Brookline Historic

Two doctors and their blended family renovate a historic home on Longwood Mall.

Brookline | Longwood Mall

This National Register property located in Brookline’s Cottage Farm area developed by the Sears family in the 1820s. The four attached brick townhouses were built around 1850 for people in service to the family: doctors, clergy, etc. The southern-most townhouse had not changed hands many times.

When two doctors purchased the home they had two distinct goals: preserve the integrity of historic elements and spaces in the home, yet create clean modern kitchens and bathrooms. The design sought to repair and restore the historical details of the home, remove awkward changes, and create bright minimal inserts at the kitchen and master bath. A short design and construction timeline was achieved by phasing construction into three phases—a critical infrastructure modernization, two bathrooms, and space restoration pre move-in, then completion of kitchen post-move-in. A year later the garden level guest suite was completed.

Project Team:
Builder: Jackson’s General Carpentry
Structural: Simpson Gumperz & Heger
Mechanical: Allied Consulting Engineering
Interior images by Michael J. Lee Photography