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)