Beacon Street Historic District

Brookline's section of Beacon Street is a boulevard of a little over two miles that crosses the northern part of the town. It began as a county way built in 1850-51. In the 1880s Henry Whitney assembled land and financing, and Frederick Law and John Charles Olmsted planned its widening to 160 feet with a streetcar line down the center. The street became a symbol of Brookline's shift from farmland to streetcar suburb and set off development in nearby neighborhoods. Commercial centers at Lower Beacon, Washington Square and Coolidge Corner alternate with residential blocks. Typical buildings are red brick attached houses and apartment blocks from the 1890s to about 1910, with Chateauesque townhouse rows and courtyard apartments such as Richmond Court and the Stoneholm. Churches and a synagogue add institutional variety. Deed restrictions requiring brick and stone gave many buildings a Back Bay character. Later high-rise infill and altered facades have affected parts of the street.