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137 Six The Planning Context On February 25, 1889, Frederick Law Olmsted gave a talk at the Brookline Club about the history of roads and parkways, beginning with the earliest periods of Western civilization. According to the local newspaper, Olmsted related his reasons for moving to Brookline, remarking that it was an attractive place to live, efficiently managed, and very unlikely to be developed by “commercial interests,” adding, “How to preserve the topographical condition of the town is the most critical question of the time.” In what was presumably the central point of his talk, Olmsted “laid particular stress to the importance of laying out streets with an eye to the future and in advance of present needs.”1 The desire to preserve the residential character of Brookline by directing development is reflected in the firm’s roadway and subdivision projects. It also lies at the core of the work of Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. in his service on the Brookline Planning Board. Plans for boulevards and parkways, though mostly not carried out, guided the town to act in ways that anticipated future growth, especially in relatively undeveloped tracts south of Beacon Street. Similarly, the subdivision plans generated by the Olmsted firm worked to preserve the “topographical condition ” of the town. Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. and John Charles Olmsted set high standards, providing their fellow townspeople with an understanding of what was possible with good planning. By the early twentieth century, as development pressures accelerated with the popularity of the automobile, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. aimed to develop sound principles of city planning to regulate growth through zoning laws. That Frederick Law Olmsted and his two sons remained at 99 Warren Street while managing an office with projects throughout the country is testimony to the appeal of Brookline’s suburban character. Because of its close proximity to Boston, 138 V COM MUNITY BY DESIGN Brookline was experiencing development pressures in the 1880s. By that time the semirural character of the adjacent communities of Jamaica Plain (formerly part of Roxbury) and Brighton had been radically transformed with high-density working-class housing. The legacy of this change is visible today, principally in the survival of three-family housing, particularly the freestanding wood structures popularly known as “three-deckers.” The impact of the demand for this type of housing is evident in Brookline, especially along sections of Boylston Street (Route 9) and south of that road on Cypress Street in Brookline Village, although urban renewal projects during the early 1960s erased the full effect of the multitude of three-deckers built in Brookline in the late nineteenth century.2 Frederick Law Olmsted’s plan for the Riverside suburb of Chicago (with Calvert Vaux) is perhaps the most famous example of his vision of a scenic refuge from urban congestion. Even though no such plan was conceived for Brookline, the system of boulevards the firm worked on endorsed the concept that travel to and from work should afford some relaxation and scenic beauty. Indeed, the very notion recognized the importance of well-designed roads.3 One way to preserve Brookline’s traditional character as a town of predominantly single-family detached homes was to accommodate development in a way that facilitated easy access to and from the city for those who could afford their own means of transportation. In part this required a system of attractive roads leading directly to town. The impact of the streetcar on the suburb was also tested in Brookline, on Beacon Street. The plan by the Olmsted firm was for a boulevard that would include room for pleasure vehicles, not just a highway to enable commuters to travel to work and back. Brookline Boulevards and Parkways Like many of his Brookline neighbors, Olmsted was mindful that unplanned intensive multifamily development was disfiguring what had formerly been scenic suburbs nearby. In the late nineteenth century, Brookline rejected several attempts to incorporate the town as a neighborhood of the city of Boston. The annexation of the formerly independent adjacent towns of Brighton, Roxbury, and West Roxbury fueled Boston’s expansion as the largest city in Massachusetts. The citizens of Brookline resisted, even giving up land on the Charles River to provide a bridge between Brighton and Boston along what is now Commonwealth Avenue in 1874. The incorporation of neighboring towns, and the last serious effort to induce annexation, occurred before Olmsted decided to relocate to Brookline.4 Although the town preserved its independence, by the time he arrived, it was...

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