First Light: Coolidge Corner Then & Now

Enjoy artists, musicians, and performers while visiting Brookline's fine shops as the annual First Light festival takes place this Thursday, November 20th, from 5 to 8 pm. And keep an eye out in Coolidge Corner for "Then & Now" posters showing selected locations as they looked  in the past.

There are 10 in all (listed below) with pictures, advertisements, and descriptions. They show and tell what shoppers of earlier generations found in the same storefronts we shop in today.

Eureka Puzzles' David Leschinsky, left, with the "Then & Now" poster in his store window. At right, poster in the window of Wild Goose Chase.

To learn more about the history of the Coolidge Corner shopping district, visit the Edward Devotion House at 347 Harvard Street on Thursday night. There will be a continuously-running 10-minute slideshow, and I'll be there to talk, listen, and share stories of Brookline's past. (The colonial Devotion House will also be open for tours.)

Coolidge Corner Then & Now Locations

Eureka Puzzles, 1349 Beacon Street

Wild Good Chase, 1355 Beacon Street
Paper Source, 1361 Beacon Street
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street
Panera Bread, 299 Harvard Street
Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard Street
Magic Beans, 312 Harvard Street
The Arcade Building, 314 Harvard Street
The Altman Block, 319 Harvard Street
Zaftigs, 335 Harvard Street

This project was funded by a grant from the Brookline Commission for the Arts. The Brookline Preservation Office was the source for many of the photos, while ads were found in directories and local newspapers in the Public Library of Brookline.