City and State: Brookline, Massachusetts
Listed: 1978
Type of district: National Register historic district, Massachusetts State historic district, local historic district
Main Intersection: Essex and Ivy Streets
Cottage Farm National Register Historic District Report
Cottage Farm National Register Historic District Map
Cottage Farm is located in Brookline, a suburb of Boston. It takes its name from the style of houses that were built there in the mid 19th century. Businessman and philanthropist Amos A. Lawrence, his brother William, architect George Minot Dexter and James Amory, one of Lawrence’s business associates, were the first people to build homes there. All were designed in the new and fashionable “Gothic cottage” style popularized by Andrew Jackson Downing.
The Boston-Worcester Railroad expanded into the area providing easy access to Cottage Farm from Boston; with the railroad came an influx of professionals. Cottage Farm became a very desirable residential neighborhood in the mid 19th century. It remains so today. Most of the homes are used as residences, although a few are owned by Boston University, some private religious organizations and the Massachusetts Association for the Blind.