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Put On Your Walking Shoes & Step Into the Past:
Spring Walking Tours

Blake Park: History of a Neighborhood
Led by: Ken Liss of the Brookline Historical Society
Date: Sunday, May 19th, 2 pm - 3:30 pm
Meet: Brookline High School, 115 Greenough Street
Distance: About one mile
Register: blakepark051924.eventbrite.com
Blake Map
In 1880, banker Arthur Welland Blake engaged Frederick Law Olmsted to draw plans for the subdivision into roads and lots of the Blake family estate on the lower part of Brookline's Aspinwall Hill. Olmsted's plans were never executed, and the estate remained something of an anomaly; a large tract of open land renowned for its landscaping in the heart of a community rapidly developing as a "streetcar suburb". Join Ken Liss from the Brookline Historical Society to learn how the neighborhood of "Blake Park" finally emerged — despite failed plans, untimely deaths, and financial scandal — four decades after it was first conceived.
President Ken Liss Blogs on Brookline Past & Present
What Do You Call Your Brookline Neighborhood?
Map image courtesy of the town of Brookline.

The town of Brookline, like many cities and towns, is made up of several neighborhoods. But what are they called and what are their boundaries?

The answers to these simple questions are not so simple.

Different maps and websites and neighborhood associations may have different names for some of the same parts of town. Or t...

Our Latest Archive Additions
We are adding new historical photos weekly. Follow our latest additions here:
Thomas and Bridget (Tonra) Cannon
Thomas and Bridget (Tonra) Cannon
[Source: University of Massachusetts Boston]
Virtual Walking Tour
Click to Start Tour
Brookline's rich history can now take a virtual walking tour of the town via our new online map. The map presents pictures and descriptions (with links for more information) about homes, commercial buildings, churches and synagogues, schools, neighborhoods, parks, and other parts of the town.

Most of the sites marked on the map are in Brookline Village, Coolidge Corner, Longwood, and the area around the First Parish Church and the old Village Green. Other sites and other areas of Brookline are being added, helping to bring to light stories behind familiar and not-so-familiar places in town.