Brookline Boulevard as it looked back in 1924, with a view towards East Brookline. This picture shows the intersection of Brookline Boulevard, Queensboro Avenue and Chelton Avenue. What a stark contrast this picture is compared to what we see today, 75 years later.

For one thing, there are the trolley tracks, recently installed in a bid to spur development in East Brookline (see more below). There is also the lack of trees on Chelton, which now is lined by tall, full-grown maples. Then there is the notable lack of a Brookline Monument, or "Canon". Since World War One had recently concluded I suppose no one had thought of it yet. Instead of the monument the island is home to a small building that was the real estate office for the new developments. Again thinking of the lack of trees, note how plain the little island looks without the full-grown shade trees that we see today. What a difference three quarters of a century can make.

Click on image for a larger picture.

This photo was taken off of a flyer advertising East Brookline as a great place to invest. At the time, the streets had just been paved, the trolley line expanded to cover that area, and housing developments were being built all over the land that once was nothing but scattered farms. Below is a reprint of the text of the advertisement, which also showed pictures of some of the model homes in the new East Brookline developments.

A More Ideally Situated Section

The $25 million worth of improvements established where less than a quarter of a million in farm lands existed 20 years ago give the reader some idea of the Brookline which is now calling into existence this more ideally situated section. Yet no matter how marvelous is the development, breaking all records for the entire country, it can be nothing compared with the future of East Brookline, which will circle into the city from the local trolley on one side and from the interurbans on the other. This is not taking into account the paved driveways through the boulevards and through the new Liberty Tubes.

Unparalleled Millions In Building Permits

Building permits of nearly $10 million issued in the South Hills last year and extending to the very edge of East Brookline, with an equal volume granted the year before, are most inspiring in estimating the prospects of this most picturesque territory which is so close to the city, but until now untouched by human artifice. When you consider that this enormous construction was for some 60,000 residents in the Greater City, the absolutely staggering growth of this section can be imagined when the mathematical difference in favor of the South Hills would be 300% if the populations were equal, but an actual 3000% since the population of the Greater City is ten times that of the South Hills communities. When you ponder on these basic facts for the communities which extend in built-up expanse to the south and west of East Brookline you commence to see a genuine wealth-multiplying opportunity for the investor. This is particularly true of the investor who is willing to buy in East Brookline and wait as did the investors who first took title to the street improved allotments now embracing Dormont, Beechview and Mount Lebanon. The only reason the numerous increases in value do not sound like the thrills in the story of Alladin for each and every one of those investors is that each and every one had not the patience to hold on. Nearly all grabbed at the first, second, or third advance. The small number who held on, however - many of whom started with only a few dollars - are among the men of wealth and position that are today directing the destinies of the different South Hills communites.