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Photo Collection
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Steam Engine, Bought by Town in 1839
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Devotion St. Engine House
Looking south from the Babcock Pond waters. Babcock Pond was part of a creek system flowing south from Commonwealth Ave. and was filled in soon after this photo was taken. From left to right:
- 63 Babcock St. (speculative)
- The duplex house at 9/11 Devotion St., still standing
- Devotion fire house on the north side of Devotion St.
- Rear of houses and carriage houses on Babcock St.
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Devotion St. Engine House
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Devotion St. Engine House
Engine #2, steamer, later moved to Washington Sq. Firehouse
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Fire Station, Washington Sq.
With first steamer, bought in 1873
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Washington Sq. Engine #2 House
This station at 665 Washington St. is still active today as Fire Station No. 7. Shown is their Engine #2 steamer. When the station was opened in 1900 the engine was relocated from the Devotion Engine House.
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Washington Sq. Engine #2 House, circa 1907
The photo is taken across the street from the Washington Sq. fire station which opened in 1900. The station housed both Station G Engine No. 2 and Hook and Ladder No. 1. Shown is the Amoskeag steam engine. All the houses in the photo are still standing. From left to right:
- 666 Washington St.
- Vacant lot where 672/674 1910 Washington St would be constructed in 1910
- 46 University Ave.
- 40 University Ave.
- 676 Washington St.
The tall fire fighter is identified as John F. (“Jack”) Norton. Born in 1872, he had risen by 1898 to the rank of lieutenant and worked at the Village station. It is reported that he struggled with alcoholism and he was discharged within just a couple years for various infractions and “intoxication”. In 1902, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in his favor in his lawsuit against the town to receive back wages withheld at the time of his discharge. In 1905, there was a vacancy in the department when Frank Foster resigned from the force to pursue his business interests. The Fire Commissioner, Burton W. Neal, was then lobbied by supporters of Jack Norton and Neal reinstated Norton with a position at Station G. where he worked until 1908 as a ladderman. Norton lived in Brookline with his widowed mother, never married, and died in 1910 at the age of 38 of pneumonia and alcohol-related causes.
[ref. Brookline Chronicle, pg.4, May 24, 1902]
[ref. Brookline Chronicle, pg.5, July 7, 1905]
[ref. Brookline Chronicle, pg.7, July 8, 1905]
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]
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Washington Sq. Engine #2 House
This station at 665 Washington St. is still active today as Fire Station No. 7. Shown is their Engine #2 steamer with Fay, driver, and John W. Manley, engineer. When the station was opened in 1900 the engine was relocated from the Devotion Engine House.
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Washington Sq. Engine #2 Combination 4 House
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Washington Sq. Engine #2 Combination 4 House, Snow Plow
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Washington Sq. Engine #2 Combination 4 House
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Clinton and Dean Rds.
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]
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Lower Washington St., circa 1875
Looking at the south side of Lower Washington St. High St. is just to the right. From left to right:
- Stores in the “White Block”
- Good Intent Hose Company No. 1
- Thomas Parsons Steam Fire Engine (pictured in front)
- Royal Woodward, Blacksmith
[Source: Brookline Public Library]
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Hose House #1, Brookline Village, 1891
Decorated, in a deliberately macabre fashion, for the annual Horribles Parade, 7/4/1891, for which it won the best-decorated building town prize.
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Lower Washington St., Brookline Village, circa 1898
Looking east at Lower Washington St. from Boylston St. This photo contains a rare view of the north side of Lower Washington St.
On the far left is the wooden structure known as the "Russell Block". From left to right it houses:
- [153 Washington St.] The kitchenware and variety store of Albert Levien. Levien was a Russian immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1882, at the age of nineteen. He first had a store just over the Boston border on Tremont St. but soon moved to this location in 1888. He lived upstairs for the first sixteen years and maintained the store for over thirty years.
- [145-147 Washington St.] The store with the three awnings is the provisions store of Thomas S. Brown
- [137-139 Washington St.] J. V. Pyne & Co., dry goods
The large brick building to the right of the Russell Block, 127-131 Washington St., houses Jacob Morlock's "Bakery, Restaurant, Provisions" with the Morlock Hotel on the upper floors.
On the right side of the photo, from right to left, the identifiable structures are Hose House #1/Ladder #2 followed by Sing Lee’s Laundry. Hook and Ladder Co. #2 was only briefly located here, between late 1897 to mid-1899, before moving to the fire station at 342 Washington St.
[Source: Digital Commonwealth]
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Good Intent Hose Company, Lower Washington St., Brookline Village
Start of Boylston St. to the right going west; lower Washington St. toward Boston to the left. Built in 1870. Forerunner of Hose House #1.
From stereoscope. "Engine and Hose House, Brookline. E.R. Hills, Photographer, Brookline Mass.” Gift of Natick Historical Society.
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Hose #1 House, Lower Washington St., Brookline Village, circa 1905
Formerly Good Intent Hose Company. Note mural in middle of façade.
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Lower Washington St., Brookline Village, circa 1905
The businesses viewed here, along the south side of Lower Washington St., were simultaneously sited at this location from 1904 - 1906. All the structures in this photo were demolished in 1907-1908 to make way for the new fire station which opened in 1909 and remains in use today. Note the man with his wheeled bucket, center photo, presumably scooping up horse droppings. Viewed from left to right:
- The business with the partial view of an awning is at the corner with Walnut St., the last building in this row. The best estimation is that it is the store of James Heleotis and John Sigalos Co., fruit [1904-1906]. The awning appears to advertise "Ice Cream Sodas" mirroring the sign at the corner entranceway visible in other photos.
- An enigmatic sign over the alleyway that seems to advertise a shooting gallery. This is currently unidentified.
- By the delivery wagon at #126 Washington St. are William Frawley, shoemaker [1889-1907]; and a bootblack, either W. L. Jacklin [1904] or Cromwell Felton [1905-1907].
- C. E. Riley, Cigars at #128 Washington St. [1900-1907]
- The awning at 134 Washington St. George W. Rix, Provisions and Transfer Market [1904-1907]
- Sing Lee, laundry, which was at #136 Washington St. for over 20 years [1883-1907]
- Hose House #1 and Chemical Engine #1 at #140 Washington St.
- P. J. Burns, Horse Shoe Forge at #144 Washington St. [1897-1907]
- Also at 144 Washington St. there remains a sign for R. Woodward who had a horse-shoeing business there from the 1860s until his death in 1892
- J. H. Pineo, carpenter and builder at 4 High St. (visible at corner of Washington St) [1901-1907]
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Fire Station #1, Brookline Village, circa 1908
Washington St. in foreground coming from Huntington Ave. Boston, looking west to Boylston St. Hose House #1 and adjacent buildings torn down. New station completed in 1908 and is still in use today.
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Fire Station #1, Brookline Village, 1909
Trolley station not yet evident.
From postcard mailed October 8, 1909 by Katie, 150 Cypress St. Brookline
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