25 Boston Hotels and What Came Before
A granite jail turned hotel, the old Federal Reserve bank, a 1915 custom-house tower, and the School Street hotel where the Boston cream pie was invented.
Boston turned a granite jail, an old Federal Reserve bank, a custom house, and a couple of YWCAs into hotels, alongside its grand Back Bay names. This list has the 1851 Charles Street Jail with its cell catwalks kept intact, the 1922 Boston Fed with N.C. Wyeth murals off the lobby, the 1915 Custom House tower with its four-sided clock, and the School Street hotel where the Boston cream pie was invented.
The list is grouped by character, not ranked. Most of the hotels link to their own site, where the rate is current and you book direct; a few are listed without a link.
The grand old names
Omni Parker House · Downtown (School Street)
The Parker House opened in 1855, started by the restaurateur Harvey D. Parker, and bills itself as the longest continuously running hotel in the United States. The Parker House roll and the Boston cream pie both came out of its kitchens in the 1800s. The Saturday Club, whose members included Emerson, Longfellow, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, met here from the 1850s, and Dickens gave readings during his 1867-68 American tour. Ho Chi Minh worked in the kitchen in the early 1910s, and Malcolm X bused tables here in the 1940s.
Fairmont Copley Plaza · Back Bay (Copley Square)
The Copley Plaza opened in 1912, designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, who also built New York’s Plaza. It stands on the Copley Square site the Museum of Fine Arts held until it moved to Huntington Avenue in 1909. Its gilded Oval Room and Grand Ballroom have drawn presidents and dignitaries since it opened.
The Lenox Hotel · Back Bay
The Lenox opened in 1900, designed by the architect Arthur Bowditch. At eleven stories it was one of the tallest buildings in Boston at the time. The Saunders family has run it since 1963.
The Newbury Boston · Back Bay (Public Garden)
The Newbury opened in 1927 as the Ritz-Carlton, Boston, overlooking the Public Garden at Arlington and Newbury Streets. It ran as the Ritz-Carlton until 2007, then as Taj Boston, before reopening as the Newbury in 2021 after a major renovation.
Hilton Boston Park Plaza · Back Bay (Park Square)
The Park Plaza opened in 1927 as the Statler Hotel, built by the pioneering hotelier Ellsworth M. Statler. Statler’s hotels were among the first to put a private bath, a telephone, and a radio in every room.
Copley Square Hotel · Back Bay
The Copley Square Hotel opened in 1891, among the oldest hotels still running in Boston. George Wein’s jazz club Storyville ran in the hotel in the 1950s, with Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, and others on the bill.
The Eliot Hotel · Back Bay (Commonwealth Avenue)
The Eliot opened in 1925 as an all-suite residence hotel on Commonwealth Avenue, and marked its hundredth year in 2025. It is a member of Historic Hotels of America, still family-run.
Used to be something else
The Liberty Hotel · Beacon Hill (Charles Street)
The Liberty is in the former Charles Street Jail, built in 1851 to a design by Gridley J.F. Bryant. The granite jail held inmates until 1990 and reopened as a hotel in 2007. The central rotunda, the cell catwalks, and some of the ironwork were kept; the bar, Alibi, is in the former drunk tank.
The Langham, Boston · Financial District (Post Office Square)
The Langham is in the former Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, a Renaissance Revival building of 1922. It was the Boston Fed’s headquarters until 1977, and reopened as the Langham in 2021 after a multi-year renovation. A room off the lobby holds a set of murals by the illustrator N.C. Wyeth.
Marriott Vacation Club at Custom House · Downtown Waterfront (McKinley Square)
The hotel is in the Custom House Tower. The original Greek Revival custom house was finished in 1847, and a 496-foot tower added in 1915 by Peabody & Stearns made it Boston’s tallest building until the Prudential Tower in 1964. It became a Marriott timeshare hotel in 1997, keeping the four-sided clock and the observation deck.
Hotel AKA Back Bay · Back Bay (Berkeley Street)
Hotel AKA is in the former Boston Police headquarters at 154 Berkeley Street, built in 1925. It ran as the Loews Boston until it closed in 2022, then reopened under the AKA name.
The Revolution Hotel · South End
The Revolution is in a former South End YWCA, converted and opened as a hotel in 2019. It is decorated around Boston history, and some rooms keep the shared baths from the building’s residence years.
Hotel 140 · Back Bay (Clarendon Street)
Hotel 140 is in the former YWCA at 140 Clarendon Street, from the late 1920s. It shares its landmark building with the Lyric Stage Company theatre.
The Verb Hotel · Fenway (Lansdowne Street)
The Verb is a former 1959 Howard Johnson motor lodge beside Fenway Park, reopened as a music-themed hotel in 2014. It is filled with rock-and-roll memorabilia from the Fenway and Lansdowne Street music scene.
Eurostars The Boxer · West End (Bulfinch Triangle)
The Boxer is in an early-20th-century flatiron brick building in the Bulfinch Triangle. It opened as a boutique hotel in 2013.
In a downtown landmark
XV Beacon · Beacon Hill (Beacon Street)
XV Beacon is in a 1903 Beaux-Arts building at 15 Beacon Street, built as offices. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places, and it became a boutique hotel in 2000.
The Dagny Boston · Financial District
The Dagny is in the Batterymarch Building, a 1928 Art Deco skyscraper in the Financial District. It opened as an independent hotel in 2023, after a restoration of the landmark.
The Godfrey Hotel Boston · Downtown Crossing (Ladder District)
The Godfrey is in the adjoining Blake and Amory Buildings on Washington Street, in Downtown Crossing. It opened as a hotel in 2016, after a restoration recognized by the Boston Preservation Alliance.
Small houses with character
Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro · Beacon Hill (Charles Street)
The Beacon Hill Hotel is in early-19th-century brick row houses on Charles Street, in Beacon Hill. It holds about a dozen rooms above a street-level bistro.
Newbury Guest House · Back Bay (Newbury Street)
The Newbury Guest House was made from three joined 1880s Victorian brownstones at 261 Newbury Street. The town houses were turned into a small Back Bay guesthouse.
Clarendon Square Inn · South End
The Clarendon Square Inn is a restored 19th-century South End brick town house, run as a small inn. It is known for a rooftop hot tub with a view over the Back Bay skyline.
John Jeffries House · Beacon Hill (Charles Circle)
The John Jeffries House is in the 1909 former nurses’ residence of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, at the foot of Beacon Hill. It is named for John Jeffries, an 18th-century Boston physician and ballooning pioneer.
The waterfront
Boston Harbor Hotel · Waterfront (Rowes Wharf)
The Boston Harbor Hotel opened in 1987 at Rowes Wharf, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Its great archway and copper-domed rotunda are a landmark of the Boston waterfront.
Battery Wharf Hotel · North End Waterfront
The Battery Wharf Hotel is on the North End’s Battery Wharf, named for a colonial-era gun battery and one of Boston’s oldest wharf sites. It opened in 2008 as a Fairmont and took the Battery Wharf name in 2015.
The Bostonian Boston · Downtown (Faneuil Hall Marketplace)
The Bostonian sits beside Faneuil Hall Marketplace and the Blackstone Block, Boston’s oldest surviving commercial district. It opened in 1982, taking in older 19th-century buildings on the site.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these hotels ranked?
No. The groups sort them by character, and the order within each group carries no meaning.
What made a hotel interesting enough for this list?
A story. Every entry was a jail, a bank, a custom house, a Back Bay grand hotel, or a townhouse with a past. Comfort alone did not qualify a hotel.
Why are there no prices?
Rates change daily and a priced list goes stale in a month. Where a hotel runs its own site, its name links there, so you see the current rate and book direct.
Which hotel puts me closest to the day trips on this site?
Most day trips from Boston leave by train from South Station or North Station, or by road up the coast to Salem and Cape Ann. The downtown and Back Bay hotels sit closest to the stations.
Do the small hotels book out faster than the grand ones?
Usually. The small Beacon Hill and South End houses — the Beacon Hill Hotel, the Clarendon Square Inn, John Jeffries House — hold few rooms and fill first. Book those well ahead.