Brookline Historical Society
Recent Additions

Town Hall (3rd), 1905
From left to right:
  • Corner of the municipal courthouse
  • The former Pierce Primary School, now converted to town offices and named Holden Hall, in the rear
  • Town Hall, decorated for the 1905 bicentennial
  • House at 11 Holden St., still standing
  • House at 5-7 Holden St., still standing. Home to the Robart brothers whose furniture business was just off screen to the right at 317 Washington St., also still standing

View of Cottage St.
Looking southwest from Sargent's Pond across Cottage St. to the Thomas Drew Cook House, 85 Cottage St.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]
Thomas Drew Cook House, 85 Cottage St., March 1908
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]
Thomas Drew Cook House, 85 Cottage St., March 1908
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]
Thomas Drew Cook House, 85 Cottage St.
This is one of a pair of winter photos taken by Thomas E. Marr, a well-known photographer of wealthy area residents.

This unique house, which still stands, was built in 1827 by merchant captain Isaac Cook for his son, Thomas, but Thomas died before moving in. The elder Cooks instead moved in and spent the rest of their lives there. The house was purchased in 1878 by James Lovell Little and remained in that family for almost forty years. Isaac built a similar cottage in 1829 for his son Isaac Jr. which is still standing across the street at the corner of Cottage St. & Goddard Ave.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]
Thomas Drew Cook House, 85 Cottage St.
This is one of a pair of winter photos taken by Thomas E. Marr, a well-known photographer of wealthy area residents.

This unique house, which still stands, was built in 1827 by merchant captain Isaac Cook for his son, Thomas, but Thomas died before moving in. The elder Cooks instead moved in and spent the rest of their lives there. The house was purchased in 1878 by James Lovell Little and remained in that family for almost forty years. Isaac built a similar cottage in 1829 for his son Isaac Jr. which is still standing across the street at the corner of Cottage St. & Goddard Ave.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]
Thomas Drew Cook House, 85 Cottage St.
This is one of a pair of photos taken by Thomas E. Marr, a well-known photographer of wealthy area residents. One of the photos is signed and inscribed with “copyright 1901”. It is possible that the woman at the well is one of the five female servants listed in the 1900 census (Annie Haggerty, Margaret Lorden, Jennie Skinner, Mary Curran, Bessie Quigley).

This unique house, which still stands, was built in 1827 by merchant captain Isaac Cook for his son, Thomas, but Thomas died before moving in. The elder Cooks instead moved in and spent the rest of their lives there. The house was purchased in 1878 by James Lovell Little and remained in that family for almost forty years. Isaac built a similar cottage in 1829 for his son Isaac Jr. which is still standing across the street at the corner of Cottage St. & Goddard Ave.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]
Thomas Drew Cook House, 85 Cottage St.
This is one of a pair of later photos of the house taken at the same time.

This unique house, which still stands, was built in 1827 by merchant captain Isaac Cook for his son, Thomas, but Thomas died before moving in. The elder Cooks instead moved in and spent the rest of their lives there. The house was purchased in 1878 by James Lovell Little and remained in that family for almost forty years. Isaac built a similar cottage in 1829 for his son Isaac Jr. which is still standing across the street at the corner of Cottage St. & Goddard Ave.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]
House of George W. Armstrong, Marion St., 1890
Looking at the north side of Marion St. roughly located at today’s #93. The 1887/88 widening of Beacon St. lopped off a large amount of Armstrong’s land behind the house and it was renumbered as 1405 Beacon St. The cement post on the right remains today.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]
Parsons School Gardens, 1903
The Thomas Parsons School garden project involved the third grade students who were supervised by the school principal, Minnie P. Massé. This is one of three experimental school garden projects initiated by the Brookline Education Society in 1903. The gardens were part of a town-wide program to enhance the learning experience of students. As with the Lincoln and Sewall schools, the gardens were planted on land loaned by private landowners. In this case, the land was loaned by the Brookline Riverdale Land Association.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]
Lincoln School Garden Project, September 1903
This is one of three experimental school garden projects initiated by the Brookline Education Society. Annie Crocker made the land adjacent to her house available to the Lincoln School. In May 1903, students aged 12 – 15 from the seventh and eighth grade were each given a 7 ft. by 9 ft. plot for growing vegetables. Several of the photos from this series appeared in the newspapers of the time.

The photos on the left are unidentified. The photo on the upper right is looking to the west at the house of Annie B. Crocker at 136 Cypress St. on the southeast corner with Boylston St. The track of the photo on the lower right is shifted slightly to the north with the tops of structures on the north side Boylston St. visible.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]
Cleveland Circle Southwest, 1941
Looking westerly at the rear of houses on Reservoir Rd.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]
Cleveland Circle Southwest, 1941
Looking northwest. Looking left to right from mid photo:
  • Indistinct views of the rears of 285 and 295 Reservoir Rd.
  • 57 Reservoir Lane
  • 325 Reservoir Rd. (Newton), the white house next to the pumping station
  • 2442 Beacon St., the rear of the pumping station

[Source: Digital Commonwealth]
Parade, Coolidge Corner, September 14, 1935
Looking north on Harvard St. Some 15,000 veterans of the 101st Infantry American Expeditionary Forces held their annual reunion in Brookline and this is their parade. The route started at Harvard and Stedman Streets and proceeded south on Harvard Street to the Village Square, west on the Worcester Turnpike to Cypress Street, south on Cypress to High St. ending at the Brookline Field on Jamaica Rd. and Pond Ave.

Viewed on the western side of Harvard St. from left to right:
  • The T. C. Baker Ford dealership at 1331 Beacon St.
  • S. S. Pierce and Co. on the northwest corner of Beacon and Harvard streets.
Viewed on the eastern side of Harvard St. from left to right:
  • 289 Harvard St. The awning of Gurley’s Bakery
  • Green St.
  • 285-287 Harvard St. The Edison Shop, sellers of home appliances.
  • 283a Harvard St. The Fanny Farmer Candy Shop
  • 283 Harvard St. The Faneuil Hall Fruit Store
  • 281a Harvard St. Carroll’s Cut-Rate Perfumer
  • 279 Harvard St. The First National Stores, groceries
  • 275 Harvard St. Brookline Savings Bank
  • 273 Harvard St. Frank W. Savage, real estate
  • 271 Harvard St. The Dorothy Muriel Shop, deli and liquors
  • 269 Harvard St. Entrance to the upstairs offices
  • 267 Harvard St. Alice Merrill, florist (beneath the Red Cab office)

[Source: Digital Commonwealth]
Clark Rd., Apr. 17, 1920
Looking northeast from Cotswold Rd. 301 Clark Rd. is on the left, #295 on the right, both still standing.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]
Moses Williams Jr., 1884
1869 – 1941. He was a son of prominent Brookline citizens Moses Williams and Martha C. Finnley. They lived on the southeast corner of Warren St. (then a part of Walnut St.) and Boylston St. He was a lawyer and married Anne Henrietta Nancy Whiteside in 1905.

From a photo album of Mary Eleanor ("Mamie") Williams.
Mary Eleanor ("Mamie") Williams, 1896
1870 – 1964. She was a daughter of prominent Brookline citizens Moses Williams and Martha C. Finnley. They lived on the southeast corner of Warren St. (then a part of Walnut St.) and Boylston St.

She was interested in women’s education, was an active supporter of Simmons College for many decades, and never married. Photographed in Dresden, Germany, March 1896.

From a photo album of Mary Eleanor ("Mamie") Williams.
Julia Hayden (“Lula”) Richardson
1867 – 1965. She was a daughter of famed architect Henry Hobson Richardson and Julia Gorham Hayden. In 1886, she married George Foster Shepley an architect who worked in her father’s firm and later became a partner in the prominent firm of Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge. They lived on Warren St.

From a photo album of Mary Eleanor ("Mamie") Williams.
Mary Cornelia (Schlesinger) Perrin, 1895
1868–1943. Mary Cornelia Schlesinger was the second of five daughters of Barthold Schlesinger and Mary McBurney. The family lived in the massive mansion called “Southwood” that still stands at 278 Warren St. where it is now the site of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery. She married Arthur Perrin in 1894 and they lived at 132 Fisher Ave. and had two sons.

From a photo album of Mary Eleanor ("Mamie") Williams.
William Atkinson, June 1896
1866 - 1934; married, 1900, to Mittie Harmon Jackson; parents: Edward Atkinson and Mary Caroline Heath; lived on Heath St. He was an architect, attended Harvard College, and was a graduate of M.I.T. His father was president of the Fire Insurance Co., the inventor of the Aladdin oven, a prolific author of tracts about economics, and a prominent businessman in Boston. His mother was a direct descendant of General William Heath, a right-hand man of George Washington during the Revolution.

From a photo album of Mary Eleanor ("Mamie") Williams.
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