Located in the heart of Brookline Village, the old Pierce School sits tucked away behind the Brookline Town Hall and other municipal and institutional buildings. The school was built in 1855 at a cost of $15,000 and later expanded in 1904 from plans by Julius Adolphe Schweinfurth, a prominent local architect. Julius had two brothers who also were architects: A. C. Schweinfurth, who worked out of California and Charles F. Schweinfurth, out of Ohio. The Pierce School was named after Reverend John Pierce, noted pastor of the Walnut Street church during the mid 19th century. He and his wife, Lucy Tappan Pierce, were active leaders in the abolition movement in Brookline. The school was expanded a number of times until the 1970s, when the present Pierce Elementary School was built, in an unsympathetic Modern design that does little to enhance the busy street. As expected, the 1970s school will soon be demolished and replaced by a new, $212 million school. The old Pierce School will be incorporated into the new development.
Buildings of New England 
A correction on the construction of this building. Julius Schweinfurth designed the 1904 addition to the 1855 Pierce School, not the original 1855 school building. You can see the change on these sections of two town atlases. https://bit.ly/pieceschool-1900-1907
Ken Liss, Brookline Historical Society
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Thank you Ken, I don’t know how I missed that error. It should be corrected now.
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Thanks. I’m working on a very long history — either a blog post or video (or both) on the long history of the many different buildings of the Pierce School.
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Please share when its completed, I’d love to check it out.
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