BROOKLINE, Mass., town in Norfolk County, on the Charles River, and the Boston & A. Railroad; three miles west of Boston, with which it is connected by electric railroad. It contains the villages of Cottage Farm, Long wood and Reservoir Station, and has a granite town house, public library (80,000 volumes), two banks and two trust companies, a school of practical arts, high school and intermediate schools, municipal baths and gymnasium, and fine parks and golf course. There are manu factories of scientific instruments and marine compasses and some others. The United States census of manufactures for 1914 reported 21 industrial establishments of factory grade, em ploying 429 persons, of whom 335 were wage earners, receiving annually $239,000 in wages. The capital invested aggregated $1,123,000, and the value of the year's output was $659,000; of this, $441,000 was the value added by manu facture. Brookline is chiefly a place of subur
ban residepce, being one of the most beautiful and wealthy suburban towns in the country. It was first settled in 1634, and was known as °the hamlet of Muddy River') until its incor poration as Brookline in 1705. The government is by limited town meeting under a special form adopted in 1915. In that year the receipts amounted to $3,338,661.25, the expenditures to $3,176,578.09. The value of taxable real estate was estimated at $77,827,300, and of personal property at $46,174,600. Pop. (1910) 27,792; (1915) 33,490. Consult the 'Annual publica tions of the Brookline Historical Society' ; Bol ton, C. K., the History of a Favored Town' (Brookline 1897) and Spencer, C. A. W., (Brookline, Chronicle Souvenir of the Bicentennial' (Brookline 1905).