The Quincy House was a hotel in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Located on the corner of Brattle Street and

Brattle Square Brattle is one of the settlements making up the dispersed village of Woodchurch in Kent, England. It is at the southern apex of the triangle of roads which are the main village. Derivations The surname Brattle is of geographical, place name orig ...

in the neighborhood of

Scollay Square 300px, Scollay Square, Boston, 19th century (after September 1880) 350px, Scollay Square, Decoration Day, 19th century (after September 1880) Scollay Square (c. 1838–1962) was a vibrant city square in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It was na ...

, it was in operation for most of the 19th and early 20th centuries, before it was closed in 1929. It was the largest hotel in Boston in the late 19th century, and was a popular destination for prominent guests to the city. It also served as a major headquarters for

labor unions A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

in Boston.

History

The original Quincy House was built in the early 1800s, on the site of the first

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

meeting house A meeting house (meetinghouse, meeting-house) is a building where religious and sometimes public meetings take place. Terminology Nonconformist Protestant denominations distinguish between a * church, which is a body of people who believe in Chr ...

in Boston."Mayor Couldn't Get Into Quincy House." ''Boston Daily Globe.'' 19 September 1956: p. 36. The hotel was built with Quincy granite, making it the first building in Boston to be constructed with that material. Over the course of the 19th century the hotel received several renovations and additions, the most extensive expansion occurring in c. 1885. By the end of the 19th century, the building reached seven stories in height and had approximately 500 rooms. By the late 1800s, the Quincy House acquired a reputation as one of the most famous hotels in the city. Labor unions in particular frequented the establishment; labor leaders and strike committees customarily held their meetings there. The regular union presence at the Quincy House eventually resulted in the hotel advertising itself as the "official headquarters for organized labor" in the city. The Quincy House additionally served as a popular place for local politicians, and it especially became known as the meeting place of the Board of Strategy, a group of high-ranking Democratic politicians (including

P. J. Kennedy Patrick Joseph Kennedy (January 14, 1858 – May 18, 1929) was an American businessman and politician from Boston, Massachusetts. He and his wife Mary were the parents of four children, including future U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ...

) who selected candidates for office and distributed patronage to party loyalists. The Quincy House's popularity began to suffer in the early 20th century; labor patronage declined during this period,"Third Quincy House Blaze in 48 Hours." ''Boston Daily Globe.'' 22 January 1935: p. 3. and the building was eclipsed by newer hotels in the city."Almost a Memory." ''Boston Daily Globe.'' 27 December 1934: p. 14. It was ultimately unable to recover from this downturn and closed on September 15, 1929. The hotel remained vacant for several years, during which the Suffolk Savings Bank and the

First National Bank of Boston BankBoston was a bank based in Boston, Massachusetts, which was created by the 1996 merger of Bank of Boston and BayBank. One of its predecessor banks started in 1784, but the merged BankBoston was short-lived, being acquired by Fleet Bank in 199 ...

each acquired separate parcels of the building. In late 1934, the banks decided to raze the hotel, and in early 1935 it was demolished and replaced with a parking lot. The site is now occupied by City Hall Plaza, in front of

Boston City Hall Boston City Hall is the seat of city government of Boston, Massachusetts. It includes the offices of the mayor of Boston and the Boston City Council. The current hall was built in 1968 to assume the functions of the Old City Hall. It is a cont ...

.Sammarco, Anthony Michael. ''Boston: A Century of Progress.'' Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 1995. . p. 28.

Images

Image:BrattleSt QuincyHouse Boston byAbelBowen.png, The old Quincy House, 1800s Image:BrattleSt ca1860 Boston BPL 08 02 003339.jpg, The old Quincy House (center, in front of the

Brattle Street Church The Brattle Street Church (1698–1876) was a Congregational (1698 – c. 1805) and Unitarian (c. 1805–1876) church on Brattle Street in Boston, Massachusetts. History In January 1698, " Thomas Brattle conveyed the land on which the meetin ...

), c. 1860 Image:BrattleSt ca1885 BostonianSociety2.png, The Quincy House after its expansion, c. 1885 Image:1896 DockSq Boston map byStadly BPL 12479 detail.png, Map of Boston, showing location of the Quincy House (lower left), 1896 Image:BrattleSt Cornhill ca1905 Boston BPL 08 02 001023.jpg, Quincy House (far left), c. 1905

References

{{reflist, 2 Former buildings and structures in Boston 19th century in Boston Hotels in Boston Government Center, Boston Demolished hotels in the United States 1819 establishments in Massachusetts 1929 disestablishments in Massachusetts Buildings and structures demolished in 1935