Hancock Village Associates

The John Hancock Insurance Company and the Town of Brookline collaborated on the development of Hancock Village, a garden village low-rise apartment complex, to provide homes for returning veterans. Architect Louis Justement, of Washington, D.C., specialized in apartment house design and worked in conjunction with Olmsted Associates. To avoid through traffic, U-shaped access roads organize the two-story brick apartment houses. Living rooms and bedrooms face lawn areas; each unit has its own terrace. All apartments have two floors and range in size from three-and-a-half to five-and-a-half rooms. Colonial Revival in spirit, but lacking conventional ornamental motifs, the red brick development extended across the town line into Boston and included a small shopping center and parking garages. The shopping center on Veterans of Foreign Wars Parkway has been significantly altered.