Revere House (1847–1912) was an upscale hotel in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts, located on Bowdoin Square in the West End. [1] Fire destroyed the building in 1912. [2]
Revere House (1847–1912) was an upscale hotel in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts, located on Bowdoin Square in the West End. [1] Fire destroyed the building in 1912. [2]
William Washburn designed the hotel building, constructed in 1847 on the former site of the house of Boston merchant Kirk Boott. The hotel was a project of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association. The association named their new hotel after Paul Revere, one of the founders of the group. [2]
Some considered Revere House "Boston's most prestigious hotel. It hosted the likes of writer Charles Dickens, singer Jenny Lind ("The Swedish Nightingale"). ... Famed orator Daniel Webster often used the portico to address crowds at political rallies." [3] Other notable guests: Ulysses S. Grant, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, William Tecumseh Sherman, Walt Whitman, [4] Edward VII, Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, Philip Sheridan, the Iwakura Mission of Japan, [5] and singers Christina Nilsson and Adelina Patti. [2] Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia stayed at the Revere House in December 1871 when he visited Boston as part of his grand tour of the United States.
Through the years, owners included Otis Norcross, Frederick W. Lincoln, Uriel Crocker, Nathaniel J. Bradlee. [2] Paran Stevens served as manager for many years. Management companies overseeing hotel operations included Chapin, Gurney & Co.; C.B. Ferrin; and beginning in 1885, J.F. Morrow & Co. [2]
Robert Charles Winthrop was an American lawyer, philanthropist, and Whig Party politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House and Senate from 1840 to 1851. He served as the 18th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and was a political ally and colleague of Daniel Webster. After a rapid rise in Massachusetts and national politics and one term as speaker, Winthrop succeeded Webster in the Senate. His re-election campaign resulted in a long, sharply contested defeat by Charles Sumner. He ran for Governor of Massachusetts in 1851 but lost due to the state's majority requirement, marking the end of his political career and signaling the decline of the Massachusetts Whig Party.
Beacon Hill is a historic neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, and the hill upon which the Massachusetts State House resides. The term "Beacon Hill" is used locally as a metonym to refer to the state government or the legislature itself, much like Washington, D.C.'s Capitol Hill does at the federal level.
Bowdoin Street in Boston, Massachusetts extends from the top of Beacon Street, down Beacon Hill to Cambridge Street, near the West End. It was originally called "Middlecott Street" as early as the 1750s. In 1805 it was renamed after the Governor James Bowdoin.
The West End is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, bounded generally by Cambridge Street to the south, the Charles River to the west and northwest, North Washington Street on the north and northeast, and New Sudbury Street on the east. Beacon Hill is to the south, North Point is across the Charles River to the north, Kendall Square is across the Charles River to the west, and the North End is to the east. A late 1950s urban renewal project razed a large Italian and Jewish enclave and displaced over 20,000 people in order to redevelop much of the West End and part of the neighboring Downtown neighborhood. After that, the original West End became increasingly non-residential, including part of Government Center as well as much of Massachusetts General Hospital and several high rise office buildings. More recently, however, new residential buildings and spaces, as well as new parks, have been appearing across the West End.
Kirk Boott was an American industrialist who was instrumental in the early history of Lowell, Massachusetts.
The Boott Mills in Lowell, Massachusetts were a part of an extensive group of cotton mills, built in 1835 alongside a power canal system in this important cotton town. Its incorporators were Abbott Lawrence, Nathan Appleton, and John Amory Lowell, and is named after Kirk Boott, the first Agent of the Proprietors of Locks & Canals in Lowell. Today, the Boott Mills complex is the most complete remainder of antebellum textile mills built in Lowell. The original Mill No. 6 is managed by the National Park Service unit Lowell National Historical Park and houses the Boott Cotton Mills Museum and the Tsongas Industrial History Center for K-12 educational programs.
Josiah Johnson Hawes (1808–1901) was a photographer in Boston, Massachusetts. He and Albert Southworth established the photography studio of Southworth & Hawes, which produced numerous portraits of exceptional quality in the 1840s–1860s.
The Exchange Coffee House (1809-1818) was a hotel, coffeehouse, and place of business in Boston, Massachusetts, in the early 19th century. Designed by architect Asher Benjamin, it was located at Congress Square on Congress Street, and in its day it was the largest building in Boston and one of the tallest buildings in the northeastern United States. Andrew Dexter Jr. financed the project. Dexter resorted to financial fraud to see the construction to completion, and fled to Nova Scotia to escape prosecution and his creditors.
Court Street is located in the Financial District of Boston, Massachusetts. Prior to 1788, it was called Prison Lane (1634–1708) and then Queen Street (1708–1788). In the 19th century it extended beyond its current length, to Bowdoin Square. In the 1960s most of Court Street was demolished to make way for the construction of Government Center. The remaining street extends a few blocks, near the Old State House on State Street.
Bowdoin Square in Boston, Massachusetts was located in the West End. In the 18th and 19th centuries it featured residential houses, leafy trees, a church, hotel, theatre and other buildings. Among the notables who have lived in the square: physician Thomas Bulfinch; merchant Kirk Boott; and mayor Theodore Lyman. The urban renewal project in the West End in the 1950s removed Green Street and Chardon Street, which formerly ran into the square, and renamed some existing streets; it is now a traffic intersection at Cambridge Street, Bowdoin Street, and New Chardon Street.
Mount Vernon Church in Boston, Massachusetts, was a Congregational church located on Beacon Hill (1844–1891) and later in Back Bay (1892–present).
William Washburn (1808–1890) was an architect and city councilor in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, in the mid-19th century. He designed Boston's National Theatre (1836), Revere House hotel (1847), Tremont Temple (1853) and Parker House hotel (1854). He served on the Boston Common Council from ward 6 in 1854 and 1855. He was chairman of the Boston Board of Aldermen in 1855.
Frank Hill Smith (1842–1904) was an American artist and interior designer based in Boston, Massachusetts. He painted landscapes and figures; and designed wall frescos, stage curtains, stained-glass windows, and other décor. Among his works are ceiling frescoes in the Representatives Hall in the Massachusetts State House.
Edwin Tryon Billings (1824-1893) was a portrait painter in 19th-century United States. He lived in Montgomery, Alabama; Worcester, Massachusetts; and in Boston. Among his numerous portrait subjects were Daniel Webster, William Lloyd Garrison and Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
The American House was a hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, located on Hanover Street. Abraham W. Brigham, Lewis Rice (1837–1874), Henry B. Rice (1868–1888), and Allen E. Jones served as proprietors. In 1851 the building was expanded, to a design by Charles A. Alexander. In 1868 it had "the first hotel passenger elevator in Boston." By the 1860s it also had "billiard halls, telegraph office, and cafe." In the late 19th century it was described as "the headquarters of the shoe-and-leather trade" in the city. Guests of the hotel and restaurant included John Brown, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Whitwell Greenough, Charles Savage Homer, Zadoc Long, and George Presbury Rowell. Many groups held meetings there, among them: Granite Cutters' International Association of America, Letter Carriers' Association, National Electric Light Association, and New England Shorthand Reporters' Association. The hotel closed in 1916, and re-opened under new management in 1918. It permanently closed on August 8, 1935, and the building was shortly afterwards demolished to make room for a parking lot. The John F. Kennedy Federal Building now occupies the site.
The Boston Evening Traveller (1845–1967) was a newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts. It was a daily newspaper, with weekly and semi-weekly editions under a variety of Traveller titles. It was absorbed by the Boston Herald in 1912, and ceased publication in 1967.
Richard Bond (1798–1861) was an early American architect who practiced primarily in Boston, Massachusetts.
Second Church of Dorchester is a Church of the Nazarene in the historic Codman Square District of Dorchester in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1804 the church was founded as the Dorchester Meeting House Company by members from the First Parish Church of Dorchester.
