With the gradual introduction of technological innovations and more accessible transportation methods into and out of town, Brookline changed from a sparse rural space to a densely populated suburban region. As explained in Jackson’s Crabgrass Frontier, this Boston suburb initially sparked new attention of elite members of society who were drawn to Brookline’s "grandiose pretensions…the self-styled ‘richest town in the world,’” but later became more available to the working and middle classes. Though this town as a whole followed the course of the typical American suburb, Coolidge Corner, my site in Brookline, emerged from its surroundings. By analyzing the site’s history, it becomes apparent that because of its original location, the eventual creation of a direct line to Boston, and a man’s effort to tap the area’s potential through the use of new technology, Coolidge Corner’s developed into a semi-urban commercial center rather than a merely residential suburb.
Original Settlement with a Rural Scene and Peculiar Street Design
Source: Jones, Theodore F, Muddy River 1636-1641, Brookline, MA: Brookline Historical Society, 1923. Photo taken from Brookline Public Library.
According to Spooner’s historic map of the region, Brookline, originally a hamlet named Muddy River, was settled in 1632—only two years after colonization began in Boston; that said, Brookline did not become an independent town until 1705.¹ At this stage in Brookline’s development, owners were given large plots of land. A map showing these allotments from 1636 to 1641 reveals the early tendency to stay toward the east, closer to the Charles and Muddy Rivers and to the Atlantic coast (Figure 1). Eastern plots, a collection of dense rectangles lining the rivers, fair much smaller than their western counterparts of which measure 150 and 250 acres. Close proximities to water, wide spaces, and the time period hint at the land’s agricultural purposes.
Source: Jones, Theodore F. Muddy River in 1667. Brookline, MA: Brookline Historical Society, 1923. Photo taken from Brookline Public Library. During these years shortly after the area’s initial settlement, few people had yet to explore inland. However, by 1667 colonists had structured three roads, including one that would later become Harvard Street—one street that forms Coolidge Corner (Figure 2). These new roads allowed for the dissipation of allotments and owners. Families could now more easily navigate the territory and possibly had a better understanding for the shear amount of land actually available. Consequently the new allotments grew larger and less dense, and between the 1636 and 1667 maps few of the owners remained the same. The bounds of my site spanned only one owner’s property in 1636 and two owners’ properties in 1667.
Harvard Street, dubbed “Road to the Colleges,” paved its way into history in 1662, making it the first street from my present day site to develop. Sewall Avenue, or “Road to the Marshes,” followed closely behind in 1674.² These throughways connected my site to neighboring settlements, prompting foot traffic and encouraging future expansion in and around the area. Brookline’s separation from Boston (roughly thirty years later) signals the region’s increased colonization during the 17th and 18th centuries. As seen in a map from 1844, the area remained rural in spite of this increased settlement (Figure 3). By this time, a third road has developed in my site: Pleasant Street.
Source: Woodward, E.F. Map of the town of Brookline. Brookline, MA: Town Authorities, 1844. Photo taken from Brookline Public Library.
These three roads provide the foundation for Coolidge Corner, and the order in which they appear sheds light on the odd grid that later forms. The curvy nature of the first two paths and their oddly angled intersection (Sewall branches off of Harvard Street forming a triangular shaped void) reveals why the modern street design does not follow a distinct system. Pleasant Street, appearing in the 1800s, gives way to the introduction of straighter roads, but it still meets Harvard Street at an acute, sharp angle. Grady Clay describes the inconsistencies that result from these strange intersections as “breaks” in the grid.³This break’s inception, dating back to the late 17th century, developed from rural right-of-ways being carved into empty land haphazardly. These winding country paths culminated in my site, a location of crossroads from the very beginning.
Beacon Street: A New Connection
Source: Brookline in 1855. Brookline, MA: Brookline Historical Society, 1923. Photo taken from Brookline Public Library.
Up to this point, my site had remained sparse in population, while the majority of properties gathered toward the southeast in what is today Brookline Village. However, by 1855, soon after the introduction of Beacon Street, development quickly began to pick up (Figure 4). The movement of new families into the region mirrored that of families across the United States. Jackson’s Crabgrass Frontier tells of the suburban ideal, living outside of the city and farther from the workplace, that many affluent Americans sought.⁴ Beacon Street cut straight east to west, directly connecting the future corner to the the State Building. Now that Beacon Street made traveling to the inner city easier and more efficient, an increase in my site’s population sparked.
Source: Atlas of the Town of Brookline 1874, Plate C. G.M. Hopkins & Co, 1874. Accessed online from WardMaps LLC 2014.
Over the next twenty years, migration to my site only increased as represented in a map from 1874 (Figure 5). Along with the continued movement out of the city, the 1800s brought another shift in the suburbanization of America: subdivision. Unlike the map from 1855, the 1874 map includes property lines that cut up parts of the land that were previously owned by a single person. Because of the steady movement into Brookline, more people began to occupy the suburban land, causing a need for smaller properties. Dividing lots allowed for more people to reside in the same amount of area; ironically, the allure of having more space in the suburbs was contributing to their rises in population density—a negative factor that had pushed people out of the cities in the first place.
By 1874, nearly all the streets from my site had been constructed, with the addition of Longwood Street and the renaming of Green Street. More building footprints were also included, the area primarily filled with single-family dwellings inhabiting lots of various sizes—the smallest of which occupied the east-facing side of Harvard Street. Still, even these small lots were left with considerable yards, both front and back. Larger lots rested on Green Street, Pleasant Street, and Beacon Street, with many owners who had been there for years. Charles Stearns, one of these owners, took up an entire block of habitable land south of Beacon Street and also a good amount of land to the north.
Compared to the roughly two properties in my site in 1844, the amount of families in 1874 quadrupled. Though this shift alludes to an exponentially growing area, the movement was still slow rolling—gaining only eight new owners in thirty years. The area’s identity remained largely rural and exclusive.
New Technology and One Man’s Ideas for a Streamlined Route
Despite the addition of Beacon Street, Brookline was still located a rough three miles away from the city. With only horse-drawn cars and walking as a means of transportation (when departing from the Coolidge Corner area), traveling to the city was still a timely and expensive trek. Brookline was not alone in this problem. Across the country, suburbs remained largely exclusive because of travel expenditures and technological methods of the times. Jackson explains how Frank J. Sprague’s invention of the electric streetcar in 1887 introduced a new class of people to the suburbs, giving way to middle class movement out of the city and the notion of recreational traveling.⁵Regarding my site, the intersection of two main roads, one of which provided an uninhibited path to Boston, always gave the location great potential. Centered at this junction, Coolidge Corner could bring in people from neighboring suburbs to the North and West as well as people from the major city to the East. Roads sprawled outward and converged at this corner, and through the mid to late 1800s, this accessibility had already proven successful in bringing in a substantial number of residents to the space.
However after the invention of the trolley, a man named Henry Whitney envisioned greater possibilities for Coolidge Corner. As explained in Sproat’s journal Henry Whitney’s Streetcar Suburb, Whitney planned to capitalize on the area’s potential by first purchasing tracts of land along Beacon Street, then proposing to widen Beacon Street and include an electric streetcar line running down the center, and finally profiting off the new land’s value when selling to commercial investors.⁶ Ultimately succeeding, Whitney created the West End Railway Company and tracks on Beacon Street were laid and electrified by the beginning of 1889.⁷
Source: Atlas of the Town of Brookline 1897, Plate C. French & Bryant, 1897. Accessed online from WardMaps LLC 2014.
Local effects of this proposal can be seen in a map from 1897 (Figure 6). Encroaching on territory to the south, the widening of Beacon Street tore down a public school and forced Charles Stearns to relocate his house (also allowing him to expand his property, engulfing parts that once belonged to the school). The 1897 map also reveals increased subdivision and the introduction of John Street. John Street carved straight through preexisting lots, connecting Pleasant Street to Green Street and making transportation more feasible in the region. Some structures were removed, but even more have been added. Improvements are also seen in the map itself, more readable with its clearer representation of building footprints and property lines.
Bringing the trolley to Coolidge Corner changed the future of the area, causing it to follow a drastically different course than the surrounding parts of Brookline. The speed, ease, and affordability of this improved method of travel allowed for an increase in visitors—potential residents and consumers. Quick to catch on to this new trend, the Beacon Street trolley made its way into the area only two years after Sprague's original line was constructed. Immediately after the trolley’s establishment, property value in and around Coolidge Corner doubled, responding to the trolley’s cutting-edge potential. Sproat shows that land value of Whitney’s properties increased from $16 million to $30 million.⁸
Source: Atlas of the Town of Brookline, Norfolk County Massachusetts, 1913, Plates 13 and 14. G.W. Bromley and Co, 1913. Accessed online from WardMaps LLC 2014.
Revolutionizing the possibilities for development in the area, the trolley drew in prospective businessmen to the site, and by 1913, a whole heap of storefronts lined the intersection of Harvard Street and Beacon Street (Figure 6). This massive brick structure, owned by the Trustees of Tufts College and titled the Coolidge Corner Building, was divided into twenty-eight sections that sat flush to the sidewalks and ran along one corner’s entire length. By this time, other brick buildings had popped up around the intersection, including the iconic S. S. Pierce Company building which took the place of the Coolidge Brothers’ store and still stands today as a Walgreens (Figure 7). The recently constructed Beacon Universalist Church, later to become the Coolidge Corner Theatre, rests to the north. Residential properties found directly behind the commercialized sections of Harvard and Beacon Street have continued the subdivision process similar to other American suburbs.
Source: Top image: Coolidge Corner: Past-Present-Future. Boston, Massachusetts: Hewitt Publishing Company: 1926. Bottom image: Photo taken 2014.
In addition to the inexpensive fares of the trolley, rising business from the intersection also brought more homes and people to the region. Though Jackson states that “because land was cheaper in suburbs than in cities,” the introduction of a less expensive and faster means of transportation (the trolley) only made suburban life more accessible to the Common American.⁹ Contrary to Jackson’s description—a description that accurately depicted most suburban areas—Coolidge Corner’s property values had drastically increased and the introduction of the streetcar continued to draw in wealthy individuals. As early as 1913, a garage can be seen wedged between the stores and homes of my site. This indicates the enormous wealth of Brookline residents because, as Jackson notes, “in the period between 1888 and 1918…the automobile was still a novelty and a toy.”¹⁰ Cars did not become common place for many years, yet Coolidge Corner was no stranger to the invention. Another result of the higher living costs in the region is seen in the newly constructed properties on what was previously barren land. Four detached dwellings occupy a previously empty lot, and a single building divided into three separate properties occupies another (the first flat to enter the boundaries of my site). The new land’s cost required multiple owners’ incomes to afford when before only one owner occupied the same amount of space. People no longer have the same luxury of space, owning neither large homes nor vast yards like in earlier decades.
Continued Development and A Single House
Source: Atlas of the Town of Brookline,1927, Plates 13 and 14. G.W. Bromley and Co, 1927. Accessed online from WardMaps LLC 2014.
The dramatic changes in development that occurred during the first decade only persisted throughout the 20th century. In 1927, more of the single family homes had been divided into flats (Figure 8). On Green Street, a new structure prevailed titled Greenway Court, and its large size, U-shape, and brick material reveal that it was most likely an apartment complex. When moving east from Harvard Street, rows of detached single family homes did not begin until the west facing side of John Street. The strip of framed housing that was once to the north of the Beacon Universalist Church had transformed into brick commercial buildings. The four single family homes from the previous map have been torn down and replaced by another garage. Continuing the movement of tearing down houses, two homes on the southern part of Harvard Street have each been replaced by commercial buildings. The increased amount of space given to garages indicates a bigger trend of automobile usage. Most of the empty space north of Beacon Street has been filled with various buildings; my site has become very dense.
Source: Insurance Maps of Brookline, Massachusetts: Volume One, Revised to 1965. New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1957. Accessed from MIT Rotch Library.
Zooming forward forty years clearly shows the continuation of these trends (Figure 10). Residential buildings have been pushed entirely away from Beacon Street and Harvard Street, resting behind a solid layer of stores and offices. Institutional buildings, a post office and several banks, dot Beacon Street and separate the numerous stores. Filling stations have also become popular, along with municipal parking. An auto repair shop has engulfed the garages from 1913 and 1927 north of Beacon Street. Cars have obviously become more affordable and widespread, and the town has met the need for maintenance resources and storage space.
Little void persists, except in the area that was originally owned by Charles Stearns, directly south of Beacon Street. This space has been perpetually slow in its development over the years. Since 1844, this man and his family resided in the same location; it is probably safe to assume they were part of the reason for the section’s different rate and type of development. The important presence of this family is mirrored in the nearby street names, both a Charles Street and a Stearns Street surround the property.
Left image: French & Bryant map from 1897. Right image: Sanborn map from 1957 revised to 1965.
Only one single family dwelling is left in my site by 1969 (Figure 11). This alone shows the magnitude of the change Coolidge Corner experienced. The building appears to be the same as it was in the 1897 map, yet everything around it has changed. To the left, the space that used to house only one neighbor and his property, now holds four apartments, and to the left of those apartments are even more apartments. Immediately surrounding the home’s other sides are the auto repair shop and garage, something completely foreign to the residents in 1897. In addition to this store, at least fifty other businesses have materialized to the southwest. During the seventy years between 1897 and 1969 (excluding the one house), every single space and building footprint have changed—the entire identity of Coolidge Corner refashioned from the once quaint, rural town with a handful of residents to a thriving commercial center.
Notes
1. A.E. Spooner, The Town of Brookline 1822 (Brookline Historical Society and Brookline Engineering Department, 1945), map
2. Ibid.
3. Grady Clay, Close-Up: How to Read the American City (Chicago IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1980), 38-65.
4. Kenneth T. Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 46-137.
5. Ibid.
6. Barbara J. Sproat, Henry Whitney’s Streetcar Suburb: Beacon Street, Brookline, 1870-1910 (Boston, Massachusetts: Boston Studies in Urban Political Economy, 1975) 1-13.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Kenneth T. Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier, 136.
10. Ibid, 113.
Bibliography
Atlas of the Town of Brookline 1874, Plate C. G.M. Hopkins & Co, 1874. Accessed online from WardMaps LLC 2014.
Atlas of the Town of Brookline 1897, Plate C. French & Bryant, 1897. Accessed online from WardMaps LLC 2014.
Atlas of the Town of Brookline,1927, Plates 13 and 14. G.W. Bromley and Co, 1927. Accessed online from WardMaps LLC 2014.
Atlas of the Town of Brookline, Norfolk County Massachusetts, 1913, Plates 13 and 14. G.W. Bromley and Co, 1913. Accessed online from WardMaps LLC 2014.
Brookline in 1855. Brookline, MA: Brookline Historical Society, 1923. Photo taken from Brookline Public Library.
Clay, Grady. Close-Up: How to Read the American City. Chicago IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1980.
Coolidge Corner: Past-Present-Future. Boston, Massachusetts: Hewitt Publishing Company: 1926.
Jackson, Kenneth T. Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Jones, Theodore F, Muddy River 1636-1641. Brookline, MA: Brookline Historical Society, 1923. Photo taken from Brookline Public Library.
Jones, Theodore F. Muddy River in 1667. Brookline, MA: Brookline Historical Society, 1923. Photo taken from Brookline Public Library.
Insurance Maps of Brookline, Massachusetts: Volume One, Revised to 1965. New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1957. Accessed from MIT Rotch Library.
Spooner, A.E. The Town of Brookline 1822. Brookline Historical Society and Brookline Engineering Department, 1945.
Warner, Sam B. Mapping Boston. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1999.
Woodward, E.F. Map of the town of Brookline. Brookline, MA: Town Authorities, 1844. Photo taken from Brookline Public Library.