December 17th - December 23rd

December 19, 1922 

December 20, 1886 - Town proposes widening of Beacon Street
December 19, 1922 - Amy Lowell objects to laws
December 18, 1941 - WWII Observation Tower on Corey Hill
December 17, 2021 - Corey Hill stable fire

December 20, 1886
Town proposes widening of Beacon Street
Town Meeting unanimously approved a warrant article authorizing a petition to the state legislature for permission to widen Beacon Street. A vote to refer the proposal to a committee first for further study was defeated.

Henry M. Whitney, the driving force behind the plan, noted that he had already acquired three quarters of the necessary land and would pay half the cost of construction, including the laying out of an electric streetcar line. The plan, said Whitney, would benefit not just those who chose to live on Beacon Street. "[T]here is no one who has business in Boston who will not appreciate the importance of rapid transit to and from the city," he said.

Whitney's plan, approved by the legislature, led to the transformation of Beacon Street in Brookline from a narrow country lane to a grand boulevard.

Plans for widening Beacon Street, as laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted's firm.

December 19, 1922
Amy Lowell objects to laws
Celebrated poet Amy Lowell, a lifelong resident of Heath Street, drew local and even national attention when she objected at Town Meeting to a series of new laws under consideration governing use of public byways. Among her complaints were new regulations governing children's play on public streets and sidewalks.

Other restrictions included limits on automobile parking, a 10 mile an hour speed limit for horses -- Lowell didn't think horses should have to go slower than cars -- and a prohibition on using "any noise, gesture, words, or other means [to] willfully frighten a horse in any public way in the town."

These regulations are just a few of the many passed by Town Meeting in 1922 regarding the use of public ways.

In the end, modifications were made, including removing children's sleds and wagons from the prohibition of vehicles on sidewalks. See the full list of new laws on use of public ways in the town report for 1922.

December 18, 1941
WWII Observation Tower on Corey Hill
Volunteers from the American Legion settled into duties on an observation tower built on top of Corey Hill amid fears of a possible bombardment of Boston in the wake of Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry into World War II. 

The tower, with a view over Boston and Boston Harbor, had been built before the U.S. entered the war and had been dedicated in October. It was meant as a key Boston area observation post, one of many up and down the East Coast to be activated in the event of war.  

The trained volunteers were civilians operating under military command as part of the Aircraft Warning Service. The tower was dismantled in August 1944.

December 17, 2021
Corey Hill stable fire
A 129-year-old building on the Brookline-Boston border that began as a stable was devastated in an early morning fire. The building was constructed in 1892 for Eben Jordan Jr. of Jordan Marsh, whose estate covered much of Corey Hill. 

The building, sold to H.P. Hood in 1913, served as a distribution center for Hood milk until 1929. Later occupants included two different construction companies, a used Chevrolet dealership, and several others. Since the 1980s it had been known mostly for its dance and music studios. 

Tenants at the time of the fire, all of whom list their spaces, included Music Maker Studios, Brookline Academy of Dance, and Zippah Studios/Zippah Records. The building has since been torn down. Read more about its history at https://brooklinehistory.blogspot.com/2021/12/fire-devastates-129-year-old-former.html