Like many Boston neighborhoods, the Allston-Brighton area was established in the colonial era (1635) with land grants. A sparsely settled agricultural pattern prevailed until the filling of the Back Bay and Kenmore Square in the late 1800s, by which time the Brighton stockyards had become the foremost cattle market in the region. Also in the late 1800s, extension of street car lines encouraged high quality residential development in Brighton, much of which still remains today.

Proximity to the Charles River and to the Boston and Albany Railroad encouraged construction of the stockyards, slaughterhouses, and meatpacking operations in Allston and the northern and eastern sections of Brighton. As the nation expanded westward and the refrigerated railroad cars were introduced, regional stockyards, like those in Brighton, declined in importance. They were replaced by other industrial plants, commercial warehouses, and houses. The diversity of land uses and unplanned development resulted in a confusing and blighted environment which still exists in some sections today.

After World War II, the Massachusetts Turnpike extension further isolated Allston from Brighton. Wider than the tracks, the Pike added to the noise and air pollution and it severed pedestrian links. Proximity to expanding universities on all sides resulted in a considerable influx of students, younger families, and new workers. This in turn spurred much conversation of housing to provide more smaller units and condominiums.