Left to right: #101; #89, still standing; #87.
[Source: Olmsted]

Washington St, near Cypress St. and soldier's monument. Note: there are three people in the photo.

Standing on Washington St. looking north at the Bethany Building. School St. is to the right. The steeple is in the first of three iterations, it was reduced in size over time. Known as the “Bethany Building”, the church was constructed in 1844 as the first church in Brookline of the newly-organized Harvard Congregational Society. The building was sold in 1873 as the Society prepared to move to a larger structure at the corner of Harvard St. and Marion St. After a brief stint as a Methodist church followed by several additional changes of ownership, the building was acquired in 1887 by the Bethany Sunday School Association which held it for the next twenty years. The building was torn down in 1928.

The horse-drawn car is being pulled on rails which were first laid in 1859 and has reached its final stop at Washington and School streets. At these final stops the horse(s) would be unhitched and attached to the other end of the car and the route retraced. This car #7 is also seen in another Village photo, that one dated 1873.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]

• On the left are houses on the north side of School St. including #87 in the middle which is still standing.
• Pierce Grammar School, south side of School St.
• Library, foreground right.
• Pierce Primary School, center.

[Source: Digital Commonwealth]

Washington St. runs left to lower right, School St. enters on the right.

Known as the “Bethany Building”, the church was constructed in 1844 as the first church in Brookline of the newly-organized Harvard Congregational Society. The building was sold in 1873 as the Society prepared to move to a larger structure at the corner of Harvard St. and Marion St. After a brief stint as a Methodist church followed by several additional changes of ownership, the building was acquired in 1887 by the Bethany Sunday School Association which held it for the next twenty years. The building was torn down in 1928.

Standing on Cypress St. looking northeast at the Bethany Building. Washington St. crosses from left to right. Foreground, right: one-story store fronts at 4 Cypress Ave., still standing. Background, right: 115 School St., no longer standing.

Known as the “Bethany Building”, the church was constructed in 1844 as the first church in Brookline of the newly-organized Harvard Congregational Society. The building was sold in 1873 as the Society prepared to move to a larger structure at the corner of Harvard St. and Marion St. After a brief stint as a Methodist church followed by several additional changes of ownership, the building was acquired in 1887 by the Bethany Sunday School Association which held it for the next twenty years. The building was torn down in 1928.
[Source: Olmsted]

Washington St. at the junction with Cypress St., School St. to the right. This former church recently ceased its long-time function as the Bethany Sunday School and subsequently

Known as the “Bethany Building”, the church was constructed in 1844 as the first church in Brookline of the newly-organized Harvard Congregational Society. The building was sold in 1873 as the Society prepared to move to a larger structure at the corner of Harvard St. and Marion St. After a brief stint as a Methodist church followed by several additional changes of ownership, the building was acquired in 1887 by the Bethany Sunday School Association which held it for the next twenty years. It saw occasional use in 1917/1918 for the in-season sales of locally-grown farm produce at the Brookline Community Market, before being sold in 1919.The building was torn down in 1928.
[Source: Brookline Preservation Department]

Washington St. at the junction with Cypress St., School St. to the right. This image shows the third iteration of the once tall steeple.

Known as the “Bethany Building”, the church was constructed in 1844 as the first church in Brookline of the newly-organized Harvard Congregational Society. The building was sold in 1873 as the Society prepared to move to a larger structure at the corner of Harvard St. and Marion St. After a brief stint as a Methodist church followed by several additional changes of ownership, the building was acquired in 1887 by the Bethany Sunday School Association which held it for the next twenty years. The building was torn down in 1928.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]

No longer standing. Cypress St. to the right, Washington St., looking south, to the left.

Samuel Croft house on the corner

In front of Samuel Croft house. Fire house two blocks away across from the public library.

(Sitting Left to Right) Ed Witherell, E. Frank Proctor, J.C. Bense, W.H. Fuller, George H. Johnson, B. Frank Bartlett
(Standing Left to Right)Alfred Kenrick Jr., John Witherell, Samuel Richards, A. Eugene Kenrick, James Sinclair, R.L. Proctor, Herbert Mayo, Frank Spinney, Ed. F. Palmer, Charles J. Funk

Built in 1913 by noted engineer and art collector Desmond FitzGerald as a private museum to house his collections of works by Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Hassam, Sisley, Homer, McKnight and others. His house is to the left. The museum building still stands.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]

Commonly known as the “Charles Wild House”, photo by Augustine Folsom. Dr. Charles Wild, the well-known town physician, owned the house until his death in 1864. It was then briefly owned by William Lincoln before being purchased by Stephen Dexter Bennett circa 1868. It was originally addressed as 446 Washington St. and it is now 26 Weybridge Rd. The house still stands today.

The figures shown in the photograph are consistent with Bennett family members and servants. The little girl in the carriage is probably Helen Maud Bennett, b. Oct 1868, and the young boy is probably Stephen Howe Bennett, b. Sep 1865. The women are unidentified – the 1870 census lists two female domestic servants and Helen Francis (Howe) Bennett, Stephen’s wife.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]

Commonly known as the “Charles Wild House”, photo by Augustine Folsom. Dr. Charles Wild, the well-known town physician, owned the house until his death in 1864. It was then briefly owned by William Lincoln before being purchased by Stephen Dexter Bennett circa 1868. It was originally addressed as 446 Washington St. and it is now 26 Weybridge Rd. The house still stands today.

Barely visible sitting under a tree is a young boy who is probably Stephen Howe Bennett, b. Sep 1865.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]

Still standing today at 26 Weybridge Road.

Looking north toward Beacon St, passing Park Ave. on the right Right to left: #465 and #471, apartment buildings still stand. Summit Ave. hill visible in the background
[Source: Joel Shield]

Owned by Thomas Baldwin Griggs and located at the southwest corner of his farmland, across from the Gardner Path, still standing. Occupied for many years by the family of George William Pettes, a journalist. He died in 1892.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]

On the left is #503, the house of Lyman J. Clark. On the right is #497, the house of Elizabeth Tuttle. Both are still standing.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]

[Source: Digital Commonwealth]

The woman in the doorway is most likely Ellen Griggs Saxe, daughter of prominent town citizen Deacon Thomas Griggs. Widowed and living in Troy, NY at the time of his death, in 1886, she moved back to Brookline into this house which she had inherited. The sons inherited the Griggs land, a large part of which comprises today’s Grigg’s Park situated directly behind the house. The house is no longer standing.

In the carriage are her son, James Alfred Saxe, and his wife, Mary Wick. The newly-married couple is about to head off to a year-long European honeymoon. They returned in May, 1893 and moved to a house on Edgehill Rd.
[Source: Saxe Family Collection]