Young's Hotel (1860–1927) in Boston, Massachusetts, was located on Court Street in the Financial District,Boston Directory. 1891 in a building designed by William Washburn. George Young established the business, later taken over by Joseph Reed Whipple and George G. Hall."Joseph Reed Whipple." National cyclopaedia of American biography, v.4. NY: J. T. White company, 1893 Guests at Young's included Mark Twain, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, William Lloyd Garrison, Charles Sumner, Rutherford B. Hayes, and numerous others.
History
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"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 for $65,000 to Joseph Reed Whipple and George G. Hall (former employees of Parker's Hotel).Hartford Daily Courant; Date: 02-10-1876
Young's became one of the first buildings in Boston installed with electric lights (1881).Electric Light in Boston. Daily Picayune (New Orleans); Date: 03-27-1881 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."Bacon's dictionary of Boston. 1886
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."Columbus Enquirer-Sun; Date: 02-14-1889 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." After a "disturbance" in 1891, Whipple decreed the hotel would "allow no large bodies of Harvard students to dine ... hereafter."New Hampshire Sentinel; Date: 06-17-1891
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."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
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."Rand, McNally & Co.'s handy guide to Boston and environs. 1895
The hotel closed in 1927.Boston Loses Civic Tradition With Closing of Young's Hotel. Christian Science Monitor. May 9, 1927 Thereafter the building was temporarily occupied by the Boston Weather Service (1929–1933). The structure was demolished around 1940.Young's Hotel To Pass From Boston Scene. Christian Science Monitor. Oct 1, 1940
Hotel guests
Mark Twain and Joseph Twichell after their (aborted) attempt to walk "from Hartford to Boston, a distance of about a hundred miles," 1874That Walk to Boston. Mark Twain And Mr. Twitchell As Pedestrians. Hartford Daily Courant; Date: 11-16-1874 Frederick Jackson Turner, 1887Ray Allen Billington. Frederick Jackson Turner Visits New England: 1887. New England Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 3 (Sep., 1968)
Events at the hotel
19th century 1865 Massachusetts Democratic State Central Committee meetingOrganization of the Democratic State Committee. Pittsfield Sun; Date: 10-12-1865 1870 "Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton dined informally with the Bird Club ... as a guest of the club"Hartford Daily Courant; Date: 02-01-1870 1871 New England Commissioners of fisheries meetingThe Constitution (Middletown, Connecticut); Date: 04-12-1871 New England Associated Press annual meetingNew England Press Association--Election of Officers. Hartford Daily Courant; Date: 06-08-1871 "Bird Club" reunion/tribute on the "25th anniversary of the first open schism in the Whig party of this state on the slavery question;" speeches by Charles Sumner, Francis William Bird, Charles Francis Adams Jr., E. Rockwood Hoar, Marshall JewellAmerican Anti-slavery Anniversary. Hartford Daily Courant; Date: 09-30-1871 1873 "Boston Grange, Order of Patrons of Husbandry" establishedOrganization of the Boston Grange, Order of Patrons of Husbandry. Daily Picayune.; Date: 08-22-1873 1874 13th New Hampshire Infantry Regiment officers' reunionReunion of New Hampshire Officers. New Hampshire Patriot; Date: 12-02-1874 Benjamin F. Butler "feasted ... by his past political friends"Hartford Daily Courant; Date: 12-30-1874 1877 Massachusetts 22nd Infantry and 3rd Battery Association annual dinner and reunionJohn 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 Loyal Legion reception for President Rutherford B. HayesPresident Hayes: a tour in New England. Philadelphia Inquirer; Date: 06-27-1877
1878 Dinner of the New England Franklin Club, "complimentary to William Lloyd Garrison"Menu, Young's Hotel, Boston, October 14, 1878 1879 Mason & Hamlin Organ Co. 25th anniversary dinnerSilver Anniversary. Lake Superior News (Minnesota); Date: 05-15-1879 New Hampshire Club establishedNew Hampshire Sentinel; Date: 12-18-1879 1880 "Farewell dinner to Francis Ellingwood Abbot, on retiring from the editorship of 'The Index'"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 "Charlestown Cadets entertained the Guards at their annual dinner"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 Lunch for Ulysses S. Grant, hosted by the State Central CommitteeGeneral Grant. A Humorous Political Speech. Philadelphia Inquirer; Date: 10-16-1880 1883 Boston Society of Civil Engineers 1st annual dinnerJournal of the Association of Engineering Societies, Feb. 1883 1884 Nov. 22 - Charles H. Hill "eats crow" after Grover Cleveland defeats James G. Blaine in the U.S. presidential election. As reported in a local newspaper: "Before the election an agreement was made between Charles H. Hill and Fred W. Webber of Newton that if Cleveland was elected Hill was to eat crow, and if Blaine won Webber was to eat crow. This morning a crow was killed and sent to Young's hotel. At 6:30 o'clock to night, in the presence of Dr. Webber and eighteen other gentlemen, Mr. Hill sat down to a crow feast which had been prepared, and in anticipation of which he had been fasting since yesterday."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 Beacon Society's Commercial Club and Merchants Club dinner 1886 Founding of Boston College Alumni Association and first annual meeting June 28, 1886.The Spirit of the Heights, by Thomas H. O'Connor, Linden Lane Press at Boston College, pg. 2-3, 2011. According to the Boston Globe: "The first annual dinner of the Boston College Alumni Association was held at Young's Hotel and a large number of graduates of that institution assembled to make merry around the festive board. Previous to the dinner a business meeting was held, at which it was unanimously voted to admit to the association none but the graduates of the college."Boston Globe, June 29, 1886 1888 Boston Life Underwriter's Association meeting 1889 Cambridge Club "Ladies Night" Inglewood Fish and Game Corporation annual meetingAmerican Angler, April 20, 1889
1890 American Academy of Dental Science annual meetingThe Dental Cosmos, Feb. 1891 Boston Law School alumni dinnerBoston Journal, June 1890 1891 5th Massachusetts Battery Light Artillery Association 21st reunion meal Boston Society of Civil Engineers annual dinnerRailroad and Engineering Journal, April 1891 Textile Club meeting 1892 Theta Delta Chi fraternity banquet 1894 Boston Druggists annual meetingAmerican druggist and pharmaceutical record, Feb. 1, 1894 Dorchester Yacht Club annual dinner 1895 Chickatawbut Club annual meeting and dinner 1896 Theta Delta Chi fraternity annual conventionAmerican University Magazine, Jan. 1896 Boston Life Underwriters' Association annual meetingAnnual cyclopedia of insurance in the United States, 1895–1896. Hartford, CT: H.R. Hayden, 1896 James H. Eckels, Comptroller of the Currency, addresses the Massachusetts Reform ClubComptroller J. H. Eckels: Addresses the Massachusetts Reform Club at Young's ... Extols the Gold Standard. Wheeling Register (West Virginia); Date: 02-29-1896 25th Anniversary of the founding of the Apollo Club of Boston, men's chorus, with invited guest the Mendelssohn Glee Club of New York, dinner held May 17, 1896. (Event invitation, archives Apollo Club of Boston held in custody by the Massachusetts Historical Society.) 1897 Boston City Hospital Club annual meetingBoston medical and surgical journal, Jan. 28, 1897 New Hampshire Club dinner 1899 Boston Boot and Shoe Club dinner
20th century 1905