October 1st - October 7th

October 1, 1990

October 7, 1873 - Brookline rejects annexation
October 5, 1875 - Walnut Hills Cemetery dedicated
October 7, 1911 - Holtzer Cabot fire
October 1, 1990 - Town begins curbside recycling

October 7, 1873
Brookline rejects annexation
Brookline voters overwhelmingly rejected annexation of the town to Boston. The vote -- men only could vote at the time -- was 706 against versus 299 in favor. Brookline would thus remain independent, unlike the towns of Brighton, West Roxbury, and Charlestown, all of which voted the same day to become part of the city.

Boston Globe headline, October 8, 1873

The anti-annexation newspaper the Brookline Independent crowed about the result, under the headline "Hurrah for Old Brookline":

 

"For years, if the annexationists keep their recorded promises, this question will not be agitated again, but the town will be allowed to resume its uninterrupted march of improvement without being distracted with questions affecting only private interests only damaging those of the public."

Pro-annexation forces would continue to advocate for the town's incorporation into Boston. The last gasp occurred in 1919 when an annexation bill in the state legislature was withdrawn after Brookline Town Meeting voted against it by a margin of 198-1.

October 5, 1875
Walnut Hills Cemetery dedicated 
The Walnut Hills Cemetery, Brookline's second town-owned burying ground, was dedicated in the southern part of town. It joined the 158-year old Old Burying Ground on Walnut Street. (Holyhood Cemetery, a privately-owned Catholic cemetery, was founded in 1857.)

"The grounds," reported the Brookline Chronicle, "are well diversified with hill and dells, making a pleasing and beautiful landscape. They contain about thirty acres, of which some eight acres are in grass, the remainder covered with a thrifty growth of oak, walnut, chestnut, pine, birch, beech, maple, sassafras, cedar and a good variety of shrubs, which nestle in quiet nooks and dells, and seem to invite to retirement and repose."

The cemetery was expanded in 1928 with the purchase of an additional 15 acres adjacent to the original grounds. 

1991 photo taken at Walnut Hill Cemetery (Public Library of Brookline)

October 7, 1911
Holtzer Cabot fire
The factory of the Holtzer Cabot Electric Company on Station Street suffered extensive damage in a fire that the entire Brookline fire department was brought on to fight. The crews did manage to keep the fire from spreading to the adjacent Brookline Storage company building and nearby. stores and apartment houses on Washington Street.

The Holtzer Cabot Electric Company building is in the center of this photo, across Station Street from the Brookline Village railroad station. The Holtzer Cabot building and the Brookline Storage building to its left are still standing today.

The oldest part of the building, a wooden structure contained within the brick building, was destroyed. It was the old St. Mary's of the Assumption Catholic church, taken over by Holtzer Cabot when the current church was built and later encased within the larger brick building. 

Holzer Cabot, which had already expanded to facilities outside Brookline, rebuilt and continued operating in town, but moved away from Station Street and Brookline for good in 1915.

October 1, 1990
Town begins curbside recycling 
Brookline inaugurated what was described as one of the most comprehensive curbside recycling programs in the nation. The new program, reported the Brookline Citizen, would require 14,500 households to recycle glass, metal, plastic, leaves, and other material.

Households were provided with blue plastic recycling bins, like the one shown in this Boston Herald photo. It was reported at the end of the first week that town residents had recycled 51.61 tons of newspaper and 18.41 tons of other materials. (The numbers might have been inflated by residents holding on to recyclable materials in anticipation of the new program.)

Boston Herald, October 12, 1990

In October 1991, the town reported that residents had recycled 3,250 tons of material that would otherwise have been thrown away. That amounted to almost 20% of the overall tonnage that would normally have gone into the trash.