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Founded by Henry D. Parker in 1855,
Omni Parker House (then known as simply The Parker House) has been a Boston resident for over 150 years, located at junction of Tremont and School Streets, and one of oldest of Boston's elegant inns. and longest continuously operating hotel in United States. It was here that brightest lights of America's Golden Age of Literature—writers like Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Longfellow, regularly met for conversation in legendary nineteenth century Saturday Club. Baseball greats like Babe Ruth and Ted Williams wined, dined, and unwound at Parker House. And it was here too, where generations of local and national politicians, including Ulysses S. Grant, James Michael Curley (Boston's Mayor of poor), Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and William Jefferson Clinton, assembled for private meetings, press conferences, and power breakfasts.
The Omni Parker House is close to Boston's Theater District, and it has played an important role for thespians. Many of finest actors from nineteenth century made hotel their home away from home, including Charlotte Cushman, Sarah Bernhardt, Edwin Booth, brother of matinee-idol, John Wilkes Booth, who was seen pistol practicing nearby only eight days before assassination of Abraham Lincoln; wouldn't you know it would be an actor jumping onto a stage in his last great performance at Ford Theater in Washington, D.C. During twentieth century, stage, screen, and television stars, from Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, and William ("Hopalong Cassidy") Boyd, to Adam "Batman" West, Kelsey Grammer (Cheers was started in Boston as a local pub.), David Shiner and cast of "Seussical, Musical", made hotel their home.
The kitchens of Parker House made Americana culinary culture a mainstay, with talented bakers who invented famed Parker House roll. Parker's has also been training ground for internationally known chefs.
The Omni Parker House's restored lobby with original heirlooms, giving it a museum ambiance.
The Omni Parker House is located on today's Boston Freedom Trail, and it is a museum of its own in a way. Even though it has twenty-first century amenities, it still retains its nineteenth century charm and history. The lobby, bar-lounges, and restaurant are still armored with dark wood hues, elevators are freshly burnished bronze, while walls are vintage American oak. When walking to my room I had to stop and view numerous paintings on hallways, a living museum, indeed. Crystal chandeliers glow in lobby as a bus group was checking out. The lobby is a vibrant living landmark, more like a private clubroom, with many more exquisite paintings surrounding museum goers—I mean guests.
The corner of Tremont and School is as old as Boston itself. In 1630, Englishman John Winthrop and Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony first settled in area, naming peninsula Trimount, after three hills—Beacon, Premberton, and Mount Vernon—dominating landscape. The name was changed to Boston to honor Lincolnshire town that many of pilgrims had departed,. After three mountains were leveled Tremont Street was laid out at base of hills and Boston Common. The location and name of School Street originated in Puritan times, as well. From 1635-1636, British colonists established a college in nearby Cambridge (Harvard). By 1645 prep school, America's first public school, was housed in a cabin on what would be know as School Street. The school was later known as Boston Latin, and it educated a host of Boston's elite, including Sam Adams, John Hancock, Charles Bullfinch, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ben Franklin was a dropout. Parker's Bar now sits where old cabin was located.
