Parker House Hotel - Boston

The Parker House Hotel is located on School Street in Boston, Massachusetts.  Originally opened on this site in 1855, it is the longest continuously operating hotel in America.  The hotel was founded by Harvey D. Parker and run by him until his death in 1884.  Over the years the hotel has been in nearly half a dozen different hands and is today known as the Omni Parker House Hotel.  Although additions and changes were made to the hotel within the first five years of operation, a total renovation took place in 1927, in which most of the original structure was destroyed, save for one wing, which still exists, and replaced with the building which currently occupies this location.  Over the years the hotel has played guest to a large list of notables.  The Saturday Club began meeting at the Parker House in 1856.  The Club, a notable group of thinkers who attended monthly meetings to talk and dine, included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Oliver Wendell Holmes in it's list of attendees over the years.  Charles Dickens lived in an apartment at the Parker House between 1867-1868.  He first read A Christmas Carol here for the Saturday Club, then later at the nearby Tremont Temple for the public.  There is still a Dickens room at the hotel, which boasts the original fireplace from Dickens' room.  Composer Jacques Offenbach stayed here during a tour of the U.S. in 1876, and author Mark Twain stayed here in room 168 during a visit in 1877.  More infamously, actor John Wilkes Booth stayed here in April 1865, just a week before he assassinated Abraham Lincoln, during a trip to Boston to visit his brother, actor Edwin Booth. Ho Chi Minh reportedly worked here in 1912 and Malcolm X was said to be a busboy here in the 1940's.  John F. Kennedy has two associations with the hotel: he announced his candidacy for Congress here in 1946 and in 1953 he held his bachelor party here.  The hotel also holds the distinction of creating the Boston Cream Pie and the Parker House Roll, both of which are still available in the hotel restaurant.  The Parker House is a member of the Historic Hotels of America.

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