Corey Hill, turn of the century

Shepard

Shepard

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2009
Messages
3,518
Reaction score
65
corey_hillLarge.jpg


This was approximately the view from my window 100 years ago over Beacon Street (@ Fairbanks/Lancaster) ... Can anyone identify any of these large gothic buildings - especially the 'castle' on the left? Are they still standing? I can't find anything on aerial views or street view that suggest anything of similar scale...

Here's another one from Aspinwall Hill (behind the SW corner of Washington Square):

gs_40Large.jpg
 
Kinda surreal that those rowhouses were built right up against fields.
 
That high-rise looks to have replaced the mansion, while those townhouses still exist, albeit in heavily altered states.

jfjew.jpg
 
czsz said:
Kinda surreal that those rowhouses were built right up against fields.
Click to expand...

They knew how to build cities back then. You build city elements and eventually you get a city. You can see the same thing when you walk around JP/Mission Hill where there are groups of post-Civil War era row houses in between more suburban tripple-deckers and Queen Anne detached houses.
 
I'm guessing the pics came from the Brookline Historical Society. It's a great website, but be warned: it'll gobble up at least an hour of your time! (I know this from personal experience).

Here's a few more from the BHS-----

1888, Just west of Washington Square, Beacon Street is on the left and Winthrop Road at right

brookline1888beaconlwin.jpg


And Washington Square and Corey Hill circa 1900

brookline1890scorey.jpg
 
^ Three hours on my end!

The widening of Beacon Street and the terracing of it between Washington Square and Coolidge Corner was so prescient. Especially since you can see just how little there was there at the time.

Thanks for all the responses.
 
But didn't Brookline resist annexation to Boston to stave off just that sort of urbanization? It seems like an odd planning move in light of that.
 
The weird area behind that tall apartment block seems to align with the siting of the old mansions (relative to the stairway at the East edge of the site, which remains). Has anyone been back there? What is that? Garages? Stables? very odd. And is that a pool? Are these weird garden remnants or something?
 
czsz said:
But didn't Brookline resist annexation to Boston to stave off just that sort of urbanization? It seems like an odd planning move in light of that.
Click to expand...

Urban planning didn't exist, as we know it, back then. I'm sure Brookline's resistance to annexation had more to do with race, class, and power than whether they wanted to be "urban". Also to remember is that the strong urban/suburban divide didn't exist as much back then; suburbs were only for the wealthy who could afford them.
 
Pierce said:
The weird area behind that tall apartment block seems to align with the siting of the old mansions (relative to the stairway at the East edge of the site, which remains). Has anyone been back there? What is that? Garages? Stables? very odd. And is that a pool? Are these weird garden remnants or something?
Click to expand...

I agree with you Pierce. The highrise is too close to the street to have directly replaced the mansion. At some point I'll take a walk behind there, assuming it isn't gated off, to see what oddness remains.
 
I found out more about the mansion: it was "stonehurst", built in 1890 as the home of Eban Jordan, he of Jordan-Marsh and Jordan Hall (but not Air Jordans). I actually came across that fact researching something else and gave not yet looked into it further.
 
I find it rather odd someone would permit Eban Jordan's mansion to be demolished. I assume there must have been a fire or some other calamity?
 
Looking at how that stretch of Beacon St. has turned out, I'd say the calamity was upzoning.
 
I find it rather odd someone would permit Eban Jordan's mansion to be demolished. I assume there must have been a fire or some other calamity?

He only lived there for a brief period of time (I think 7 years). When his father died he moved into the family house on Beacon Hill.
 
This book has more info:
http://books.google.com/books?id=YB...urst Eben Jordan Father's Beacon Hill&f=false

Brief info from the Brookline Historical Society:
http://www.brooklinehistoricalsociety.org/history/summitPath.asp

Here's a little from this PDF:
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/jofi/birthplace.pdf

"The firm (Winslow and Wetherell) also designed other buildings in Brookline, most notably at 1600 Beacon Street?located close to Coolidge Corner?the imposing ?Stonehurst,? a stone mansion built in 1890 and demolished in 1959. Stonehurst belonged to Eben Jordan Jr., heir to the Jordan Marsh & Company department store and a philanthropist, who helped to fund the building of the Boston opera house and start the New England Conservatory of Music"
 
Last edited:
I lived in an historical neighborhood in Ohio that had similar houses to those shown earlier in the thread. I wondered why Boston (seemed to have) had so few examples of large, single family houses from that period. It appears that they were all torn down to free up land for multi-family units. I haven't checked out Dorchester yet, maybe its neighborhoods haven't suffered the same fate.
 
Last edited:
Please do check out Dorchester most of it is still intact with some nice old homes,try the Ashmont/Melville Park area!
 
I think most of these sorts of homes were built further out into the streetcar suburbs. The precedent of the Boston-Brookline annexation fight made the Boston area an early leader of metropolitan areas where the wealthy spurned inclusion in the city boundaries. You can find a lot of large old 19th century homes in Brookline away from Beacon and Boylston Streets, in Newton, in West Cambridge and, in more "country estate" varieties in places like Milton and Concord.

ED: Forgot Prides Crossing in Beverly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top