Looking north on Harvard St. from Harvard Sq. On the left is the rear of the Rhodes supermarket which opened at the beginning of 1906, the house at 20 Harvard St. and the Baptist Church.
[Source: Brookline Preservation Department]

A mail plane flying from New York to Boston lost power after experiencing a broken fuel line and was force to crash land on the estate. The only occupant was the pilot who was unharmed.
[Source: Joel Shield]

[Source: Brookline Preservation Department]

[Source: Brookline Preservation Department]

Looking northwest toward Beacon St. 233 Clinton Rd. is on the left. In the early morning hours of December 5, 1913 (the date imprinted on the photo is inaccurate), a large water main burst here flooding the neighborhood and damaging homes.

In the center of the photo is the car of fire chief George H. Johnson. It is a Knox Model “R” Chief’s Car that was delivered to the town in August, 1909. It could seat the chief and his driver up front, two firefighters in the back, and carried light equipment like a lantern, axe, and extinguisher. It was capable of traveling at speeds up to 50 mph and was a dramatic change from the horses that were used just a few years earlier.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]

This presumably the extended family of Frederick Sears. In 1849, David Sears laid out the Cottage Farm neighborhood and built houses for himself, his four daughters, and this house for his son, Frederick, which still stands.
[Source: Brookline Preservation Department]

In 1849, David Sears laid out the Cottage Farm neighborhood and built houses for himself, his four daughters, and this house for his son, Frederick, which still stands.
[Source: Brookline Preservation Department]

Northeast corner of Carlton St.
[Source: Brookline Preservation Department]

[Source: Brookline Preservation Department]

140 Naples Rd. is to the left.
[Source: Brookline Preservation Department]

[Source: Brookline Preservation Department]

Looking south at numbers 19 - 27.
[Source: Brookline Preservation Department]

Looking north. 210 Babcock St. is on the left followed by Winslow Rd. 209 Babcock St. is on the right.
[Source: Brookline Preservation Department]

Looking north from Abbottsford Rd. Photo by town engineer, Henry A. Varney, whose car is in the photo, foreground right. Varney routinely parked his car within the range of his photos, often with a door open.
[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]

Looking west. On the left is the rear of the brick building at 81 Boylston St., still standing. In the middle is the pedestrian overpass at Davis Path, no longer standing. In the foreground left is a partial view of the rear of 38 White Place, followed by 40 White Place, both still standing.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]

[Source: National Archives]

[Source: National Archives]

[Source: Digital Commonwealth]

[Reservoir Lane View 14] Looking north. The house of Ebenezer Reed is on the far right in the distance. Other houses in the area of the northeast corner of today’s Reservoir Road and Boylston St. can be viewed to its left.

Reservoir Lane is one of the earliest roads in Brookline and was originally a section in the trail used by Native Americans to travel from Roxbury to Nonantum Hill in Newton. In 1905, the lane became today’s Reservoir Road, a new section was added on the north end connecting to Middlesex Rd., and only a small length of the lane remains by Middlesex Rd.

In 1892, author Bradford Kingman described the lane as “one of the wildest and most picturesque spots, and the land thereabouts such as anyone who had never explored would hardly suppose could be found within the limits of such a town as Brookline, and so near to Boston. The present lane is narrow, rocky, winding, steep, up hill and down vale, bordered with briars and gay with wild flowers, or attractive with berries in their season.”
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]