Young's Hotel (Boston)

Young's Hotel, Court Street, Boston, c. 1910s

Young's Hotel (1860–1927) in Boston, Massachusetts, was located on Court Street in the Financial District,[1] in a building designed by William Washburn. George Young established the business, later taken over by Joseph Reed Whipple and George G. Hall.[2] Guests at Young's included Mark Twain, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, William Lloyd Garrison, Charles Sumner, Rutherford B. Hayes, and numerous others.

History

Private currency issued by Young's Hotel, 1862. The individual depicted is Nathaniel Banks, former Massachusetts governor and Civil War general.)

Prior to opening his hotel, Connecticut-born George Young had worked for the Hampden House, Springfield, Mass.; United States Hotel, Worcester; and the Old Cornhill Coffee-House, Boston. In 1850 he bought the Cornhill Coffee-House from its aged proprietor, Mr. Taft. "In 1860 the Fifty Associates erected a new building [on the site of the coffee-house], known as 'Young's Hotel,' of which Mr. Young continued as proprietor. In 1876 he sold out his interest"[3] for $65,000 to Joseph Reed Whipple and George G. Hall (former employees of Parker's Hotel).[4]

Young's became one of the first buildings in Boston installed with electric lights (1881).[5] Whipple & Hall built an addition on the hotel in 1882. Frank Hill Smith designed its dining room: "a large and rather low studded apartment, broken by pilasters and beams into three bays. At the end of it is a long mantel and fire-place. ... The walls ... are covered above the red mahogany wainscot with stamped leather of golden arabesque figurings on a groundwork of reddish brown. The semi-circular arches over the windows are filled with stained glass. ... The mantel curves into the room, and is supported by Ionic columns quite clear of the carved griffins. The fireplace is highly ornamental, and is built up of the Chelsea tile, the main feature of which is a bas-relief of dancing figures. Chandeliers and side-sconces of brass in dead finish brighten the room at the proper points, and the outer light is shaded by fleecy hangings. ... This room is 100 feet long by 31 feet wide, and has tables of various size for seating 150 guests."[6]

In the 1880s, according to one report, "Boston's chief center of mild dissipation is Young's Hotel" with its pool tables and card-playing Harvard students. "The billiard room at Young's -- the most frequent in town -- is very much like all other billiard rooms, save for its extra gorgeousness. There are always to be seen the expert players at the exhibition tables, who perform all sorts of bewildering caroms, as if unconscious of the admiring crowd that looks on."[7] Further, "here one may see in the afternoon or evening the swellest students from Harvard, in cape coats and patent leather shoes exhibiting the very latest fashions in dress, and toting canes like small trees knobbed with silver. ... You need not be surprised if, as you pass the hotel desk, you see a party of five or six young men inquiring for a room ... [for a] poker party."[7] After a "disturbance" in 1891, Whipple decreed the hotel would "allow no large bodies of Harvard students to dine ... hereafter."[8]

Young's dining room, c. 1910
Portrait of J.R. Whipple, proprietor, c. 1893

J.R. Whipple continued as owner when the partnership with George Hall dissolved in 1887. Around this time Whipple & Co. also owned the Parker House hotel and Hotel Touraine. In 1892 he instituted an employee policy "compelling all ... waiters to remove their beards." The Boston Waiters' Alliance "embracing every hotel and restaurant in the city" resolved to resist, and were prepared to strike if Whipple fired "those who do not comply."[9]

A travel guidebook described Young's in 1895: "The main entrance to this hotel is on Court Avenue, and the hotel extends to Court Square and Court Street. It is one of the largest and best of the hotels on the European plan. One of the features of this hotel is the ladies' dining-room, the entrance to which is on the Court Street side. This is a handsomely decorated room 100 feet long and 31 feet wide. It connects with other large dining-rooms, and a cafe for gentlemen on the ground floor. This hotel is a favorite place with New Yorkers. ... Recognized as among the best [hotel restaurants in the city] are those connected with Young's Hotel, the Parker House, and the Adams House. That of Young's Hotel is very extensive, occupying a large part of the ground floor of that establishment. It has dining-rooms for ladies and gentlemen, lunch rooms, and convenient lunch and oyster counters."[10]

The hotel closed in 1927.[11] Thereafter the building was temporarily occupied by the Boston Weather Service (1929–1933).[12] The structure was demolished around 1940.[13]

Hotel guests

Young's Hotel lobby, c. 1910

Events at the hotel

19th century

Menu cover for dinner honoring William Lloyd Garrison, 1878
"Men's Dining Room," Young's, c. 1910
Young's Hotel, Court St., Boston, c. 1910

20th century

References

  1. ↑ Boston Directory. 1891
  2. ↑ "Joseph Reed Whipple." National cyclopaedia of American biography, v.4. NY: J. T. White company, 1893
  3. ↑ Oliver Ayer Roberts. History of the Military Company of the Massachusetts, now called, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts: 1637–1888, Volume 3. Boston: A. Mudge & Son, 1898
  4. ↑ Hartford Daily Courant; Date: 02-10-1876
  5. ↑ Electric Light in Boston. Daily Picayune (New Orleans); Date: 03-27-1881
  6. ↑ Bacon's dictionary of Boston. 1886
  7. 1 2 Columbus Enquirer-Sun; Date: 02-14-1889
  8. ↑ New Hampshire Sentinel; Date: 06-17-1891
  9. ↑ Will Not Remove Their Beards: Waiters at Young's Hotel in Boston May Not Obey Orders and a General Strike May Follow. New Haven Evening Register; Date: 03-15-1892
  10. ↑ Rand, McNally & Co.'s handy guide to Boston and environs. 1895
  11. ↑ Boston Loses Civic Tradition With Closing of Young's Hotel. Christian Science Monitor. May 9, 1927
  12. ↑ U.S. National Weather Service. "A Brief History of the Boston Weather Bureau".
  13. ↑ Young's Hotel To Pass From Boston Scene. Christian Science Monitor. Oct 1, 1940
  14. ↑ That Walk to Boston. Mark Twain And Mr. Twitchell As Pedestrians. Hartford Daily Courant; Date: 11-16-1874
  15. ↑ Ray Allen Billington. Frederick Jackson Turner Visits New England: 1887. New England Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 3 (Sep., 1968)
  16. ↑ Organization of the Democratic State Committee. Pittsfield Sun; Date: 10-12-1865
  17. ↑ Hartford Daily Courant; Date: 02-01-1870
  18. ↑ The Constitution (Middletown, Connecticut); Date: 04-12-1871
  19. ↑ New England Press Association--Election of Officers. Hartford Daily Courant; Date: 06-08-1871
  20. ↑ American Anti-slavery Anniversary. Hartford Daily Courant; Date: 09-30-1871
  21. ↑ Organization of the Boston Grange, Order of Patrons of Husbandry. Daily Picayune.; Date: 08-22-1873
  22. ↑ Reunion of New Hampshire Officers. New Hampshire Patriot; Date: 12-02-1874
  23. ↑ Hartford Daily Courant; Date: 12-30-1874
  24. ↑ John Lord Parker. Henry Wilson's Regiment: history of the 22nd Massachusetts Infantry, the 2nd Company Sharpshooters, and the 3rd Light Battery, in the war of the rebellion. Boston: Regimental Assoc., 1887
  25. ↑ President Hayes: a tour in New England. Philadelphia Inquirer; Date: 06-27-1877
  26. ↑ Menu, Young's Hotel, Boston, October 14, 1878
  27. ↑ Silver Anniversary. Lake Superior News (Minnesota); Date: 05-15-1879
  28. ↑ New Hampshire Sentinel; Date: 12-18-1879
  29. ↑ Farewell dinner to Francis Ellingwood Abbot, on retiring from the editorship of "The Index" at Young's hotel, Boston, June 24, 1880: Full report of the speeches, together with numerous letters from absent friends in America and England. Boston: Press of Geo. H. Ellis, 1880
  30. ↑ The Continentals In Boston. The Military Dinner--A Notable and Significant Occasion at Young's--Earnest and Patriotic Interchange of Sentiments by Northern and Southern Speakers. Times-Picayune (New Orleans); Date: 06-22-1880
  31. ↑ General Grant. A Humorous Political Speech. Philadelphia Inquirer; Date: 10-16-1880
  32. ↑ Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies, Feb. 1883
  33. ↑ Eating Crow at Young's: A Bostonian Who Bet on Blaine Settles for His Rashness Last Evening. New Haven Evening Register; Date: 11-23-1884
  34. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Miss Frank E. Buttolph American Menu Collection, 1851-1930". New York Public Library. Retrieved 2010-09-19.
  35. ↑ American Angler, April 20, 1889
  36. ↑ The Dental Cosmos, Feb. 1891
  37. ↑ Boston Journal, June 1890
  38. ↑ Railroad and Engineering Journal, April 1891
  39. ↑ "National Textile Club". U.S. National Textile Association.
  40. ↑ American druggist and pharmaceutical record, Feb. 1, 1894
  41. ↑ Dorchester Atheneum. "Dorchester Yacht Club".
  42. ↑ American University Magazine, Jan. 1896
  43. ↑ Annual cyclopedia of insurance in the United States, 1895–1896. Hartford, CT: H.R. Hayden, 1896
  44. ↑ Comptroller J. H. Eckels: Addresses the Massachusetts Reform Club at Young's ... Extols the Gold Standard. Wheeling Register (West Virginia); Date: 02-29-1896
  45. ↑ Boston medical and surgical journal, Jan. 28, 1897
  46. ↑ Horticulture (Boston), Nov. 4, 1905
  47. ↑ New England Railroad Club, Oct. 13, 1908
  48. ↑ University of Delaware (1994). "An American Feast: Food, Dining, and Entertainment in the United States from Simmons to Rombauer".
  49. ↑ The Gas Industry, Volume 12, Jan. 1912
  50. ↑ The Banker's Magazine, 1914
  51. ↑ Thaw Cheered Jerome Hooted on Way to N.Y.: Thousands Greet Prisoner on Arrival in Boston Police Having Hard Time. Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas); Date: 01-24-1915
  52. ↑ The American sugar family, April 13, 1920
  53. ↑ British Officers' Club of New England (2012). "Brief History of the BOCNE".

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