income at rentals such families can afford," reported the Board of Selectmen in recommending creation of the new authority.

In November, plans were introduced for the first two public housing developments: the High Street and Egmont Street projects, both still managed by the Housing Authority today.

High Street, left, and Egmont Street apartments today. (Photo credit: Brookline Housing Authority)

June 11th - June 17th

June 12, 2016

June 11, 1806 - Second meeting house dedicated
June 16, 1942 - WWII scrap rubber drive
June 12, 1990 - Brookline restricts cigarette machines
June 12, 2016 - Roland Hayes plaque 

June 11, 1806

Second meeting house dedicated

Rev. John Pierce, minister since 1797 of what was then Brookline's only house of worship, dedicated a new meeting house for the church. The new building replaced the original 1717 structure. It stood on Walnut Street where the fourth building of the congregation (First Parish) is today.

"By solemn prayer and praise we now dedicate this temple to the service of him, who can make it the instrument of essential benefit to ourselves, and even to our children's children," said Pierce. The building, according to notes in a published version of Pierce's speech, cost just over $20,000 to build. It was designed by Peter Banner who would, a few years later, design the Park Street Church in Boston, still standing today.

The 1806 Brookline building would be replaced by a new church across Walnut Street in 1848. John Pierce died one year later after 52 years as minister at First Parish.

June 16, 1942
WWII scrap rubber drive
Brookline launched a two-week scrap rubber drive, part of a nationwide effort to make up for a shortage of this vital material used in everything from tanks and airplanes to rafts and rubber boats to the soles of soldiers' shoes.

Old tires were considered the best and largest source of rubber, but residents were also urged to contribute a wide variety of rubber products, large and small. A long list provided in the Brookline Citizen included garden hoses, boots and overshoes, rubber toys, tobacco pouches, bathing caps, bridge table coverings, suction cups, rubber floor tiles, and "any of the hundred and one items containing rubber."

Two young employees of the Brookline Hills Service Station at the corner of Boylston and Cypress Streets are shown with tires and other items collected as part of the rubber drive

Local gas stations, designated as drop-off points for the material, were soon overwhelmed with the amount of rubber collected. 

June 12, 1990

Brookline restricts cigarette machines

Town Meeting voted overwhelmingly in favor of banning cigarette vending machines in town. Exceptions were made for private clubs with liquor licenses and workplaces that were not accessible to minors or the general public.

The bylaw was struck down that fall by the Massachusetts Attorney General who ruled that only the state had the authority to regulate vending machines. It was reinstated by the town as a public health measure, rather than a licensing issue, but continued to face challenges from the vending machine industry and others. 

One option introduced by the industry was an electronic lock-out device that could only be overridden if a vendor verified that the purchaser was not a minor. Town officials conducted a sting operation that showed this was often not enforced. Cigarette vending machines were finally banned nationally, with the exception of adult-only facilities, in 2010.

A salesperson demonstrates a cigarette vending machine with a lock-down device in this 1991 Brookline Citizen photo

June 12, 2016
Roland Hayes plaque 
A plaque honoring the groundbreaking African American tenor Roland Hayes was dedicated in front of the Allerton Street house where he lived for more than 50 years. Hayes (1887-1977), the first African American soloist to perform with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, had a long career and helped blaze a path for other Black singers like Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson.

Roland Hayes plaque on Allerton Street

Hayes, born in Georgia on a farm where his mother had once been enslaved, received a music education at Fisk University in Nashville and in Boston. He was known for incorporating old spirituals in his performances, along with classical works.

The Hayes family, including his wife Alzada and their daughter Afrika, moved to Brookline in 1925 when they purchased the Allerton Street house. (See also this 2015 tribute to Hayes, recorded by Brookline Interactive Group.)

June 4th - June 10th

June 6, 1903

June 10, 1895 - Formation of Equal Suffrage Association
June 6, 1903 - First pieces of Longyear mansion arrive
June 4, 1930 - FDR's son married at St. Paul's
June 8, 2008 - Dedication of Skyline Park 

June 10, 1895
Formation of Equal Suffrage Association

The first meeting of the Brookline Equal Suffrage Association took place at the  home of Mary Hutcheson Page on Hill Street (now Hawthorn Road). The organization, reported Anna K. Channing, one of the offices of the new organization, "was to work for the political enfranchisement of women; or, as one woman said, 'to extend the refining influence of the home into public life.'"

"As our president reminded us," wrote Channing, "we need not be disturbed by obstacles or criticisms to be encountered, if we have in mind the justice of our cause and the certainty of its triumph."

Mary Hutcheson Page, in whose home the first meeting of the Brookline Equal Suffrage Association was held

Membership in the association cost 50 cents, with 75 men and women having signed up by the time of the first meeting.

 

June 6, 1903

First pieces of Longyear mansion arrive
Thirty railroad cars carrying the disassembled stones of a Marquette, Michigan mansion arrived in Brookline where the mansion was to be reassembled atop Fisher Hill. 

The large home had been built in 1892 on the shore of Lake Superior for timber and mining magnate John Longyear and his wife Mary. Dissatisfied by the incursion of a railroad line along the shore of the lake, the Longyears arranged to have the large home dismantled and shipped to Brookline, in part to be near Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist (Christian Science).

"Each block of stone from the 66-room mansion was wrapped in straw and cloth and numbered and put in wooden crates," wrote John Longyear. The mansion, shown at the top of this post, was redesigned and enlarged in its new location. After Mary Longyear's death in 1931, it housed the Longyear Museum until 1995 when the property was sold to a developer and turned into condos.

Stones from the Longyear mansion waiting to be reassembled on Fisher Hill, as seen in a Boston Globe photo, August 7, 1903

June 4, 1930

FDR's son married at St. Paul's
New York governor and future president Franklin D. Roosevelt came to Brookline for the wedding of his son James to Betsy Cushing, daughter of renowned neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing, at St. Paul's Church. The wedding, reported the New York Times, was attended by more than 500 guests, including "leaders of the medical, political, diplomatic and social worlds."

New York Daily News, June 5, 1930

"The church lawns," reported the Boston Globe, "were overrun with people on the Aspinwall av and St Paul sides. Verandas and steps of neighboring houses were used as points of vantage from which to watch the arrival of guests and later that of the bridal attendants and the bride herself." 

The ceremony was followed by a reception on the grounds of the Cushing home on Walnut Street where about a dozen large tents were erected on all sides of the mansion, including one with a dancing floor over the tennis courts. James and Betsey Roosevelt were divorced in 1940.

June 8, 2008
Dedication of Skyline Park 

Skyline Park, Brookline's first new park in more than twenty years, was officially dedicated. The park, built on Newton Street atop a former landfill, included a synthetic turf soccer field, a playground,  picnic tables, benches, and recreational pathways that connect to the Lost Pond Sanctuary.

Skyline Park as seen from the air. (Source: Town of Brookline Annual Report, 2010)

Preparation for the park involved capping the former landfill to prevent contamination. The landfill contained ash from the town's old incinerator, used to burn household waste until it was shut down in 1975. All Massachusetts municipalities were required by the state's Department of Environmental Protection to cap old landfills.

In 2009, the town's Parks and Open Space Division was awarded the  Massachusetts Recreation and Park Association's Design and Facility Award for the project at Skyline Park.