The Brookline Town Hall

It seems like nearly every city or town of a reasonable size has been saddled with at least one hulking municipal building in the concrete-heavy modernist style known as Brutalism. Brookline is no exception. Plopped down smack in the middle of charming Brookline Village with all the subtlety of a toddler brushing aside toy blocks in favor of a mega-sized Lego skyscraper, Brookline Town Hall, is the local 6-story representation of ‘60s urban renewal. As time has passed, the consensus on its design has gone from “bright, sleek, and modern” to “hopelessly dated.”

Indeed, a comparison of Brookline’s current (and fourth) town hall, dedicated in 1965, and Brookline’s third town hall — the three-story, rose-colored granite structure of 1878 — is more than just a study in contrasts. They are so starkly different that side-by-side photographs could be used by an Architecture 101 professor as quintessential examples of modernist and classical styles. Truth be told, folks in the 1960s, especially government stakeholders, didn’t think much of the Gothic and Victorian grand old dames dotting Brookline’s landscape. All across the country, such dignified 19th century civic structures were seen as relics of a bygone era — ripe for bulldozing in favor of modern office towers. 

A look back at the Brookline papers of the day unearth a few lone voices (Mike Dukakis, naturally) calling for the preservation of the older town hall. But the selectmen paid little heed as they settled upon the boxy blueprint put forth by the prominent architectural firm of Anderson, Beckwith, and Haible. With its 75-foot setback, cube design, and minimalist concrete tower, it was the kind of design that mimicked nearly every other municipal structure being erected in those years. And it generally won applause at the time. A typical assessment came from the Brookline Chronicle-Citizen’s editorial page: “The physical, social, and economic character of Brookline…is reflected in the limestone and glass, and decidedly efficient design of the new town hall.” Still, some dissenting voices, such as that of resident William Berman, neatly summarized today’s prevailing viewpoint a half-century early, “The [1878] town hall,” said Mr. Berman, “is of a style which is in line with the general pattern of the town and a new modern building would stick out like a sore thumb.” 

But while no one seemed terribly outraged by the new building’s style, the money allocated for both the town hall and the new police station down the street was another matter entirely. The Chronicle-Citizen commented that the 2.9-million-dollar price tag had created “rumblings of discontent” that were building to “volcanic eruptions” around town. Indeed, some began to question the procedure by which the Brookline town meeting had approved the plan in the first place. In March 1960, town meeting member Sam Fishlyn pointed out that because the school department and library trust held liens on some of the land used for the project, a two-thirds approval was actually required for the green light. And after lawyers were consulted, it seemed that Fishlyn had it right. 

There had been plenty of nays in the town meeting crowd on the night of the vote — so many that a standing vote was taken, and perhaps only a slim majority was in favor. 

So the red-faced selectmen adopted some fancy footwork as they appealed to the state legislature to grant them a mulligan. While executive secretary to the board Arthur O’Shea called the matter “routine,” the selectmen asked the legislature to “change, in effect, the original vote from a majority vote to a two-thirds vote,” even though the tally of standing town meeting members had been extremely close.  

Many Brookliners were fed up with the shenanigans. A supporter of the project, resident Stuart Barnaby, summed up the mood saying, “I am disgusted in the way this thing was handled. Somebody really slipped up.” Down at the state house, Representative Sumner Z. Kaplan was not pleased either: “More time [should have been spent] to see to it that proper procedure was followed at the town meeting.”  

Eventually the wheels of progress were greased and the project inched forward. In December of 1964, Brookline employees began with the top floor of the old building and moved every official folder, file box, and filing cabinet across to the newly constructed town hall, as officials asked residents to refrain from calling in during the big move. With the old building finally emptied, it was promptly demolished, while the new town hall was welcomed in with the pomp of the Brookline High School marching band and a concert choir singing “To Thee 'O Country.” Modernity — at least in terms of its civic architecture — had arrived in Brookline.