US-MA-Brooks+Estate


 * =Birding in Massachusetts=

Middlesex County
=Brooks Estate= Grove Street Medford, Massachusetts 02155 Brooks Estate website

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Brooks Estate
Coordinates: 42.4332862, -71.1393526 eBird links: Hotspot map View details Recent visits My eBird links: Location life list Submit data

About Brooks Estate
The Brooks family first settled in Medford in the late seventeenth century, when the Estate consisted of some 400 acres of woods and farm. The family was one of Massachusetts' most prominent and was heavily involved in the civic life of Medford.

In the mid-nineteenth century Peter Chardon Brooks III and Shepherd Brooks each constructed summer estates. In 1859 Peter built his home, Point of Rocks, designed by Calvert Vaux, at the highest point on the property. Shepherd built Acorn Hill (the Manor) in 1880, to a design by Peabody and Stearns. Both families lived most of the year in Boston, but summered in Medford, then in beginning stages of its transition from farm town to suburb.

Medford began a dramatic transformation from a rural community to a suburban city in the first decades of the twentieth century. Shepherd died in 1922; his wife, Clara Gardner Brooks died in 1939 and her plans for a nature preserve fell through. In 1942, the City of Medford acquired the remaining 82 acres of the Brooks Estate and demolished Point of Rocks in 1946. Today, only a few pieces of granite foundation are visible at the northern edge of the Estate.

From 1946 to 1954, the Manor was part of Brooks Village and provided housing for nine veterans' families. In the 60's and 70's it was used as a nursing home. It is now occupied by resident caretakers.

After four years of advocacy, 50 acres of the Brooks Estate and the two historic buildings were permanently protected with a Conservation and Preservation Restriction in late 1998. Since then, M-BELT has been working to protect and restore the open space, landscape and historic buildings -- all the essential elements of this unique and invaluable place. From Brooks Estate website



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