A history of Brookfield,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Brookfield from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Brookfield was surveyed in 1859 by John Wood Brooks, a native of Boston. John Wood Brooks is further remembered by the names of four Brookfield streets: John, Wood, Brooks, and Boston streets. A post office called Brookfield has been in operation since 1860.
Brookfield was located along the first railroad built across the State of Missouri, completed by the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad on February 13, 1859. Passenger rail served the town for over a century. The last daytime train passed through the town on April 9, 1968, when the Kansas City Zephyr between Chicago and Kansas City was discontinued.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Brookfield’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewElk's home, 1909: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Brookfield
See all 10 →
Brookfield, decade by decade
![New Francis Bldg. [building]](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/10052/ab8433eddd179c1551b2-s.jpg)
1990s
Nothing in Brookfield is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Brookfield has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Gen. John J. Pershing Boyhood Home in Laclede, 4.8 miles away.
Brookfield and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Elk's home (1909) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (1) and the Library of Congress (5). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.