Brookline Take-Out a Century Ago

Brookline Chronicle, October 16, 1920
(Click image for larger view)

Most restaurants today offer take-out as well as dine-in options. That's been true for a long time. At the height of the pandemic, that was the only way restaurants could survive -- many did not -- and delivery services like GrubHub, DoorDash, and Uber Eats expanded their operations.

A century ago, take-out from restaurants was rare and delivery practically unheard of. But an unusual, though short-lived, Brookline business was ahead of its time.

Image credit: Massachusetts Historical Society

The Community Service Kitchen opened in the western half of a recently constructed commercial building at 1473-1475 Beacon Street in June 1919. Two months later, the business doubled in size, taking over the other half of the two-storefront building as well.

(I told last week how this unusual building -- the only single-story structure and only commercial building on Beacon Street between Coolidge Corner and Washington Square -- came to be.)

Roger Wheeler in 1919

The business was the brainchild of two young Newton brothers-in-law: Guy E. Wyatt and Roger A. Wheeler, both 23.  Wyatt had been in the leather business. (He joked that he "knows the cow thoroughly, inside and out.") Wheeler had left Columbia University to serve in the ambulance corps in World War I. (He was awarded the Croix de Guerre for his role in rescuing wounded French soldiers while under fire.)

The name "Community Service Kitchen" may sound like the kind of "soup kitchen" that served those in need, especially during the Great Depression that began a few years later. But it was not like that. 

Wyatt and Wheeler targeted middle- and upper-class women in Brookline, Newton, and the Back Bay.

"Let us save you the trouble and expense of cooking a hot meal every afternoon, and make it possible for you to sit down in the evening with your own family in the privacy of your own dining room to a delicious, hot, home-cooked dinner," they said in an article in the Brookline Chronicle.

 

"We can relieve you of the tiresome planning of meals, the trouble and labor of cooking them yourself, and make every afternoon the 'cook's day off' -- and we can do this at a lower cost to you than if you hire a cook at a present-day salary and give her board as well."

 
The meals were placed in aluminum containers "so constructed as to keep hot for several hours." (The article included a picture of the containers, shown below). 

 
The food was delivered by automobile, and the empty containers were picked up the next morning.

Two delivery vehicles of the Community Service Kitchen, their backs against the curb, are seen in front of the store in this photo. (Click image for a larger view). 

Image credit: Massachusetts Historical Society

"Every housewife can readily see the value of this service," wrote Wyatt and Wheeler. "No standing over a hot range all the afternoon; no worry about keeping the dinner hot and tasty, if Husband happens to come home a little later than usual; and, best of all, no greasy pots and pans to wash after dinner."

Pricing varied depending on how many meals were ordered in a week. Customers ordering meals less than four days a week paid the "casual rate": $1.25 per plate for weekday dinner; $1 per plate for weekday supper; $1.50 per plate for Sunday dinner. Customers placing orders for four or more days a week paid a discounted "regular rate."

This example of a daily dinner menu from the Community Service Kitchen appeared in the Boston Herald

The Community Service Kitchen was taken over in the fall of1923 by the Maddalena family who continued to operate it until 1926.

Brookline Chronicle, November 10, 1923

Brookline Chronicle, May 22, 1924

Other businesses followed, as outlined in last week's article, with carpet and rug stores occupying part or all of the space for more than 80 years. It has been home to a childcare center since the 2010s.
 

Wyatt and Wheeler, the founders of the Community Service Kitchen, pursued other careers after that early business venture. Wyatt got into public relations and government service. He was director of field service for the U.S. Department of Commerce in the 1950s. He died in 1964 at the age of 68. Wheeler became a writer and teacher who wrote plays for radio and local theater and hosted a radio program on WEEI. He was 61 when he died in 1956.

A Beacon Street Oddity

There is an unusual building on the south side of Beacon Street, just across from the inbound Brandon Hall stop on the MBTA Green Line. It's not particularly noteworthy architecturally. In fact, part of what makes the building stick out is its lack of notable architecture.

The small, plain, single-story storefront (1473-1475 Beacon Street) is the only one-story building and only strictly commercial building on Beacon Street between the Coolidge Corner and Washington Square commercial districts. It does stick out literally, extending several feet further toward the street than its taller neighbors.

This nondescript building, currently occupied by the School is Cool Academy, a childcare center, may be easy to overlook today. But it certainly wasn't when it was built, in 1915. In fact, it caused quite the furor in Brookline at the time.

Headline and image from an article in the Boston Transcript on May 26, 1915

"The building, jutting out from the others, like a sore thumb, not only completely destroys the symmetry of the street," reported the Boston Transcript, "but is regarded by competent real estate men as of serious effect on property values on either side."

 

"Nearly everybody who passed this spot by foot or by car," continued the paper, "has wondered how it was possible for the builder to work with such utter disregard for long-standing conditions and with such lack of respect for the dignity and beauty of one of the most excellent home sections of Brookline."
 

The building at 1473-1475 Beacon Street a few years afters its construction

The developer, H. Bertram Finer, had built several residential and commercial buildings in Brookline. When he bought this undeveloped property, a narrow alleyway between two of the apartment buildings, his intent was to construct a three-story apartment building. That would fit in well with the apartment buildings on either side of it, five to the east and two to the west, all built between 1897 and 1903. 

Restrictions imposed on the site by the town and the difficulty of building at the back, where the plot sloped toward todays' Griggs Park, led to a change of plans. 

These maps, from 1913 and 1919, show the empty alley and then the new building at 1473-1475 sticking further out on the sidewalk than the other buildings in the block. (The two sides of Beacon Street are at the top of the map, with the black and white lines representing the streetcar tracks.)

Finer, as well as the Board of Selectman that had approved his new plan, came under attack from other Beacon Street property owners. 

Headlines in the Boston Transcript on May 31 (left) and June 4, 1915

Finer was surprised. 

"I have never been accused of erecting cheap buildings until the present time," he told the Boston Transcript. "I don't like the accusation. In erecting the one-story building I had no idea of outraging the feelings of the abutters or anybody else who thinks of the city beautiful. If there is any way I can wash my hands of the whole thing. I am anxious to do it."

But the building remained -- and remains today -- an anomaly in this otherwise residential stretch of Beacon Street. Early tenants -- there were two storefronts, later combined into one -- included a plumbing and heating contractor and an upholsterer/interior decorator. 

There were a number of food-related businesses in the 1920s and 1930s, including an unusual (for its time) restaurant called the Community Service Kitchen that offered home-delivery of hot meals in special containers. (That's an interesting story that I'll cover in a separate post next week.)

But for most of its history, the building has been home to rug stores. Brookline Oriental Rugs and, later, Fine Art Rugs occupied all or part of the space from the late 1920s to the early 2010s when it was taken over by the School is Cool childcare center. 

The Community Service Kitchen, an eat-in and delivery restaurant, c1920.

The Brand Spa, an ice cream shop, delicatessen, and convenience store in the 1930s. 1473 and 1475 Beacon Street had been combined into one store by this time, but the original separate entrances are clearly visible at left and right.

This image from a 1951 ad for the Brookline Oriental Rug Co. shows the then newly installed angled entrance that is still in place today.

Fine Arts Rug as seen in Google Street View in 2010, shortly before the space was taken over by the School is Cool Academy

School is Cool Academy in 2024

A Brookline Fountain for Horse and Dogs

An elaborate drinking fountain for horses and dogs, exactly like these examples in present-day Charlottesville, Virginia (left) and Quebec City, Canada (right) once graced a prominent location in Brookline Village. 

There are many photos of the intersection of Washington and Harvard Streets in Brookline Village (officially called Harvard Square). Together they present a picture of more than 150 years of change  in the center of the town's oldest still-thriving commercial district. 

One of our favorites here at the Brookline Historical Society is this photo from around 1908. (A larger, zoomable version is on our website. Check it out to view the photo in much more detail.)

Almost all of the buildings in the photo are still standing, making the location easily recognizable. (The major exception is the nearer of the two church spires. It burned on New Year's Eve 1960-61.)

 On the left of the photo is the Rhodes Brothers grocery store in a building that was constructed in 1905. The building still stands, though it has lost some of its ornamentation. Rhodes Brothers occupied the space until after World War II when it became New England Food Fair. A bank and a health club are in the space today.

There is plenty of activity in the street. On the left a woman and boy are crossing the square behind a cart, one of several horse-drawn vehicles in the picture. (There are no automobiles, although automobiles were increasingly seen in town by this time.) On the right, workmen are replacing bricks in the pavement in front of James Rooney's shoe shop and the Rooney Block of three buildings.

One woman appears to have just disembarked from a streetcar coming down Harvard Street while another is about to board. (There are tracks coming down Washington Street, as well.) Elsewhere in the photo men, women, and children can be seen crossing the street, walking on the sidewalk, or standing in front of various stores.

One of the most delightful elements of the whole picture is the horse, at the front of a cheese delivery wagon, drinking from a fountain in front of Rhodes Brothers right in the middle of the photo.

Amid all of this activity, one thing we did not pay much attention to was the fountain itself.

Until now.

A Widespread and Award-Winning Design
While looking through issues of the Brookline Chronicle on microfilm in the basement of the main library recently, I came across an article from July 16, 1887. It provides an illustration and a detailed description of the new fountain to be placed "in a prominent place in Harvard Square." (See the full article at the bottom of this page.)

A cast iron column, reported the Chronicle,

....supports a larger or upper basin (which holds 40 gallons), at a height of four feet three inches above street grade, or at sufficient height for horses to drink with ease, without the driver being obliged to uncheck them. At the top and in the centre of this basin is an ornamented post. At the base of the post, four mythical aquatic figures are attached, and from the mouths of these the water flows into the larger basin. The waste water supplies the dog trough below. 

These closeup views of the Charlottesville, Virginia, fountain show the spouts shooting water into the upper basin (left) for horses and the lower trough (right) with water for dogs and other small animals. The same design was on the Brookline Village  fountain.

The Brookline fountain, noted the article, was manufactured by Henry F. Jenks of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Its design had won awards from the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Assocation and the Cotton Centennial Exhibition in New Orleans. Copies could be found in different parts of the country and as far away as Copenhagen, Denmark and Adelaide, Australia.

Looking up Henry F. Jenks I found three articles on the excellent Memorial Drinking Fountains blog where I first saw the pictures from Charlottesville and Quebec City. You can read more on that blog about the Charlottesville and Quebec fountains. There is a third article about another example in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (There is no photo of the Cambridge fountain, which is no longer there, but the same illustration as appeared in the Chronicle is shown, only this time with a lamp attached to the top of the post.)

Another good source is an article about Jenks and his fountains in the January 2018 newsletter of the Blackstone Valley Historical Society. It includes a photo (right) of Jenks with one of his fountains in an unidentified location.

Other sources mention Jenks fountains of this and other designs in Pawtucket, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Menominee, Michigan. The trade journal Building Age in 1885 described a Jenks fountain that provided people with ice water through a system involving ice cubes in a specially designed ice box with coils of tin-lined pipe.

One of these ice water drinking fountains was dedicated in Boston's Bowdoin Square in August 1889. The Boston Globe reported that:

"The ceremonies, which lasted about an hour, were witnessed and participated in by a large crowd that blocked the street from curb to curb."

The End of the Brookline Fountain...and One More Surprise
The 1887 Chronicle article tells us when the Brookline Village Jenks fountain was installed. (An earlier photo shows a simpler, less ornamental watering trough at the same location.) It's uncertain when the fountain was removed. It can be seen in photos as late as 1915, but probably did not last much beyond that date as gas-guzzling automobiles replaced water-guzzling horses on the streets of the town.

One of the joys of local history research is the way serendipitous discoveries, like the Chronicle article, lead in unexpected directions, like the story of the Brookline fountain, Henry Jenks, and the fountains he designed in the U.S and around the world.

In this case, I had one more surprise in store. While working on this blog post, I remembered seeing another fountain, a small element in a large photograph of Beacon Street looking east from the tower of the S.S. Pierce Building. (We obtained the photo, taken some time between 1903 and 1907, from the Iowa State University Library.)

On the right side of the photo, between the sidewalk and the street, there's another fountain, easy to overlook amid the dramatic view of still largely undeveloped Beacon Street and the streetcar shelters. Here it is in closeup:

It certainly appears to be same design as the Brookline Village fountain. Fortunately, there's an even better view, this one from the collection of the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site.

This view is a section of a larger photo of Coolidge Corner. (The automobile has just come north on Harvard Street and is turning east onto Beacon Street.) It leaves no doubt; Brookline had two Henry Jenks designed horse-and-dog fountains in town.

Photo credits: 

• Charlottesville and Quebec City fountains: Memorial Drinking Fountains blog. https://memorialdrinkingfountains.wordpress.com/
• Fountain illustration: Brookline Chronicle, microfilm, Public Library of Brookline
• Closeups of Charlottesville fountain: Creative Commons License, Bill McChesney. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bsabarnowl/2759649151/in/album-72157606988713083/
• Henry F. Jenks with fountain: Blackstone Valley Historical Society Archives. http://www.bvhsri.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/01-18-Newsletter.pdf
• Beacon Street looking east: Iowa State University Library Special Collections. http://cdm16001.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15031coll16/id/6353/rec/6
• Coolidge Corner fountain with automobile: National Park Service. Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site. https://www.flickr.com/photos/olmsted_archives/14868761718/
• All other photos from the Brookline Historical Society

Brookline Chronicle, July 16, 1887

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An Echo of S.S. Pierce in Coolidge Corner

Like many people, I was curious — and a little concerned — in the summer of 2016 when Walgreens announced it was closing its store in the S.S. Pierce Building in Coolidge Corner.  What would take its place in the most recognizable of all buildings in Brookline, an iconic structure that has stood at the heart of the town's busiest intersection since 1898?

I'll confess I wasn't thrilled when I heard it was going to be another bank. Banks already occupied two of the four corners at the intersection of Beacon and Harvard Streets: Bank of America in a 1930 building on the southeast corner (originally the Boulevard Trust); and Capital One's coffee shop/bank in a 1950 building on the southwest corner. But at least this was going to be a local bank with long and deep connections to the community.

The S.S. Piece Building in 1906. The original tower was damaged in a storm in 1944 and replaced the following year.

The work being done inside the former Walgreens was hidden from view for months. But the bank gave an indication of its appreciation for history and quality by hiding the construction behind high-gloss color photos of the building and the neighborhood (replacing the brown paper that had covered the windows after Walgreens left). They also added the bank's name in gold letters flanking the name of the building above the entrance, much like what had been there in the days of the S.S. Pierce store.

Corner entrance to the S.S. Pierce Building in 1906 and in 2017.

I finally got a look at the interior when the bank opened in the summer of 2017. The colors, lighting, and openness of the space were impressive. But it was the elliptical shape, topped by a brightly lit rotunda ceiling that really caught my attention. It makes a grand space out of a relatively small footprint, more than fitting for its iconic location. I was very pleased.

Brookline Bank, Coolidge Corner. (Photo courtesy of Torrey Architecture)

Months later, my appreciation for the design grew even stronger. It began with a serendipitous discovery in the microfilm of the Brookline Chronicle newspaper on the lower level of the Brookline Library. While researching something else entirely — ice skating in Brookline, if you must know — I came across a 1949 advertisement for S.S. Pierce with three views of the interior of the store. I don't think I'd ever seen interior views of the S.S. Pierce store before that.

The quality of the images on the microfilm was very poor. But one thing was very clear from the middle of the three photos: the central space was round with a rotunda ceiling. It's apparent in the shapes of the ceiling, the wall, and the counter in the photo.

Rotunda of the S.S. Pierce store as seen in a 1949 advertisement in the Brookline Chronicle

Was the design of the new bank a deliberate homage to the historic design of the old Pierce store? Had the architect been aware that there had been a rotunda there in the past, either through plans or photos or existing architectural elements of the space itself?

To find out, I wrote to David Torrey of Torrey Architecture who designed this space (and many others for Brookline Bank). David was surprised (and as delighted as I was) to learn that there had been a rotunda in the space in the past. "I only saw the empty Walgreens space with its field of columns when I arrived at the site with Brookline Bank!," he wrote.

The former Walgreens space before its conversion to the Brookline Bank (Photo courtesy of Torrey Architecture)

He then gave me this detailed description of "how I coincidentally came to design my version of a rotunda in that same location."

The program from Brookline Bank was to welcome customers into a friendly lobby with all the bankers visible to the customer on arrival. We shaped these glassy offices and teller line to allow this visual interaction to occur, and to provide a glimpse from the sidewalk at the activity inside through the art gallery facing Harvard Ave. But I also wanted to create a sense of arrival and grandeur, evoking the Brookline Savings Bank’s original lobby on the corner of Washington and Boylston in Brookline Village. (The bank let go of this building as their headquarters when we redesigned 131 Clarendon Street in Boston as the Brookline Bancorp headquarters.)

My challenge in redesigning the pivotal retail space at the S.S.Pierce Building was to carve out an open area for a lobby out of the field of columns which had to remain for structural reasons. This was done using a central ellipse surrounded by another elliptical ring that incorporated three columns and allowed an ambulatory corridor for access to the offices. But a plaster ceiling would be too loud for acoustical privacy, and I was aiming for a quiet library-like feel. So a plaster ceiling was out of the question, and a standard rectilinear acoustical tiled ceiling with downlights or even a surrounding cove would be a disappointment within an ellipse. 

So for acoustics and lighting we specified a stretched fabric ceiling, this one from Newmat, a European system being introduced recently in the USA. We built the rotunda coffer, lined it with acoustical batts spaced between rows of LED lights and the result is a daylit, quiet space in a modern deco-inspired composition giving the feel of a dome but made with flat surfaces and stepped plaster rings. My inspiration was also the still-standing Roman Pantheon with its central oculus open to the sky.

The Pantheon in Rome (left) and the former Brookline Bank headquarters (right) in Brookline Village (now a medical marijuana dispensary) were both inspirations for David Torrey in his design for the new Coolidge Corner branch of the bank.

Coolidge Corner is going through a lot of change of late. Several businesses have closed their doors, including Pier One, Lady Grace, Vitamin World, Radio Shack, Panera Bread, and others. (Panera is being replaced by the Gen Sou En Japanese tea house. I'll have more about that space in a later post.)

Amid all this change, it's nice to know that the most iconic space of all has found a worthy replacement.

NOTE: Brookline Bank is not taking up all of the space in the S.S. Pierce Building formerly used by Walgreens. Oath Pizza moved in on the Harvard Street side even before the bank opened. It joins Paris Creperie and Coolidge Corner Opticians, both longstanding tenants on that side of the building. The newest addition, Allium Market on the Beacon Street side, is another echo of the building's past. It sells high-end specialty foods much like its predecessor S.S. Pierce (and even like the Coolidge & Brother store that stood in a different building at this location before that.)

Gillette & Sias Mansions, Beacon Street

This stretch of land on the north side of Beacon Street just west of Lancaster Terrace would be unrecognizable today except for the stone wall, which still stands. It is now the site of the apartment building at 1550 Beacon, built for senior housing in the 1970s, and Temple Beth Zion at 1566 Beacon, completed in 1948.

(Note: This article first appeared in Brookline Patch as part of a biweekly series of historical images of Brookline from the Brookline Historical Society and the Public Library of Brookline.)

 
The two large houses formerly on the site were associated, at different times, with the heads of two well-known consumer product companies. The house on the left was the home from 1907 to 1913 of King C. Gillette, inventor of the safety razor and founder of the company that bears his name. It was torn down in 1944. The house on the right was built by Charles D. Sias, a senior partner in the Chase & Sanborn coffee company. A later owner moved it up the hill to Mason Terrace, where it remains today.

A present-day view of the site, via Google Street View, is below.

Both houses were built after the 1880s expansion of Beacon Street from a narrow country lane to a wide boulevard, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and with trolleys providing easy access to Boston. The older of the two is the Sias house, built in 1889 for Charles Sias, who began as a salesman with Chase & Sanborn before rising to become senior partner with the firm. It was designed by Arthur Vinal who was also the architect of the Richardsonian Romanesque High Service Building at the Chestnut Hill Reservoir, now condominiums and the Waterworks Museum, and the gatehouse at what is now Fisher Hill Reservoir Park.

The next owner, lumber company executive Frederick McQuestern, had the house moved up the hill to 41 Mason Terrace, shown below.

 

King Gillette

The Gillette house was built in 1892 for Benjamin Lombard Jr., a banker and real estate executive. It was designed by the architectural firm of Little, Brown, & Moore, which also designed the main house of the Brandegee Estate in South Brookline. King Gillette purchased the house for his family in 1907 and lived there until 1913 when they moved to Los Angeles.

Gillette had first come to Brookline in 1895 when he was a salesman for the Crown Cork Company, maker of disposable bottle caps. It was while living here that he came up with the idea for the safety razor, as described by Gillette himself in a company magazine in 1918:

"I was living in Brookline at No. 2 Marion Terrace at the time [1895],” he wrote, "and as I said before I was consumed with the thought of inventing something that people would use and throw away and buy again. On one particular morning when I started to shave I found my razor dull, and it was not only dull but it was beyond the point of successful stropping and it needed honing, for which it must be taken to a barber or to a cutler. As I stood there with the razor in my hand, my eyes resting on it as lightly as a bird settling down on its nest—the Gillette razor was born.”

It took years of experimentation to solve the technical difficulties involved in producing the kind of razor Gillette had in mind, but a patent was granted in 1904 and sales took off, making Gillette a great financial success and a household name. Three years later he bought the Beacon Street house.

A close look at a section of the stone wall in the old and new photos (below) makes it possible to pick out individual stones. This section is to the right of the tree in the modern image and further to the right in the older one.

Christmas Candy Made in Brookline

Christmas shoppers in Brookline a century ago could pick up "a box of solid goodness and pleasure",  chocolates and other candies made right in Coolidge Corner by the Farquharson Candy Company.

Advertisement, Boston Globe, December 22, 1922

 The Farquharson company opened for business in 1914 in a brand new building (still standing) at the northwest corner of Beacon and Centre Streets.  William J. Farquharson had worked as a confectioner for more than 20 years at Page & Shaw and later at Bailey's, both on West Street in Boston. His factory and store took up about half of the building. Farquharson leased space at first and purchased the building in 1919.

The Farquharson Building at the corner of Beacon and Centre Streets
(Image via Google Street View)

The retail operation took up the corner spot, #1366 Beacon Street, now occupied by the Yasu Korean & Japanese restaurant Hamilton Restaurant & Bar. Additional stores were opened in Allston, Brighton, and Dorchester, with all of the candies made at the Brookline headquarters.

Advertisement, Boston Post, December 17, 1920

Classified ad, Boston Globe, October 2, 1919

A January 1924 fire that started in the basement destroyed the candy factory and the store and damaged three other stores in the building. Ammonia fumes from a cooling system inside Farquharson's added to the difficulties firefighters faced in extinguishing the fire. The contents of the store as they burned made for a spectacular scene, as described the next day in the Boston Globe.

The breaking through of the flames in the candy store presented a remarkable effect. It appeared as though the lighting system had been suddenly turned on. The artistic displays, the gay colored candy boxes and glass jars, trays of candy, little jazz dolls and other bright decorations stood out in bold relief as the flames whipped about them.

After the fire, the store presented an entirely different picture. The chocolates and other softer molds of candy were a melted mass, the firmer brands of candy alone withstanding the tremendous heat.

Farquharson's rebuilt after the fire, expanding the second floor of the building and adding about 50% more floor space to the store. Candy manufacturing was moved to Brighton although ice cream continued to be made on site. The Brookline Chronicle described the new interior after its reopening in July 1924:

The inside finish, including that of the booths, which are a new feature in this concern's stores, is of gumwood, and the walls are of cream-colored plaster of Georgian design. A most unusual and attractive tile floor has been laid, and the soda fountain has been doubled in size, providing plenty of room for the employees to carefully handle the wants of the customers. Leaded glass sliding windows protect the window displays, and most pleasing and restful prism chandeliers furnish the lighting effect. The ceiling is beamed and prism-effect mirrors are built into the walls behind the fountain.

The Brookline store was sold in 1929 to the St. Clair's chain of candy stores/soda fountains. Farquharson Candy continued to operate at its other locations for a few more years.

St. Clair's, which had had a store on Temple Place in Boston since the late 19th century, remained at 1366 Beacon Street until the late 1950s. Like Farquharson's, St. Clair's advertised its candies as an ideal gift at Christmas, as seen in the 1933 ad below.

Advertisement, Boston Globe, December 21, 1933

The Farquharson company continued to own the building, leasing space to St. Clair's and others, until 1951. William Farquharson died in 1955 at the age of 80.

Beaconsfield Terraces Walking Tour: Sunday, 10 am

Frances Terrace, Beacon and Tappan Sts.

The Beaconsfield Terraces, on the south side of Beacon Street from Dean Road to just beyond Tappan Street, were one of the more unusual developments to follow the creation of the Beacon Street boulevard in the 1880s.

Built by Eugene Knapp, a wool merchant, in the early 1890s the terraces were a residential complex in which people owned their units but shared ownership of a 6-acre park, stables, a playhouse (known as the Casino), tennis courts, a playground, and a central heating plant.

A bell system connected the houses to the stables so that people could call for their horse and carriage. Today, only the residential buildings (Richter, Frances, Marguerite, Fillmore, Gordon, and Parkman Terraces) remain.

Learn more about the Beaconsfield Terraces in this one-hour walking tour, Sunday, April 6th, at 10 am. The tour begins — rain or shine — outside the Star Market at 1717 Beacon Street. For more information, contact the Brookline Historical Society: 617-566-3747 or brooklinehistory@gmail.com.

.

Richter Terrace, Beacon St. and Dean Rd.

Ghost Building #4 Revealed

The gas station shown below, which began as an auto supply store in 1922, stood at 720 Washington Street, just north of Beacon Street behind what is now the Fireplace restaurant. (The auto supply business actually began in the space now occupied by the restaurant, in 1917.)

The building was torn down in 1998 and replaced by a parking lot. But the cupola from the gas station was saved through the efforts of Barbara Soifer, long-time owner of The Little Swiss House jewelry store.  (Soifer was know as "the mayor of Washington Square" for her efforts to reshape and promote the neighborhood.)

Soifer's dream to restore the cupola was not realized before her death from cancer in 2009. But friends and neighbors saw her idea through to fruition, and the cupola was installed in 2010 on the Beacon Street median, across from the Fireplace, and dedicated in Soifer's memory on First Light 2011.

• "Barbara Soifer, fierce advocate for Washington Square, dies." Wicked Local Brookline, May 18, 2009
• "Friends, neighbors to restore gas station cupola in Brookline merchant's memory." Wicked Local Brookline, October 15, 2009
• "A new icon for Washington Square." Brookline Patch, November 28, 2010