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.