Brighton Center Historic District

Brighton Center is the commercial and civic heart of the Brighton neighborhood in northwest Boston. The historic district centers on the intersection of Washington and Market Streets and spreads along nearby streets. It holds 56 buildings and a burial ground, with dates running from 1765 to the 1940s. Most buildings are brick, three stories or fewer, and built right up to the sidewalk. No single style dominates. Greek Revival halls, Italianate and Queen Anne commercial blocks, Tapestry Brick shops, Colonial and Classical Revival civic buildings, and streamlined Modern structures sit side by side. Anchors include the Classical Revival municipal courthouse, the District 14 police station, the Winship School, the Market Street Burial Ground, and the Brighton Evangelical Congregational Church. The district matters because it traces Brighton's change from a farming village to an urban center, and because it is one of Boston's more intact collections of historic commercial streetscapes, with little construction after 1950.