Boston Omni Parker House Hotel ★★★★

The hotel that has never closed since 1855

Harvey D. Parker opened his hotel on School Street in 1855, and the house has been receiving guests ever since, which is why it claims the title of the longest continuously operating hotel in the United States. The present building dates from 1927, but the stories belong to the whole span. The Saturday Club met here every month with Emerson, Longfellow and Hawthorne at the table, Charles Dickens lived in the hotel for five months and gave a reading of A Christmas Carol to the members, and John F. Kennedy announced his first run for Congress in these rooms before proposing to Jacqueline Bouvier at table 40 of the restaurant. Malcolm X worked here as a busboy and Emeril Lagasse as a sous-chef, which says something about the size of the kitchen.

Rooms behind the gilded lobby

The lobby sets the tone, with rich wood panelling, carved mouldings and chandeliers in the Italianate manner, and the hotel has renovated its rooms and public spaces from top to bottom so that the historic setting comes with contemporary comfort. The 551 rooms and suites are split between Traditional, Deluxe and Signature categories, the latter with a dedicated sitting area, a work station and vintage decor, while the suites are oversized and family-friendly, several of them with connecting rooms. Plush robes come as standard, a fitness center with Peloton bikes is open to guests, and dogs and cats under twenty-five pounds are welcome.

Parker's Restaurant, The Last Hurrah and the Boston cream pie

This is the kitchen that gave America the Boston cream pie, the Parker House roll and even the word scrod, under the French chef Augustine Anezin, and Parker's Restaurant still serves the first two as the house signature. Parker's Bar handles cocktails at the front of the house, and The Last Hurrah, the pub named after the novel about Boston politics, is the more relaxed of the three outlets, with a long history of political conversation behind it.

School Street, on the Freedom Trail

The red line of the Freedom Trail runs past the front door. King's Chapel stands at the corner, the Old City Hall faces the hotel across the street, and the Old South Meeting House and the Old State House are five minutes away on foot. Boston Common and the Park Street station are a similar distance in the other direction, with Beacon Hill and the State House just beyond, and Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market are about ten minutes away. Downtown Crossing and its shops begin two blocks south. Logan Airport is roughly two and a half miles away, check-in is at 4 pm and check-out at 11 am, and valet parking is available.

Why we selected it

Our brief for Boston calls for landmark hotels, and few addresses in the city carry as much of its story as the Parker House. We recommend it to first-time visitors who want to walk the Freedom Trail from the lobby, to history-minded couples and to families who will appreciate the connecting suites and the pastry that started it all.