Brookline Village Industrial District

Just off Washington Street, parallel to the railroad tracks, lies 9–21 Station Street, Brookline's only concentration of industrial buildings. Charles Holtzer, a pioneer in the manufacture of electrical apparatus, founded the principal factory. In 1880 he established the first telephone exchange outside of Boston and in 1887 opened his first office on Station Street with his partner, George E. Cabot. The red and yellow brick factories with Italianate detailing grew to encompass much of the block where Holtzer-Cabot produced electric generators and motors, as well as the first electric automobile in 1891. After enlarging the Station Street factory over a period of more than twenty-five years, Holtzer constructed a new plant in Roxbury in 1915.