Brookline
This affluent Massachusetts college town is completely surrounded by Boston.
This affluent Massachusetts college town is completely surrounded by Boston.
This affluent Massachusetts college town is completely surrounded by Boston, yet has a suburban feel similar to Newton and one of the best school systems in the state. It also has a very substantial Jewish population, estimated at 35%. On any given Saturday, you will see Jewish families out together enjoying the town. It has several distinct villages, which have a semi-urban feel to them: Washington Square has several very fine restaurants and is decidedly suburban in feel, with a well-established population of long-term residents living amongst grad students and a fair number of Russian immigrants. Coolidge Corner is the quintessential college square, busy and bustling with BU students, intellectuals, and affluent immigrants. Brookline Village is a bit more South End, with a mix of families and young professionals. Yet each neighborhood is within a mile's walk from the next. South Brookline on the other hand, running south of Boylston St (Route 9) is a downright wealthy suburb, with massively expensive homes on some of the choicest real estate in the Commonwealth. The birthplace of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Brookline is the home to New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft, several major professional athletes, and many very wealthy Bostonians. It is also home to the oldest Country Club in the nation and is within a stone's throw of some of the finest hospitals in the world including the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Joselin Center for Diabetes, and the Beth-Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
