The city of Boston extends south from its historic center on the peninsula for miles, but go several miles west from the historic peninsula and you bump right into Brookline.

Brookline is a separate municipality, a mostly residential city that interrupts Boston's westward march, extending from Boston University on the southern bank of the Charles River southwestward to the city of Newton. Brookline is completely surrounded by Boston and Newton.

The Fenway, Jamaicaway and Olmsted Park, elements in Frederick Law Olmsted's Emerald Necklace of greenery, separate Boston and Brookline at the north. The Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site is south of Boylston Street (MA Route 9) in Brookline.

Larz Anderson Park in southern Brookline holds the Larz Anderson Car Museum, once known as the Museum of Transportation.

Known for its gracious old houses and estates, Brookline boasts a number of distinguished residents and former residents, including architect Henry Hobson Richardson, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, President John Kennedy and other members of his family, and Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Serge Koussevitsky and Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler.

Today it's a favorite nesting-ground for Boston's academic community: professors from Harvard, MIT, Brandeis and other institutions of higher learning.

Brookline is also full of doctors and other medical personnel, as the Longwood Medical Area extends from Boston into Brookline along Longwood Avenue.

—by Tom Brosnahan

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