Allston is an officially recognized neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts. 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 administered collectively with the adjacent neighborhood of Brighton. The two are often referred to together as Allston–Brighton. Boston Police Department District D-14 covers the Allston-Brighton area and a Boston Fire Department Allston station is located in Union Square which houses Engine 41 and Ladder 14. Engine 41 is nicknamed “The Bull” to commemorate the historic stockyards of Allston.

Housing stock varies but largely consists of brick apartment buildings, especially on Commonwealth Avenue and the streets directly off it, while areas further down Brighton Avenue, close to Brighton, are largely dotted with wooden triple-deckers. Lower Allston, across the Massachusetts Turnpike from the southern portion of Allston, consists of mostly 1890–1920s single-family and multi-family Victorian homes.

History

Allston was an eastern section of the former town of Brighton.

In 1867, a new railroad depot for the Boston and Albany Railroad opened. In 1868 the station and post office in Brighton’s eastern portion were given the name “Allston” after Washington Allston, the noted painter who had lived and worked across the Charles River in the Cambridgeport section of Cambridge. It can even be said to have been named for a specific painting: Washington Allston’s “Fields West of Boston”.

Allston has never existed as a separate political entity in its own right. Brighton was annexed by the City of Boston in 1874. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow owned several properties in Allston. In 1887 the wooden depot was replaced by the station depicted at the right. In 1888 Boston’s first trolley route began there, running a route through Coolidge Corner, Brookline, to Boylston Street, to downtown Boston.

The Allston community developed largely around large railroad and livestock operations. The Boston and Albany Railroad operated a major rail yard. Stockyards and a large abattoir operated nearby in the northern part of Brighton. All livestock activity ended by the mid-20th century, although much of the rail yard remained in use until 2013 as CSX Transportation’s Beacon Park Yard.

A strip running from Brighton Avenue in Allston out Commonwealth Avenue toward Kenmore Square was Boston’s original “Automile”, lined with automobile dealerships. Packard’s Sales Stable and Riding School gave Packard’s Corner its name, which was then perpetuated by the presence of an opulent Packard dealership. Only a Toyota dealer and a Vespa dealer remain, but the windowed buildings along the eastern end of Brighton Avenue reflect this history.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Extension, built largely on part of the Boston and Albany right-of-way, opened through Allston in 1964 and 1965.

Education

Public schools

Public schools in Allston are part of the school district of Boston Public Schools.

Gardner Pilot Academy (also called the Thomas Gardner School), located on Athol Street, serves Allston residents pre-kindergarten through grade eight. In April 2008, a science teacher at Gardner Pilot Academy won the “Ultimate Science Classroom”, a raffle prize furnished annually by the National Science Teachers Association. The school received approximately $40,000 in science teaching materials and apparatus.

The Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, located on Armington Street, is the oldest public school for the hearing impaired in the United States. The school was attended by Helen Keller and Alexander Graham Bell’s work at the school inspired him to begin experiments in an apparatus to help deaf children hear. These experiments eventually led to the telephone. The school serves the hearing impaired in Boston from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade.

Jackson Mann School, also on Armington Street, serves residents from kindergarten through eighth grade.

Private schools

German International School Boston (previously called “German School Boston”), located on Holton Street, is a private, bilingual, international school in Boston, Massachusetts. This German school abroad was established in 2001 and officially inaugurated by Former German President Johannes Rau. The upper campus serves grades one through twelve, and the lower campus offers a preschool and kindergarten program. The school has over 300 students.

Colleges and universities

Allston lies near three major universities. A substantial part of the campus of Harvard University, including Harvard Business School and most athletic facilities (such as the Bright-Landry Hockey Center, Harvard Stadium, and the Lavietes Pavilion), are in North Allston. Harvard also owns large portions of other land in North Allston, much of which it plans to develop as an academic campus, particularly for the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, as well as an auxiliary site for the Harvard Medical School and other healthcare-related programs. Eventually, Harvard’s Allston campus will be physically larger than their original Cambridge campus.

Boston University lies along Commonwealth Avenue to the east, with numerous schools and facilities extending from Kenmore Square to Packard’s Corner. The New Balance Field of Boston University symbolizes further integration of BU into the Allston community and is the first in a series of projects that have included the creation of a major new dormitory building in the area.Berklee College of Music also has a practice and rehearsal building near Commonwealth Avenue on Fordham Road which runs between Commonwealth Avenue and Brighton Avenue.^{[citation needed]}

Demographics

The estimated population of Allston is 28,621, according to the 2020 Census. The median home cost is $632,000, an incline of 5.2% in the last year. The cost of living is 48.7% higher than the national average. The population density is 14,035/mi². The median age is 27.

Allston is home to many immigrant populations, the largest groups being from Russia, East Asia (particularly Korea), South Asia, and South America (particularly Brazil and Colombia).

Young adults (age 18-34) make up 80.8% of the neighborhood’s population (as compared to 39.1% for the city of Boston as a whole). The high concentration of students and “twenty-somethings” has created tension between some long-time residents and the student population which constantly cycles in and out as students matriculate and graduate from Boston’s many colleges and universities. In addition to nightly dancing and live music at area bars, house parties abound on surrounding streets, particularly during the school year. This has long been a sore point among other Allston residents.

The largest religious affiliation is Catholic (48.2%), followed by unspecified Christian (4.9%), Baptist (2%), and Muslim (1%).

Race