Brookline City Map Poster

About Brookline

Brookline was first settled in 1638 as a hamlet in Boston, but was incorporated as its own town in 1705. The area that would become Brookline was originally part of the Town of Boston. In 1707, the border between Boston and Roxbury (what is now Mission Hill) along Tremont Street (now called Washington Street) was extended to what is now St. Mary's Street; this created a narrow strip of land along which Brookline sits today – about wide from east to west and about long north to south. This strip corresponded roughly with present-day Harvard Square: Allston–Brighton–Newton line on one side and Kenmore Square – Packard's Corner – Longwood Medical Area on the other side; it also included parts of Brighton later annexed by Somerville (including Union Square).