Looking West on Washington St. toward the link with Boylston St. Walnut St. is off photo left foreground. This is one of two photos taken from slightly different positions. From left to right:

• The left side of the apartment building at the entrance to Walnut St. is a rooming house.
• The right side of the apartment building will be converted in early 1900 to a store front.
• #164 Washington St., corner of the Guild Building: Thomas H. McMahon, Grocer
• Washington St. curving north
• #129 Washington St., the four-story brick building: Jacob Morlock, Bakery/Restaurant
• #121 Washington St.: William F. Young, Grocer. Note the cat out front by the curb.
• #115/117 Washington St.: M. Cavicchi, Fruits, Nuts, Figs. Note what appear to be small Christmas trees stacked outside.

[Source: Brookline Preservation Department]

Looking West on Washington St. toward the link with Boylston St. Walnut St. is off photo left foreground. This is one of two photos taken from slightly different positions. From left to right:

• The left side of the apartment building at the entrance to Walnut St. is a rooming house. The small white sign says “William [illegible] Boarding House
• The right side of the apartment building will be converted in early 1900 to a store front.
• #164 Washington St., corner of the Guild Building: Thomas H. McMahon, Grocer
• Washington St. curving north
• #129 Washington St., the four-story brick building: Jacob Morlock, Bakery/Restaurant
• #121 Washington St.: William F. Young, Grocer
• #115/117 Washington St.: M. Cavicchi, Fruits, Nuts, Figs. Note what appear to be small Christmas trees stacked outside.
• #113 Washington St.: Lyceum Pharmacy, recently opened

[Source: Brookline Preservation Department]

Looking west toward Boylston St., Washington St. curves to the right by the Guild Building. In the foreground left at the intersection of Walnut St. and Washington St. is an apartment building whose right-side first floor was converted to a store front in early 1900. At the corner of the building a door was added and given the address of 122 Washington St. It opened as a third Brookline location of C. E. Riley’s cigar stores and changed to Heleotis Bros. Fruits and Ice Cream in 1904. The photo shows a banner advertising Marguerite cigars so this is most like the Riley store which also advertised itself as a waiting room for trolley riders.
[Source: Brookline Preservation Department]

Looking west toward Boylston St., Washington St. curves to the right by the Guild Building. In the foreground left at the intersection of Walnut St. and Washington St. is an apartment building whose right-side first floor was converted to a store front in early 1900. At the corner of the building a door was added and given the address of 122 Washington St. It opened as a third Brookline location of C. E. Riley’s cigar stores and changed to Heleotis Bros. Fruits and Ice Cream in 1904. The photo shows a banner advertising Marguerite cigars so this is most like the Riley store which also advertised itself as a waiting room for trolley riders.

Looking west toward Boylston St., Washington St. curves to the right by the Guild Building. In the foreground left at the intersection of Walnut St. and Washington St. is an apartment building whose right-side first floor was converted to a store front in early 1900. At the corner of the building a door was added and given the address of 122 Washington St. It opened as a third Brookline location of C. E. Riley’s cigar stores and changed to Heleotis Bros. Fruits and Ice Cream in 1904. This is most like the Riley store which also advertised itself as a waiting room for trolley riders.

Atop the Guild Building in the center of the photo is a massive billboard advertising “Gilchrist”. This probably refers to a large department store on Winter St., in Boston. Oddly, no other photos of the Guild Building show a billboard of any type.

Looking west. Foreground left: W.P. Whittemore Co., Hay and Grain, 92 Washington St.; Roeder's Lunch Dairy, in the corner building, 104 Washington St.
[Source: Olmsted]

[Source: Brookline Preservation Department]

Background buildings, left to right: Carl Astrom, photographer, #129; upper window of George Rozantes, fruit stand, #121; #115; Lyceum Hall Pharmacy, #113; Mack's Café, #107; David Lynch residence, small brick building, #105; Arthur Caulfield, insurance and real estate, #103.
[Source: Olmsted]

This is one of three photos taken of this block. Looking west toward the start of Boylston St. From left to right:

• The fire house, still standing
• The Brookline Savings Bank, building still standing
• The tall brick building known as the “Sagamore” which housed Burns Drug Co. at 127 Washington St., visible on the right side
• The Davis Candy Shop at 121 Washington St.
• The van of Leslie W. Whalen, a Brookline mover
• A car advertising Brick Bradford, a science-fiction comic strip in Boston’s Daily Record newspaper
• Partial view of The Village Spa at 115 Washington St., run by the Rozantes family who lived upstairs above the store.

[Source: Historic New England]

Looking west on lower Washington St. toward the start of Boylston St. In the center of the photo, situated across High St. from the fire station, the Ford sign of T. C. Baker, a Ford dealership at 2 Boylston St., is visible. This is one of three photos taken of this block.
[Source: Historic New England]

On Lower Washington St., recently completed in September, 1909. On the left is Boylston St. looking west. The grocery store of Thomas F. McMahon is visible behind the left platform. The Sagamore Café, which closed in April 1912, and the drug store of T. E. Burns are visible behind the second station.
[Source: MBTA]

Looking west on Lower Washington St. Shown is PCC streetcar 3001, the very first of a line of new “PCC” streetcars purchased by the Boston Elevated Railway Co. This car was the only car purchased from the St. Louis Car Co., all subsequent cars being purchased from the Pullman Co. In the rear, the ivy-covered fire station is visible. The waiting platforms in the photo were demolished in September 1938.

It is evident from the “No Stops” destination panel, and the fact that this car never ran on routes going through Brookline, that this is one of the demonstration/training runs conducted following the delivery of the car in May 1937. The car was given the nickname of “Queen Mary” and began regular service on June 24, 1937, running on routes that did not go underground as it only had doors opening on the right side. This car has been widely reported on by the enthusiast community and there is even a scale model available for purchase.

Looking east on lower Washington St. toward Boston. Parker Hill and N.E. Baptist Hospital upper right. Walnut St. on the right. Taken on 11/29/1937 by C. Parker, Brookline Engineering Dept.

Looking east on lower Washington St. toward Boston. Walnut St. on the right. Note scaffolding for the construction of the Brookline Theater on the left side of the street. All the buildings were raised in the 1960s as part of a large urban redevelopment program. Photo taken on 11/29/1937 by C. Parker, Brookline Engineering Dept.

This is a unique early photo of the section of Lower Washington St. that became known as “Russell’s Block”. From left to right:

• [145-147 Washington St.] Brown Brothers, Fruits and Vegetables, Provisions
• To the right of the door for the upstairs rooms is an unattributed sign advertising “Drain Pipe, Nails, Powder, Soft Lead, …. Hardware”
• [137-139 Washington St.] Thomas T. Robinson, Fine Groceries. He had recently taken over the business of Marshall Russell whose sign still remains in the photo.

[Source: Brookline Public Library]

Looking east on lower Washington St. toward Huntington Ave, Boston. Walnut St. feeding in on the right. Note that this is one of two different views taken at the same time.

Tom Condon, Sr. Civil Engineer for Brookline writes:
The work shown is part of the relocation of the outlet of the Village Brook. …(in the pile of lumber in the background you can see a piece of the curved falsework used to hold the brick arch until the cement mortar set.). Leverett Pond was created from the Muddy River marsh located just south of Washington Street by installing a stop plank manhole (in effect an adjustable height dam) in the new culvert under Washington Street. This stop plank manhole was necessary to hold back the pond since the Charles and therefore the Muddy Rivers were still tidal at that time. Presumably, Alexis French (who was both Olmsted's engineer and the Town Engineer) determined that more flow into this new pond was necessary. To provide this additional flow, the Village Brook which flows alongside what is now the MBTA "D" line was diverted into the culvert shown under construction. The culvert runs east down Washington Street, crosses Walnut Street, runs down Morss Avenue (now discontinued), across Pond Avenue and into Leverett Pond.

Lower Washington St. going toward Boston angling to the left rear. Note that this is one of two different views taken at the same time. From right to left, looking at the south side of Washington St.:

• Sing Lee, laundry, #136
• John Barthelmes, hairdresser, #134
• Frank T. Fay, newsdealer, cigars and tobacco, #128
• William Frawley, custom shoemaker (note picture of boot on sign), #126
• Luigi Barba (aka Louis Barbour and Louis Barber), fruit, #126

On the left of the photo is the awning of Thomas S. Brown & Co., provisions, at #145 Washington St.

Tom Condon, Sr. Civil Engineer for Brookline writes:
The work shown is part of the relocation of the outlet of the Village Brook. …(in the pile of lumber in the background you can see a piece of the curved falsework used to hold the brick arch until the cement mortar set.). Leverett Pond was created from the Muddy River marsh located just south of Washington Street by installing a stop plank manhole (in effect an adjustable height dam) in the new culvert under Washington Street. This stop plank manhole was necessary to hold back the pond since the Charles and therefore the Muddy Rivers were still tidal at that time. Presumably, Alexis French (who was both Olmsted's engineer and the Town Engineer) determined that more flow into this new pond was necessary. To provide this additional flow, the Village Brook which flows alongside what is now the MBTA "D" line was diverted into the culvert shown under construction. The culvert runs east down Washington Street, crosses Walnut Street, runs down Morss Avenue (now discontinued), across Pond Avenue and into Leverett Pond.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]

Tom Condon, Sr. Civil Engineer for Brookline writes:
The work shown is part of the relocation of the outlet of the Village Brook. …(in the pile of lumber in the background you can see a piece of the curved falsework used to hold the brick arch until the cement mortar set.). Leverett Pond was created from the Muddy River marsh located just south of Washington Street by installing a stop plank manhole (in effect an adjustable height dam) in the new culvert under Washington Street. This stop plank manhole was necessary to hold back the pond since the Charles and therefore the Muddy Rivers were still tidal at that time. Presumably, Alexis French (who was both Olmsted's engineer and the Town Engineer) determined that more flow into this new pond was necessary. To provide this additional flow, the Village Brook which flows alongside what is now the MBTA "D" line was diverted into the culvert shown under construction. The culvert runs east down Washington Street, crosses Walnut Street, runs down Morss Avenue (now discontinued), across Pond Avenue and into Leverett Pond.

Looking east from the Village Square
[Source: Leo Sullivan]

Just east of the intersection of High St. and Boylston, next to Hose House #1. Torn down before 1908 for the construction of the present day firehouse. Orignally numbered 66 before renumbering of Washington St.
1) Note the "Employment Office" sign by the entrance to the stairs next door at #68. This was likely the office of Mrs. Benjamin Hill. Brokers like this were often the source of servants for the wealthy households of Brookline.
2) Note the "Board Rooms" sign on the second floor. Listed in the city directory as boarders at that address are Thomas Steward, hairdresser and Joseph Hartnett, carriage painter, who worked at Michael Quinlan’s carriage factory one block away at the southwest corner of High St. and Boylston St.
3) Note the "Ladies Pompadours Cut and Curled" sign to the left at the hair salon next door.