Christ's Church Longwood - Home to Christ Church Unity

Listen to the Podcast Interviews with John Sears, The great great grandson of founder Daivd Sears.

 

The story of Longwood and Cottage Farm begins with one man, David Sears II, who by the time he began purchasing land in Brookline in the 1820's, was already one of the wealthiest landowners in Boston. Sears bought about 500 acres that stretched from the Boston border on the east to Pleasant Street, and from the Charles River on the north across the Muddy River into Boston on the south, encompassing today's Longwood medical area. Eventually, the portion north of Beacon Street was called Cottage Farm, while the area south of Beacon Street retained the Longwood name. Both are on the National Register of Historic Places, and Cottage Farm is also a Local Historic District.

Tracing the area's evolution before David Sears owned it is a journey through highly charged and formative historical events. During Brookline's early settlement days, the area included Judge Samuel Sewall's "Brookline" lands. Sewall was Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, and is best known for his role in the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692. During the American Revolution, the Brookline Fort at the end of Essex Street near the Charles River was the site of the only engagement of the Revolutionary War to take place in Brookline. Another fort, known as the Indian Fort, was on the present site of Amory Park.