Coolidge Corner is a neighborhood of

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in the United States, and part of the Boston metropolitan area. Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Allston, Fenway–Kenmore, Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, and ...

, centered on the intersection of

Beacon Street Beacon Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts and its western suburbs Brookline and Newton. It passes through many of Boston's central and western neighborhoods, including Beacon Hill, Back Bay, Fenway–Kenmore, the Boston Uni ...

and Harvard Street. The neighborhood takes its name from the Coolidge & Brother general store that opened in 1857 at that intersectionOlson Pehlke, Linda:
Coolidge Corner
", ''Our Town Brookline'' magazine, 2005. URL retrieved 2011-01-11. at the site of today's S.S. Pierce building, which was for many years the only commercial business in north Brookline.Liss, Ken (Brookline Historical Society)
Who is Coolidge Corner named after?
November 2010. URL retrieved 2011-01-11.

Culture

Coolidge Corner developed as a transit-oriented

streetcar suburb A streetcar suburb is a residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Such suburbs developed in the United States in the years before the automobile, when ...

, and retains a pedestrian-friendly, walking around feel. Many popular coffee shops, pharmacies, small independent boutiques, an

independent bookstore An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store (although there are some multi-store independents). They may be structured as sole proprietorships, ...

, and independent restaurants are located there, as well as a few retail chain stores. In recent years, an influx of national bank chains has taken over several prime storefronts, detracting from the traditional neighborhood retail mix. There is a growing community backlash against this trend. The neighborhood has a significant

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

population, and there are large synagogues located on both Beacon and Harvard streets. The northern portion of Harvard Street, near the border with the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

neighborhood of

Allston Allston is an officially recognized neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was named after the American painter and poet Washington Allston. It comprises the land covered by the zip code 02134. For the most pa ...

, is characterized by a cluster of Jewish-oriented shops, including a bookstore, giftshop, kosher butcher, and various other stores and eateries.

Sites

*Near Coolidge Corner, at 83 Beals Street, is the birthplace of President John F. Kennedy. It is a National Historic Site operated by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government within the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of ...

. *Coolidge Corner is also home of the Coolidge Corner Theatre, a restored

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

movie palace that has been showing movies since 1933. It is a not-for-profit arts institution, featuring first run arthouse films, including independent films, international cinema, and documentaries. It is one of the last remaining original big screen movie houses in the country. The main theatre has a recessed theatrical stage, and seats 700 with classic elegance and cinematic style. *The S.S. Pierce Building, constructed in 1897, and originally an S.S. Pierce grocery store, is a historically significant Tudor-style building. It has accommodated a number of businesses over the years (it housed a

Walgreens Walgreen Company, d/b/a Walgreens, is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, a ...

until June 2015, in addition to several offices on the second floor), and is recognized by its large clock tower, visible from nearly all points in Coolidge Corner. (The original tower was damaged in a storm in 1944 and replaced by the current tower.) *The Brookline Booksmith is a major independent bookstore in Coolidge Corner. It hosts author readings several times a week. It also sells used books in the basement, where most author readings are held. *Coolidge Corner contains several restaurants, including a

crêpe A crêpe or crepe ( or , , Quebec French: ) is a very thin type of pancake. Crêpes are usually one of two varieties: ''sweet crêpes'' () or ''savoury galettes'' (). They are often served with a wide variety of fillings such as cheese, ...

rie, two

falafel Falafel (; ar, فلافل, ) is a deep-fried ball or patty-shaped fritter in Middle Eastern cuisine (especially in Levantine and Egyptian cuisines) made from ground chickpeas, broad beans, or both. Nowadays, falafel is often served in ...

joints, and several Asian food restaurants. Many different events, including author readings, family game nights and seasonal sidewalks sales, are regularly hosted by members of the Coolidge Corner Merchants' Association. *Coolidge Corner also hosts a popular weekly

farmer's market A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or o ...

on Thursdays from June through November.

Public transportation

MBTA 3711 at Coolidge Corner, February 2005

Light rail and subway

Coolidge Corner is served by the Coolidge Corner station of the

MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...

Green Line C branch The C branch, also called the Beacon Street Line or Cleveland Circle Line, is one of four branches of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's Green Line light rail system in the Boston, Massachusetts metropolitan area. The line begins ...

that runs in a reserved central median along

beginning at the St. Mary's Street stop west of

Kenmore Square Kenmore Square is a square in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, consisting of the intersection of several main avenues (including Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue) as well as several other cross streets, and Kenmore station, an MBTA ...

Bus

The #66

crosstown bus route runs through Coolidge Corner along Harvard Street on its way from

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

Harvard Square Harvard Square is a triangular plaza at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street and John F. Kennedy Street near the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The term "Harvard Square" is also used to delineate the busin ...

. The route is considered one of the MBTA's 15 key bus routes that have high ridership and higher frequency standards than other bus lines.

Education

Public schools

Coolidge Corner is home to a K-8 public elementary school, the

Edward Devotion School The Florida Ruffin Ridley School, formerly known as the Coolidge Corner School and the Edward Devotion School or Devo, is a public K-8 school located at 345 Harvard Street, Brookline, Massachusetts, United States. It is a part of Public Schools o ...

. In 2018, Brookline's Town Meeting approved a warrant article to rename the school. The new name was decided by a community wide process. The school was formerly known as the Coolidge Corner School. In November 2019, members of the town voted to change the name to

Florida Ruffin Ridley Florida Ruffin Ridley (born Florida Yates Ruffin; January 29, 1861 – February 25, 1943) was an African-American civil rights activist, suffragist, teacher, writer, and editor from Boston, Massachusetts. She was one of the first black public sch ...

school. The name change took effect in September 2020.

References

{{authority control 1857 establishments in Massachusetts Brookline, Massachusetts Neighborhoods in Massachusetts Populated places established in 1857 Populated places in Norfolk County, Massachusetts Streetcar suburbs