Boston’s Newest Landmark: The Parker House

This Article is from the City of Boston Office of Historic Preservation Summer/Fall 2023 Newsletter

The Parker House was the longest continuously operating hotel in the United States until the COVID-19 pandemic, when the hotel shut down for the first time since their opening. (It has since reopened.) Due to the presence of the Parker House Annex (1897), which is the oldest extant section of the hotel and remained open during the construction of the new Parker House (1927), the business operated continuously from 1855 until March 2020. 

Early innovations in pricing and fine dining positioned the Parker House for success in its long history. The products of its kitchens, most notably the Parker House Roll and Boston Cream Pie, gained national attention, and the dining clubs and company and trade organization boards that met at the Parker House propelled the hotel’s early popularity and widespread recognition in the region as a premier space for hosting functions.  

Throughout the years, the Parker House has been the host of many prominent figures in history, including Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mary Todd Lincoln and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Charles Dickens lived in the Parker House while writing his famed work A Christmas Carol and performed it for members of The Saturday Club at the Parker House. Important historical figures who worked at the Omni Parker House include Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh. The hotel’s long association with Massachusetts politicians and political events, given its location on the direct line between Old City Hall and the Massachusetts State House, also contributes to its significance. 

Elegantly designed and well crafted, the main building (1927) at the corner of School and Tremont streets is a tribute to both the Classical Revival style and the craftsmanship of the twenties. The Parker House Annex (1897) facing Bosworth Street demonstrates the careful attention paid to detailing even on a small back street, to signify that this building was part of an elegant, first-class hotel facility. Although it has undergone some exterior alterations (primarily at the uppermost levels), the property retains a high degree of integrity of location, setting, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association.   

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