Brookline Historical Society
Put On Your Walking Shoes & Step Into the Past:
Spring Walking Tours
The Beaconsfield Terraces:
"An Experiment in Domestic Economy"

When: Sunday, May 4, 2025; 10 am - 11 am
Meet: Star Market, 1717 Beacon Street, Brookline
Led by: Ken Liss of the Brookline Historical Society
Distance: 1 mile
Register: https://bit.ly/beaconsfield05042025
Beaconsfield Terraces
The Beaconsfield Terraces, on the south side of Beacon Street from Dean Road to just beyond Tappan Street, were one of the more unusual developments to follow the creation of the Beacon Street boulevard in the 1880s. Built by Eugene Knapp, a wool merchant, in the early 1890s the terraces were a residential complex in which people owned their units but shared ownership of a 6-acre park, stables, a playhouse (known as the Casino), tennis courts, a playground, and a central heating plant.A bell system connected the houses to the stables so that people could call for their horse and carriage. Today, only the residential buildings (Richter, Frances, Marguerite, Fillmore, Gordon, Bernard, and Parkman Terraces) remain.

Learn more about the Beaconsfield Terraces in this one-hour walking tour led by Brookline Historical Society president Ken Liss.


Blake Park: History of a Neighborhood
Led by: Ken Liss of the Brookline Historical Society
Date: Sunday, May 18, 2025; 2 pm - 3:30 pm
Meet: Brookline High School, 115 Greenough Street
Distance: About one mile
Register: https://bit.ly/blakepark05182025
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.


The Early Development & Growth of Jewish Brookline
Led by: Ken Liss of the Brookline Historical Society
Date: Sunday, May 25, 2025; 2 pm - 3:30 pm
Meet: Trader Joes, Coolidge Corner, 1317 Beacon Street
Distance: About 1.5 miles
Register: https://bit.ly/blakepark05182025
Jewish Ads
The first half of the 20th century saw dramatic growth in the Jewish population of Brookline and in the institutions, businesses, and activities that helped make the town a center of Boston-area Jewish life. This walking tour tells the story through places, people, and events of the emergence of Jewish Brookline and its continued growth over subsequent decades.
 
President Ken Liss Blogs on Brookline Past & Present
The Pierce School the Municipal Triangle, Part 1
The map below shows the triangle formed by Harvard Street, Washington Street, and School Street in Brookline Village. It is the location of the Town Hall, the Public Library, the Health Department, and -- for 170 years -- a succession of buildings of the John Pierce School.

You might call it the Municipal Triangle.

The northern part of the triangle was, from 1974 to last year, the location of the fifth building to carry the name Pierce School. It was ...
Our Latest Archive Additions
We are adding new historical photos weekly. Follow our latest additions here:
Morgan Bros. Creamery, 1349 Beacon St.
Morgan Bros. Creamery, 1349 Beacon St.