Omni Parker House
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The Omni Parker House Hotel is a hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, currently owned by Omni Hotels and named the Omni Parker House.
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[edit] History
[edit] 19th century
Opened in 1855 by Harvey D. Parker and located on School Street near the corner of Tremont, not far from the seat of the Massachusetts state government, it has long been a frequent rendezvous for politicians.
The Parker House invented American foods such as Boston cream pie and the Parker House roll, and for having coined the term "scrod".
The hotel was home to the Saturday Club, also referred to as the Saturday Night Club, which consisted of literary dignitaries such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
John Wilkes Booth was also once a guest at the hotel.
[edit] 20th century
The original Parker House and later additions were demolished in the 1920s and replaced with an entirely new building. One wing of the original hotel remained open until the new building was completed in 1927.[1]
As the longest continuously operating hotel in the United States, many well-known people have worked at the Parker House, including Ho Chi Minh who was a baker in the bakeshop from 1911 to 1913, Malcolm X who was a busboy in the early 1940s, and Emeril Lagasse.[2]
John F. Kennedy announced his candidacy for Congress in the hotel's Press Room, proposed to Jackie Kennedy, as well as held his bachelor party here.
[edit] 21st century
The Omni Parker House currently has 551 rooms and suites that underwent an $80 million renovation completed in 2000.
In 2009, AAA named the hotel one of the top 10 historic U.S. hotels.[3]
[edit] In literature
Edith Wharton places a tryst between characters Mr. Newland Archer and Countess Ellen Olenska at the Parker House in her iconic work of the early 20th Century, The Age of Innocence [4] Archer is told that his mistress is staying in Boston at the Parker House, and he flees New York to meet her there. [5]
[edit] References
- ^ "Boston's Literary Hotel". http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/hotels/omni/parker/house.html. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
- ^ "Omni Hotel". http://www.omnihotels.com/upload/images/hotels/bospar/pdf/bospar_history%20book%20pages.pdf. Retrieved 2008-07-10.
- ^ "AAA Inspectors Pick Their Top Ten Historic Hotels for Independence Day". press release. American Automobile Association. 2009-06-23. http://www.aaanewsroom.net/Main/Default.asp?CategoryID=8&ArticleID=693. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
- ^ http://www.amazon.com/Age-Innocence-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486298035/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232159305&sr=8-2
- ^ Wharton, Age of Innocence, p. 147
- Secrets of Beantown, from Auddissey Guides
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
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