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Brighton

Neighborhood Description
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Brighton began as a tiny rural outpost of Cambridge during the late 1600s, and was known as Little Cambridge. Today, Brighton is the western-most neighborhood in Boston, bordered by the towns of Brookline to the south, Newton to the west, the Charles River to the north, and the neighborhood of Allston to the east. Little Cambridge had less than 300 residents at any given time, and was composed mainly of large farms and estates owned by prosperous Bostonians. During the Revolutionary War, Jonathan Winship set up a cattle market in Little Cambridge to supply the Continental Army. By the end of the 18th century, Winship was the most successful meat packer in Massachusetts and the cattle industry drove the area's economy.

Little Cambridge was connected to the rest of Cambridge by a bridge across the Charles River. The bridge was in a constant state of disrepair, causing serious problems for the local slaughterhouses and meat packers. In 1807, Little Cambridge separated from Cambridge and changed its name to Brighton. During the 19th century, Brighton became a major center for both livestock and agriculture. Due to the area's quasi-rural status, single-family houses and small commercial blocks were the primary buildings constructed through the end of the 19th century. Most of Brighton's residents were fairly well-to-do and many were associated with the building trades, so some of the most architecturally significant free-standing houses still extant in Boston are located in this neighborhood.

Around 1870, the cattle market in Brighton came to a crashing halt with the introduction of refrigerated rail cars. In just a few short years, it became significantly cheaper to slaughter cattle in the West and ship the meat to the East Coast than to ship live cattle. At the same time, the state government began to heavily regulate the meat packing industry. A group of Brighton businessmen known as the "Brighton Ring" seized control of the town's government, and began a series of sweeping reforms to change the face of the city. They began by closing all of the slaughterhouses and forcing all butchering activity into a centralized location - an abattoir. This freed up hundred of acres for residential and commercial development, as well as moving the not-entirely-pleasant cattle industry away from the town's center. Next, they spent the then-princely sum of $500,000 on improving roads, schools, and public infrastructure to make the town more attractive to commuters who worked in Boston. By deliberately placing the town under massive debt that would require substantial tax increases, the Brighton Ring virtually forced residents to vote in favor of annexation by Boston in 1873 (the annexation was completed in 1874).

Electric street trolleys were built on Beacon Street in 1887 and Commonwealth Avenue in 1900, leading to the construction of massive apartment blocks in those areas and an explosion in Brighton's population. Brighton's proximity to several major universities including Boston College, Boston University, and Harvard has continued to increase the demand for apartments and condominiums during the 20th and 21st centuries. Today, Brighton is primarily a middle-class neighborhood that is slowly transitioning to an upper-class neighborhood as demand for housing in Boston continues to increase.

Recently Added Buildings

68 Surrey Street

12 Surrey Street

19 Surrey Street

Brighton

Recently Added Buildings

Brighton Streets