Cleveland Circle

Cleveland Circle is an area of Boston, Massachusetts. It is located at the southern tip of Boston's Brighton neighborhood, and more specifically the Aberdeen section of Brighton, in close proximity to Brookline and Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, at the intersection of Beacon Street and Chestnut Hill Avenue.

A view of Cleveland Circle at the Intersection of Beacon and Chestnut Hill, looking northeast down Beacon Street from October 2021

Cleveland Circle is the commercial "town center" of Aberdeen, a residential area of apartment buildings and free-standing homes, populated primarily by working professionals of all ages, as well as seniors. The area also has student rentals inhabited primarily by students from nearby Boston College, but nevertheless, student renters are the smallest segment of the area's population.

This part of Brighton is a historical streetcar suburb. The Cleveland Circle station is the terminus of the Green Line C branch of the MBTA's Green Line. Reservoir station on the Green Line D branch is one block to the south. Chestnut Hill Avenue on the Green Line B branch is a short walk away.

History

Chestnut Hill Avenue was laid out in 1845, and Beacon Street in 1850.

Reservoir opened as a commuter rail station on the Charles River Branch Railroad (by then merged into the Charles River Railroad) in November 1852. In 1883, the Boston and Albany Railroad bought the line between Brookline Junction and Cook Junction and extended it to Reservoir as its Highland branch, running Newton Circuit service beginning in 1886.[1] The addition of the West End Street Railway on Beacon Street in 1887 caused a construction boom in Brookline and Cleveland Circle, by making it easy for residents to commute into work in downtown Boston.[2] The line was electrified in 1889 and in 1896 extended to Boston College (Lake Street) via Chestnut Hill Avenue and Commonwealth Avenue. Around 1932 it was cut back to Cleveland Circle.

The Commonwealth Avenue Street Railway also opened in 1896, extending rail service from Boston College to Norumbega Park (on the Charles River near present-day Route 128). This outer streetcar line was converted to bus service in 1930.

In 1900, the West End Street Railway, renamed the Boston Elevated Railway, laid tracks along Commonwealth Avenue from Chestnut Hill Avenue to its existing tracks at Packard's Corner. The new Commonwealth Avenue line, which was electrified in 1909, prompted another local building boom along its length until around 1930.[2] The BERy line is the predecessor of the present-day Green Line B branch.

The Highland branch was closed in 1958 and reopened as a light rail line, connecting to the Boylston Street subway at Kenmore, a year later. In 1967 the Beacon Street line was designated the Green Line C branch, and the Highland branch as the D branch.

Construction on the Chestnut Hill Reservoir, which consolidated the city's four smaller reservoirs, began at the end of the Civil War in 1865 and was completed in 1870. Englewood Avenue and Sutherland Road were laid out in 1872, but the Panic of 1873 delayed development of the new streets.

References

Karr, Ronald Dale (1995). The Rail Lines of Southern New England. Branch Line Press. p. 288-289. ISBN 0942147022.
Cleveland Circle history from the BAHS.

External links

The history of Cleveland Circle from the BAHS. Accessed 4 September 2006.

42.3359°N 71.1507°W / 42.3359; -71.1507

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[sne-1] Karr, Ronald Dale (1995). The Rail Lines of Southern New England. Branch Line Press. p. 288-289. ISBN 0942147022.

[BAHS-2] Cleveland Circle history from the BAHS.

Streets and squares in Boston
East–west streets	Beacon Street Boylston Street Commonwealth Avenue Congress Street Court Street Day Boulevard Dedham Parkway Fenway Gallivan Boulevard Huntington Avenue Melnea Cass Boulevard Milk Street Neptune Road New Chardon Street Newbury Street Park Street Soldiers Field Road State Street Storrow Drive Summer Street Tremont Street Winter Street
North–south streets	Arborway Atlantic Avenue Bennington Street Blue Hills Parkway Bowdoin Street Brattle Street Brookline Avenue Charles Street Columbus Avenue Dorchester Avenue Enneking Parkway Federal Street Franklin Street Hanover Street Jamaicaway Jersey Street (Yawkey Way) Massachusetts Avenue Morrissey Boulevard Morton Street North Street Park Drive Riverway School Street Truman Parkway Turtle Pond Parkway Union Street Veterans of Foreign Wars Parkway Washington Street West Boundary Road West Roxbury Parkway
Intersections	Adams Square Andrew Square Blackstone Square Brigham Circle Central Square Chester Square City Square Cleveland Circle Codman Square Copley Square Day Square Dewey Square Dock Square Downtown Crossing Egleston Square Fields Corner Franklin Square Haymarket Square Hyde Square Jackson Square Kenmore Square Louisburg Square Mass and Cass Maverick Square Nubian Square (Dudley Square) Packard's Corner Park Square Peabody Square Post Office Square Roxbury Crossing Scollay Square Sullivan Square Thompson Square Union Square Uphams Corner Winthrop Square
Italics denote streets and squares that no longer exist. See also Neighborhoods in Boston Transportation in Boston