Allston–Brighton is a set of two interlocking neighborhoods,

Allston Allston is an officially recognized neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was named after the American painter and poet Washington Allston. It comprises the land covered by the zip code 02134. For the most part, Allston is ...

and

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

, both part of the city of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Massachusetts.

Geography

Allston and Brighton's border runs along Everett Street in the north, south along Gordon Street, and terminates at the

Brookline Brookline may refer to: Places in the United States * Brookline, Massachusetts, a town near Boston * Brookline, Missouri, a village * Brookline, New Hampshire, a town * Brookline (Pittsburgh), a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania * Brookl ...

town line along Kelton Street with land to the east of these streets falling in Allston, and to the west falling in Brighton. Allston and Brighton are also identified by their respective postal zip codes (Allston's is 02134, Brighton's is 02135). Allston is generally understood as being in the northeast corner of Allston–Brighton, while Brighton is seen as the larger southwestern portion of Allston–Brighton encompassing Brighton Center and the generally less urbanized neighborhoods. They are connected to the rest of Boston by a tiny strip of land containing

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

along the

Charles River The Charles River (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ), sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Hopkinton to Boston along a highly me ...

, with Brookline lying to the south and southeast,

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to the north and Newton to the west, so they retain a very distinct neighborhood identity together. Allston–Brighton is often perceived as being separate from the rest of the city since many urbanized

Greater Boston Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston, the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England, and its surrounding areas, home to 4,941,632. The most s ...

areas such as Cambridge and Somerville are independently governed cities, but it is in fact part of the city of Boston. It is divided by the

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, also known as

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, into the main southern area and a smaller northern spur, separated from Cambridge by the

History

Allston–Brighton was formerly an agrarian area known as Little

. It was incorporated into the city of Boston and received one of the earliest

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

lines, becoming one of the nation's first

streetcar suburb A streetcar suburb is a residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Such suburbs developed in the United States in the years before the automobile, when ...

s and home to some of Boston's moderately wealthy classes.

Demographics

Today the area is a middle-class urbanized area occupied largely by a mix of dense residential neighbourhoods and small businesses. It is home to the

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headquarters, and the

WGBH Educational Foundation The WGBH Educational Foundation, doing business as GBH since August 2020, is an American public broadcasting group based in Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1951, it holds the licenses to all of the PBS member stations in Massachusetts, a ...

, operators of radio and television stations WGBH,

WGBH-TV WGBH-TV (channel 2), branded GBH or GBH 2 since 2020, is the primary PBS List of PBS member stations, member television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Affiliated stations and facilities WGBH-TV is the Flagship (broadcasting), ...

, and

WGBX-TV WGBX-TV (channel 44), branded GBH 44, is the secondary PBS member television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is owned by the WGBH Educational Foundation alongside WGBH-TV (channel 2) and originates from studios on Guest St ...

; public broadcasters responsible for a large amount of national programming. Students from Boston's many universities are a large demographic in the area as

’s campus falls in Allston and Boston College‘s campus straddles the Brighton and Newton city limits. Brighton Avenue at the heart of

has become a major nightlife destination featuring many bars, restaurants, and nightclubs.

Sports

The combined neighborhood supports a youth hockey team, "Allston–Brighton Youth Hockey" which holds most practices at the Reilly Memorial Rink in Cleveland Circle.

References

Further reading
Brighton Board of Trade history page
* Dr. William P. Marchione, "A Short History of Allston-Brighton" * Dr. William P. Marchione, The Bull in the Garden (1986) * Dr. William P. Marchione, Images of America: Allston–Brighton (1996)
''1871 Atlas of Massachusetts''.
by Wall & Gra
Map of Massachusetts.Map of Middlesex County.
* History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Compiled by Samuel Adams Drake, published 1879
Volume1 page 278 Brighton
by Rev. Frederic Whitney. Note Brighton was originally part of Middlesex County before joining Boston which is Suffolk County.

External links

* * * * * * *. A good map of roads and rail lines around East Allston/Brighton, showing the town line brook of Brookline. *. See 1903 west maps. Click (slowly and repeatedly) on bottom right of small map image for big map image if your

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