Graffam Development Historic District

Graffam Development is a residential neighborhood in North Brookline, Massachusetts, laid out by developer Peter Graffam of Malden. Construction began in 1894 and finished with a house on Manchester Road in 1906-07. The district covers roughly nine acres around Abbottsford and Manchester Roads, with nearby frontage on Babcock Street and Naples Road. Its houses are large single-family homes on lots of six or seven thousand square feet, set back 20 to 25 feet from the street. Many were designed by the same firms, including Greenleaf and Cobb, which gives the streets consistent clapboard, shingle and beveled siding, porches, turrets, pedimented dormers and Colonial Revival detailing. The neighborhood grew from the widening of Beacon Street in 1888-89 and the arrival of the electric streetcar, and early residents were mostly managers and executives of Boston firms. In 1921 Joseph P. Kennedy bought 51 Abbottsford Road, later known as the birthplace of Robert F. Kennedy. The area was recognized for its architectural harmony and its link to streetcar-era development.