Cypress-Emerson Historic District

This Brookline neighborhood of Cypress, Emerson and Waverly Streets grew up largely between 1872 and 1895 on land once held by farming families and by the merchant Elijah Emerson, whose estate is now remembered in Emerson Garden. Cypress Street itself was laid out in 1719 as a town road. The oldest house is a Greek Revival dwelling at 58-60 Waverly Street, built in 1827. Most other buildings are one- to multi-family Victorian houses in Second Empire and Queen Anne styles, with decorative shingles, bay windows, porches and pedimented dormers. Builder Daniel Russell put up seven houses on Cypress Street between 1880 and 1886, giving that street a notable uniformity. Architects such as F. Manton Wakefield, Charles Rutan and Arthur Bowditch designed other homes. The area was listed because its growth mirrors Brookline's expansion after the Civil War alongside the village commercial center, and because its houses illustrate mid to late Victorian domestic architecture. Most buildings survive intact.