Brookline, MA

83 Beals St, Brookline, MA

Last updated 8/27/2026

Brookline is almost entirely surrounded by the city of Boston itself, an unusual geography that's left it as one of the largest incorporated towns in Massachusetts never to have been formally annexed into the city it borders on nearly every side — a distinction Brookline residents and town officials have actively defended across more than a century of periodic annexation proposals. John F. Kennedy was born in Brookline in 1917, and his childhood home on Beals Street has been preserved by the National Park Service as the John F. Kennedy National Historic Site, a modest suburban house that stands in deliberate contrast to the more famous Kennedy estates in Hyannis Port and elsewhere. Coolidge Corner, Brookline's best-known commercial district, centers on the historic Coolidge Corner Theatre, an art-house cinema operating continuously (aside from a brief 1980s closure) since 1933, anchoring a walkable strip of independent shops and restaurants that's kept the neighborhood one of the more urban-feeling suburban commercial districts in the entire Boston area. Served directly by the MBTA Green Line's C and D branches along with several bus routes, Brookline's combination of near-total encirclement by Boston proper, a genuine walkable town-center feel at Coolidge Corner, and a direct connection to Kennedy family history has made it one of the most distinctive and consistently sought-after close-in suburbs anywhere in the metro area.

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