Brookline, Massachusetts


Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, and part of the Boston metropolitan area. An exclave of Norfolk County, Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Allston, Fenway–Kenmore, Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, and West Roxbury. The city of Newton borders Brookline to the west. It is known for being the birthplace of John F. Kennedy.
The land which comprises what is today Brookline was first settled in 1638 as a hamlet in Boston, known as Muddy River. It was incorporated as a separate town with the name of Brookline in 1705. In 1873, Brookline had a contentious referendum in which it voted to remain independent from Boston. The later annexations of Brighton and West Roxbury, both in 1874, and that of Hyde Park in 1912, eventually made Brookline into an exclave of Norfolk County. The town had a history of racial discrimination in zoning and a Black population of 2.5%.
Several streets and railroads were laid out in the town in the 19th century. Today, these are Massachusetts Route 9 and the various branches of the MBTA's Green Line. To the north of Route 9, the area is fairly urban; the southern part is much less so.
At the time of the 2020 census, the population of the town was 63,191.

History

Once part of Algonquian territory, Brookline was first settled by European colonists in the early 17th century. The area was an outlying part of the colonial settlement of Boston and known as the hamlet of Muddy River. In 1705, it was incorporated as the independent town of Brookline. It was bounded by a section of the Charles River between the now covered Smelt Brook in the west and the Muddy River in the east.
In 1843, a racially restrictive covenant in Brookline forbade resale of property to "any negro or native of Ireland."
The Town of Brighton was merged with Boston in 1874, and the Boston-Brookline border was redrawn to connect the new Back Bay neighborhood with Allston-Brighton. Boston annexed the strip of land along the Charles River, cutting Brookline off from the shoreline. The current northern border follows Commonwealth Avenue, and on the northeast, St. Mary's Street. When Frederick Law Olmsted designed the Emerald Necklace of parks and parkways for Boston in the 1890s, the Muddy River was integrated into the Riverway and Olmsted Park, creating parkland accessible by both Boston and Brookline residents.
Throughout its history, Brookline has resisted being annexed by Boston, in particular during the Boston–Brookline annexation debate of 1873. The neighboring towns of West Roxbury and Hyde Park connected Brookline to the rest of Norfolk County until they were annexed by Boston in 1874 and 1912, respectively, putting them in Suffolk County. Brookline is now separated from the remainder of Norfolk County.
Brookline has long been regarded as a pleasant and verdant environment. In the 1841 edition of the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Andrew Jackson Downing described the area this way:
Brookline residents were among the first in the country to propose extending the vote to women. Benjamin F. Butler, in his 1882 campaign for governor, advocated the idea.

Transportation history

Two branches of upper Boston Post Road, established in the 1670s, passed through Brookline. Brookline Village was the original center of retail activity. In 1810, the Boston and Worcester Turnpike, now Massachusetts Route 9, was laid out, starting on Huntington Avenue in Boston and passing through the village center on its way west.
Steam railroads came to Brookline in the middle of the 19th century. The Boston and Worcester Railroad was constructed in the early 1830s, and passed through Brookline near the Charles River. The rail line is still in active use, now paralleled by the Massachusetts Turnpike. The Highland branch of the Boston and Albany Railroad was built from Kenmore Square to Brookline Village in 1847, and was extended into Newton in 1852. In the late 1950s, this became the D branch">Green Line D branch">D branch.
The portion of Beacon Street west of Kenmore Square was laid out in 1850. Streetcar tracks were laid above ground on Beacon Street in 1888, from Coolidge Corner to Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, via Kenmore Square. In 1889, they were electrified and extended over the Brighton border at Cleveland Circle. They would eventually become the C branch">Green Line C branch">C branch.
Due to the Boston Elevated Railway system, this upgrade from horse-drawn carriage to electric trolleys occurred on many major streets all over the region, and made transportation into downtown Boston faster and cheaper. Much of Brookline was developed into a streetcar suburb, with large, brick apartment buildings sprouting up along the new streetcar lines.

Housing and zoning history

Brookline has a history of racial covenants that blocked racial minorities and some ethnic minorities to own housing there. In the early 20th century, Brookline banned the construction of triple-decker housing, which was a form of housing popular with poor immigrant communities in the United States. Advocates for the ban justified the ban with anti-immigrant rhetoric.
In 1922, Prescott F. Hall, a Brookline resident who co-founded the Immigration Restriction League, petitioned the Brookline government to exclusively allow single-family housing. In 1924, the Brookline government enacted a zoning change to only permit single-family housing in most of the territory of Brookline. Many of the present-day apartment buildings in Brookline were constructed prior to this zoning change.
In 1970, the state authorized rent control in municipalities with more than 50,000 residents. Brookline, Lynn, Somerville, and Cambridge subsequently adopted rent control. Brookline began decontrolling units in 1991.
Brookline has a recent history of blocking multifamily housing construction. Since the 1970s, new housing construction has plunged in Brookline. It has enacted zoning changes that ban multifamily apartment buildings and limit the height of buildings. Proposals for new development frequently face onerous lawsuits. These restrictions on housing supply have led housing prices in Brookline to skyrocket in recent decades. In 2023, the median sale price for a single-family home in Brookline was $2.51 million, and the median condo price was $927,500.
As a consequence of restrictions on housing supply, Brookline is overwhelmingly wealthy. Only 2.5% of its population is Black, which is the second-lowest share of Black people in any community in the Boston area. Only 14% of Brookline teachers, 21% of Brookline police, and 22% of Brookline firefighters live in Brookline, as median salaries for these kinds of jobs make housing in Brookline largely unaffordable.

Etymology

Brookline was known as the hamlet of Muddy River and was considered part of Boston until the Town of Brookline was independently incorporated in 1705. The name is said to derive from a farm therein once owned by Judge Samuel Sewall. Originally, the property of CPT John Hull and Judith Quincy Hull. Judge Sewall came into possession of this tract, which embraced more than 350 acres, through Hannah Quincy Hull who was the Hull's only daughter. John Hull in his youth lived in Muddy River Hamlet, in a little house which stood near the Sears Memorial Church. Hull removed to Boston, where he amassed a large fortune for those days. Judge Sewall probably never lived on his Brookline estate.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, Brookline has a total area of, of which is covered by water.
The northern part of Brookline, roughly north of the D-line tracks, is urban in character, highly walkable and transit rich. The population density of this northern part of town is nearly, similar to the densest neighborhoods in nearby Cambridge, Somerville, and Chelsea, Massachusetts, and slightly lower than that of central Boston's residential districts. The overall density of Brookline, which also includes suburban districts and grand estates south of the D-line, is still higher than that of many of the largest cities in the United States, especially in the South and West. Brookline borders Newton to the west and Boston in all other directions; it is therefore noncontiguous with any other part of Norfolk County. Brookline became an exclave of Norfolk County in 1873, when the neighboring town of West Roxbury was annexed by Boston. Brookline refused to be annexed by Boston after the Boston–Brookline annexation debate of 1873.
Brookline separates the bulk of the city of Boston from its westernmost neighborhoods of Allston–Brighton, which had been the separate town of Brighton until annexed by Boston in 1873.

Neighborhoods

Many neighborhood associations are active, some of which overlap.
Neighborhoods, squares, and notable areas of Brookline include:

Climate

The climate of Brookline is humid continental Dfa.
Brookline falls under the USDA 6b Plant Hardiness zone.

Demographics

As of the census of 2010, 58,732 people, 24,891 households, and 12,233 families were residing in the town. The population density was. The 26,448 housing units had an average density of. The racial makeup of the town was 73.3% White, 3.4% African American, 0.12% Native American, 15.6% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 1.01% from other races, and 3.0% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 5.0% of the population.
Of the 25,594 households, 21.9% had children under 18, living with them, 38.4% were married couples living together, 7.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 52.2% were not families. About 36.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.1% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.18 and the average family size was 2.86.
In the town, the age distribution was 16.6% under 18, 11.7%, from 18 to 24, 37.3% from 25 to 44, 21.9% from 45 to 64, and 12.4% who were 65 or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 82.6 males. For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 79.1 males.
The median income for a household for 2021 in the town was $83,318, and for a family was $122,356. Males had a median income of $56,861 versus $43,436 for females. The per capita income for the town was $44,327. About 4.5% of families and 9.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.3% of those under the age of 18 and 7.5% of those ages 65 and older. The poverty rate of Brookline's residents rate rose from 9.3% in 2000 to 13.1% in 2010. and then reduced to 10.2% in 2021

Arts and culture

  • Brookline, along with the nearby Boston neighborhood of Brighton and the city of Newton, is a cultural hub for the Jewish community of Greater Boston.
  • The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Metropolis of Boston is headquartered in Brookline.
  • Brookline Village is home to Puppet Showplace Theater, New England's only dedicated puppet theater and center for puppetry arts. The theater is located in the historic 32 Station Street building directly across from the Brookline Village MBTA Green Line stop.
  • The four Poet Laureates of Brookline include: Judith Steinbergh, Jan Schreiber, Zvi Sesling, and, currently, Jennifer Barber.
  • Along with Boston and Quincy, it has a large Irish American presence.

Points of interest

These historic buildings are open to the public:
Other historic and cultural sites include:

Government

Since 1916, Brookline has been governed by a representative town meeting, which is the town's legislative body, and a five-person select board, the town's executive branch. Fifteen town meeting representatives are elected to three-year terms from each of the town's 17 precincts. From 1705 to 1916, the town was governed by an open town meeting and a select board.

New and existing laws

In 2017, a Brookline Town Meeting voted to recognize Indigenous Peoples' Day instead of Columbus Day.
In 2019, Brookline banned the distribution of carry-out plastic bags at grocery stores and other businesses.
In 2021, Brookline banned the sale of tobacco and e-cigarettes to anyone born after January 1, 2000, in Article 8.23 of the town bylaws, expanding on Massachusetts' existing prohibition on the sale of tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21. In March 2023, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the bylaw in the case Six Brothers Inc. v. Town of Brookline.
In 2025, the Brookline Town Meeting voted to ban the sale of foie gras. The ban was proposed by four Brookline High School students who argued that the production of foie gras involves extreme animal cruelty.

Education

Public schools

The town is served by the Public Schools of Brookline. The student body at Brookline High School includes students from more than 76 countries. Many students attend Brookline High from surrounding neighborhoods in Boston, such as Mission Hill and Mattapan through the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity system.
The eight elementary schools in the Brookline Public School system are: Baker School, Florida Ruffin Ridley School, Driscoll, Roland Hayes School, Lawrence School, Lincoln School, Pierce School, and Runkle School. As of December 2006, there were 6,089 K–12 students enrolled in the Brookline public schools. The system includes one early learning center, eight grades K–8 schools, and one comprehensive high school. The Old Lincoln School is a surplus building used by the town to temporarily teach students in when another school building is being renovated. It was rented in 2009 as the venue for the play Sleep No More.
As of the 2012–13 school year, the student body was 57.4% White, 18.1% Asian, 6.4% Black, 9.9% Hispanic, and 8.2% multiracial. About 30% of students came from homes where English is not their first language.

Private schools

Several private primary and secondary schools are located in Brookline.

Higher education

Several institutes of higher education are located in Brookline.
Also, parts of the following are located in Brookline: Boston University including Wheelock College, Boston College, and Northeastern University's Parsons Field.
Newbury College closed in 2019.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Light rail and subway

Brookline is served by the C and D branches of the MBTA's Green Line trains, with inbound service to downtown Boston and outbound service to Newton. The B line runs just to the northwest of Brookline along Commonwealth Avenue, through the Boston University campus and into Allston-Brighton.

Bus

Brookline is served by several MBTA bus routes:

Public libraries

  • Public Library of Brookline, 361 Washington St., Brookline, MA 02445
  • Coolidge Corner Branch Library, 31 Pleasant St., Brookline, MA 02446
  • Putterham Branch Library, 959 West Roxbury Pkwy., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467

Fire department

The town of Brookline is protected full-time by 158 professional firefighters of the Brookline Fire Department. It currently operates out of five fire stations located throughout the town, under the command of a deputy chief per shift. The BFD also operates a fire apparatus fleet of four engines, two ladders, one quint, one cross-staffed rescue, two squads, one special operations unit, one haz-mat decontamination trailer, two maintenance units, and numerous other special, support, and reserve units. The BFD responds to roughly 8,500 emergency calls annually. The current chief of the BFD is John F. Sullivan.

Cemeteries

Notable people

Athletes

Ambassadors

Academics, scientists, and technologists

Musicians

Politicians

Writers

Other

In popular culture

In film

In television

In book

  • Dr. Melisande Stokes, the protagonist of The [Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.] time travels to Muddy River hamlet.

Sister cities

Brookline is twinned with: