Brookline Black History

Charles P. Ware House // 1894

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The Charles P. Ware House at 52 Allerton Street in Brookline, shows us that a house doesn’t have to be a mansion to make a statement! Built in 1894 from plans by architect, Henry Forbes Bigelow, this charming Colonial Revival cottage is notable for its brick construction with gambrel roof and brick endwalls rising as parapets. The home was built for Charles Pickard Ware (1840-1921) and wife, Elizabeth Lawrence (Appleton) Ware, who lived here until their deaths. Charles P. Ware was an educator, music transcriber, and abolitionist, who served as a civilian administrator in the Union Army, where he was a labor superintendent of freedmen on plantations at Port Royal, South Carolina during the Civil War. At one of the freedmen plantations, Seaside Plantation, Ware transcribed many slave songs with music and lyrics, publishing many in Slave Songs of the United States, which was the first published collection of American folk music. After Charles and Elizabeth Ware died in 1921 and 1926, respectively, the property was inherited by their son, Henry Ware, who was an attorney.

Russell-Hayes House // 1899

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The Russell-Hayes House at 58 Allerton Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, was built in 1899 in the highly popular Colonial Revival style for Mr. and Mrs. Russell. Francis Henry Russell (1832-1919) was born in Plymouth and married Elizabeth Stevens (1835-1922) of Lawrence, and had one daughter together. Francis attended Harvard College and eventually worked as the Treasurer of the Bates Manufacturing Company, doing well enough to purchase a house lot in the fashionable “Pill Hill” neighborhood of Brookline to build his home here. Mr. Russell hired Plymouth-born architect, Joseph Everett Chandler, to design his suburban residence for himself, his wife, and daughter. After the death’s of Francis (1919), Elizabeth (1922) and their unmarried daughter, Mary (1926), the property was purchased in 1927 by African American musician, Roland Hayes. Just years prior to purchasing this stately home in Brookline, Roland Hayes performed abroad in Europe, even a private performance for King George V and Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace. He returned to the United States of America in 1923 and made his official debut on November 16, 1923, in Boston’s Symphony Hall, which received critical acclaim. He was the first African-American soloist to appear with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who would later hire him, with a reported salary of $100,000 a year. Roland and his family lived in this house for 50 years until his death in 1977. His legacy lives on here with a plaque in front of the home, and a public school named after him.