Brookline, MA Real Estate
Geography
Brookline borders Newton (part of Middlesex County) to the west and Boston (part of Suffolk County) to the east, north, south, northwest, and southwest; it is therefore non-contiguous with any other part of Norfolk County. Brookline became an exclave in 1873 when the neighboring town of West Roxbury was annexed by Boston (and left Norfolk County to join Suffolk County) and Brookline refused to be annexed by Boston after the Brookline-Boston annexation debate of 1873.
Brookline actually separates the bulk of the city of Boston (except for a narrow neck near the Charles River) from its westernmost neighborhoods of Allston/Brighton, which had been the separate town of Brighton until annexed by Boston in 1873.
History
Once part of Algonquian territory, Brookline was first settled by European colonists in the early 1600s. The area was an outlying part of the colonial settlement of Boston and known as the hamlet of Muddy River. In 1705, it incorporated as the independent town of Brookline. The northern and southern borders of the town were marked by two small rivers or brooks, hence the name. The northern border with Brighton (which was itself part of Cambridge until 1807) was Smelt Brook. (That name appears on maps starting at least as early as 1852, but sometime between 1888 and 1925 the brook was covered over.) The southern border, with Boston, was the Muddy River.
The city of Brighton was merged with Boston in 1874, and the Boston-Brookline border was redrawn to connect the new Back Bay neighborhood with Allston-Brighton. This created a narrow strip of land along the Charles River belonging to Boston, cutting Brookline off from the shoreline. It also put certain lands north of the Muddy River on the Boston side, including what are now Kenmore Square and Packard's Corner. The current northern border follows Commonwealth Avenue, and on the northeast, St. Mary's Street. When the Emerald Necklace of parks and parkways was designed for Boston by Frederick Law Olmsted in the 1890s, the Muddy River was integrated into the Riverway and Olmsted Park, creating parkland accessible by both Boston and Brookline residents.
Demographics
As of the 2000 census, there were 57,107 people, 25,594 households, and 12,233 families residing in the town. The racial makeup of the town was 81.08% White, 2.74% Black or African American, 0.12% Native American, 12.83% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 1.01% from other races, and 2.18% from two or more races. 3.53% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
The median income for a family was $92,993. Males had a median income of $56,861 versus $43,436 for females. The per capita income for the town was $44,327. About 4.5% of families and 9.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.3% of those under age 18 and 7.5% of those age 65 or over.
Education
The town is served by the Public Schools of Brookline. The student body at Brookline High School includes students from more than 50 different countries. Many students attend Brookline High from surrounding, neighborhoods in Boston, such as Mission Hill and Mattapan, via the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) system.
There are eight elementary schools in the Brookline Public School system: Baker, Devotion, Driscoll, Heath School, Lawrence, Lincoln, Pierce, and Runkle. As of December 2006, there were 6,089 K-12 students enrolled in the Brookline public schools. The system includes one early learning center, eight grades K-8 schools, and one comprehensive high school.
The student body is 66.1% White, 17.7% Asian, 9.9% Black, 5.9% Hispanic, and 0.4% other. Approximately 30% of students come from homes where English is not the first language.
Transportation
Brookline runs through the MBTA Green Line D train. The train runs on the old rails that were laid down in the streets of Brookline that held the old street cars.