Editing Brookline, Massachusetts (section)

==History==
[[File:Dorchester 1858.jpg|thumb|right|This 1858 map of north-central Norfolk County, shows Brookline (upper left) along with Dorchester, Roxbury, and West Roxbury, all three of which were later annexed by Boston.]]

Once part of [[Algonquian peoples|Algonquian]] territory, Brookline was first settled by [[White people|European]] colonists in the early 17th century. The area was an outlying part of the colonial settlement of Boston and known as the hamlet of Muddy River. In 1705, it was incorporated as the independent town of Brookline. It was bounded by a section of the [[Charles River]] between the [[Daylighting (streams)|now covered]] Smelt Brook in the west and the [[Muddy River (Massachusetts)|Muddy River]] in the east.

In 1843, a [[Racially restrictive covenants|racially restrictive covenant]] in Brookline forbade resale of property to "any [[Housing discrimination in the United States|negro]] or [[Anti-Irish sentiment#"No Irish need apply"|native of Ireland]]."<ref>{{cite book|last=Rothstein|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Rothstein|title=The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America|title-link=The Color of Law|year=2017|place=New York|publisher=[[Boni & Liveright|Liveright Publishing Corporation]]|page=78|isbn=978-1631494536}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Santucci|first=Larry|title=How Prevalent Were Racially Restrictive Covenants in 20th Century Philadelphia? A New Spatial Data Set Provides Answers|series=Discussion Papers (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia)|year=2019|publisher=[[Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia]]|page=7
|url=https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/frbp/assets/consumer-finance/discussion-papers/dp19-05.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418081957/https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/frbp/assets/consumer-finance/discussion-papers/dp19-05.pdf |archive-date=April 18, 2021 |url-status=live
|access-date=May 28, 2023
|doi=10.21799/frbp.dp.2019.05|s2cid=212806978}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Documenting Racially Restrictive Covenants in 20th Century Philadelphia |url=https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/cityscpe/vol22num3/ch11.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201221151046/https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/cityscpe/vol22num3/ch11.pdf |archive-date=December 21, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The Town of [[Brighton, Boston|Brighton]] was merged with Boston in 1874, and the Boston-Brookline border was redrawn to connect the new Back Bay neighborhood with Allston-Brighton. Boston annexed the strip of land along the Charles River, cutting Brookline off from the shoreline. The current northern border follows Commonwealth Avenue, and on the northeast, St. Mary's Street. When [[Frederick Law Olmsted]] designed the [[Emerald Necklace]] of parks and parkways for Boston in the 1890s, the Muddy River was integrated into the [[Riverway]] and [[Olmsted Park]], creating parkland accessible by both Boston and Brookline residents.

Throughout its history, Brookline has resisted being annexed by Boston, in particular during the [[Boston–Brookline annexation debate of 1873]]. The neighboring towns of [[West Roxbury]] and [[Hyde Park, Boston|Hyde Park]] connected Brookline to the rest of Norfolk County until they were annexed by Boston in 1874 and 1912, respectively, putting them in [[Suffolk County, Massachusetts|Suffolk County]]. Brookline is now separated from the remainder of Norfolk County.

Brookline has long been regarded as a pleasant and verdant environment. In the 1841 edition of the ''Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening'', Andrew Jackson Downing described the area this way:
{{blockquote|The whole of this neighborhood of Brookline is a kind of landscape garden, and there is nothing in America of the sort, so inexpressibly charming as the lanes which lead from one cottage, or villa, to another. No animals are allowed to run at large, and the open gates, with tempting vistas and glimpses under the pendent boughs, give it quite an Arcadian air of rural freedom and enjoyment. These lanes are clothed with a profusion of trees and wild shrubbery, often almost to the carriage tracks, and curve and wind about, in a manner quite bewildering to the stranger who attempts to thread them alone; and there are more hints here for the lover of the picturesque in lanes than we ever saw assembled together in so small a compass.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/plants/bonsai/beginnings.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070202082944/http://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/plants/bonsai/beginnings.html|url-status=dead|title=Arnold Arboretum Website|archive-date=February 2, 2007}}</ref>}}

Brookline residents were among the first in the country to propose extending the vote to women. [[Benjamin F. Butler]], in his 1882 campaign for governor, advocated the idea.<ref>John Gould Curtis, History of the Town of Brookline Massachusetts, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, 1933, pg.305</ref>

===Transportation history===
Two branches of upper [[Boston Post Road]], established in the 1670s, passed through Brookline. Brookline Village was the original center of retail activity.<ref>[http://www.town.brookline.ma.us/Planning/brooklinevillage.html Brookline Village] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008104829/http://www.town.brookline.ma.us/Planning/brooklinevillage.html |date=October 8, 2007 }}</ref> In 1810, the Boston and Worcester Turnpike, now [[Massachusetts Route 9]], was laid out, starting on [[Huntington Avenue]] in Boston and passing through the village center on its way west.

Steam railroads came to Brookline in the middle of the 19th century. The [[Boston and Worcester Railroad]] was constructed in the early 1830s, and passed through Brookline near the Charles River. The rail line is still in active use, now paralleled by the [[Massachusetts Turnpike]]. The Highland branch of the [[Boston and Albany Railroad]] was built from Kenmore Square to Brookline Village in 1847, and was extended into Newton in 1852. In the late 1950s, this became the [[Green Line D branch]].

The portion of Beacon Street west of Kenmore Square was laid out in 1850. [[Streetcar]] tracks were laid above ground on Beacon Street in 1888, from [[Coolidge Corner]] to [[Massachusetts Avenue (metropolitan Boston)|Massachusetts Avenue]] in Boston, via Kenmore Square.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.brooklinehistoricalsociety.org/history/presComm/beaconSt.asp|title=History of Beacon St.|website=Brooklinehistoricalsociety.org|access-date=October 24, 2019}}</ref> In 1889, they were electrified and extended over the Brighton border at [[Cleveland Circle]]. They would eventually become the [[Green Line C branch]].

Due to the [[Boston Elevated Railway]] system, this upgrade from [[horse-drawn carriage]] to electric trolleys occurred on many major streets all over the region, and made transportation into downtown Boston faster and cheaper. Much of Brookline was developed into a [[streetcar suburb]], with large, brick apartment buildings sprouting up along the new streetcar lines.

===Housing and zoning history===
Brookline has a history of [[racial covenant]]s that blocked people of color and some ethnic minorities to own housing there. In the early 20th century, Brookline banned the construction of [[Three-decker (house)|triple-decker housing]], which was a form of housing popular with poor immigrant communities in the United States. Advocates for the ban justified the ban with anti-immigrant rhetoric.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Brookline homes: One wealthy liberal town reckons with its past |url=https://apps.bostonglobe.com/2023/10/special-projects/spotlight-boston-housing/brookline-identity-crisis/ |access-date=November 9, 2023 |website=The Boston Globe}}</ref>

In 1922, [[Prescott F. Hall]], a Brookline resident who co-founded the [[Immigration Restriction League]], petitioned the Brookline government to exclusively allow single-family housing. In 1924, the Brookline government enacted a zoning change to only permit single-family housing in most of the territory of Brookline. Many of the present-day apartment buildings in Brookline were constructed prior to this zoning change.<ref name=":0" />

In 1970, the [[Rent control in Massachusetts|state authorized rent control]] in municipalities with more than 50,000 residents.<ref name=enacted>{{cite web | url = https://rentcontrolhistory.com/chapters/rent-control-was-enacted-in-1920/ | title = Rent control was enacted in 1920. | publisher = Mass Landlords, Inc | accessdate = January 3, 2024 }}</ref> Brookline, Lynn, Somerville, and Cambridge subsequently adopted rent control.{{r|enacted}} Brookline began decontrolling units in 1991.<ref name=once>{{Cite news | title = Once Rejected by Voters, Rent Control Back on the Table in Massachusetts | date = January 13, 2020 | publisher = NewBostonPost | first = Tom |last = Joyce }}</ref>

Brookline has a recent history of blocking multifamily housing construction. Since the 1970s, new housing construction has plunged in Brookline. It has enacted zoning changes that ban multifamily apartment buildings and limit the height of buildings. Proposals for new development frequently face onerous lawsuits. These restrictions on housing supply have led housing prices in Brookline to skyrocket in recent decades. In 2023, the median sale price for a single-family home in Brookline was $2.51 million, and the median condo price was $927,500.<ref name=":0" />

As a consequence of restrictions on housing supply, Brookline is overwhelmingly wealthy. Only 2.5% of its population is Black, which is the second-lowest share of Black people in any community in the Boston area. Only 14% of Brookline teachers, 21% of Brookline police, and 22% of Brookline firefighters live in Brookline, as median salaries for these kinds of jobs make [[Workforce housing|housing]] in Brookline largely unaffordable.<ref name=":0" />

===Etymology===
Brookline was known as the hamlet of '''Muddy River''' and was considered part of Boston until the Town of Brookline was independently incorporated in 1705. (The [[Muddy River (Massachusetts)|Muddy River]] was used as the Brookline–Boston border at incorporation.) The name is said to derive from a farm therein once owned by Judge [[Samuel Sewall]].<ref>{{cite book
| author = Dudley, Dean (1871)
| title =Brookline, Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury Directory for 1871; Containing a General Directory of the Residents, Town Registers, Business Directory, Map, &c., &c.
| year = 1871
| publisher=Dean Dudley & Co.
| location =  Boston
| pages = 15–16
| quote = The name of Brookline came, as the late Rev. Samuel Sewall (great grandson of Judge Samuel Sewall) conjectures, from one of the farms within its bounds, namely the Gates' farm, hired of Judge Sewall, which was probably called Brookline because Smelt Brook, running through it, formed the line between that and one of the neighboring farms, and this brook also separated that farm from Cambridge.  Judge Sewall, in his journal, often mentions the name "Brookline" before the town was incorporated.  Rev. Mr. S. also thinks it was Judge Sewall who suggested that name for the town.}}</ref> Originally, the property of CPT [[John Hull (merchant)|John Hull]] and Judith Quincy Hull. Judge Sewall came into possession of this tract, which embraced more than 350 acres, through Hannah Quincy Hull (Sewall) who was the Hull's only daughter. John Hull in his youth lived in Muddy River Hamlet, in a little house which stood near the Sears Memorial Church. Hull removed to Boston, where he amassed a large fortune for those days. Judge Sewall probably never lived on his Brookline estate.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.brooklinehistoricalsociety.org/history/proceedings/1903/1903_Sewall.html|title=1903 Proceedings of the Brookline Historical Society|website=Brooklinehistoricalsociety.org}}</ref>