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Fairmont Hotel Used to Be the Museum of Fine Arts on Copley Square

Fairmont Copley Plaza
BostonCopleySquareMusician26June07.jpg

The Fairmont Copley Plaza and Copley Square, 2007

General information
Location 138 St. James Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts
United States
Opening 1912
Owner Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp.
Management Fairmont Hotels and Resorts
Design and structure
Builder Henry Janeway Hardenbergh
Other information
Number of rooms 383
Website
Fairmont Copley Plaza

The Fairmont Copley Plaza is a Forbes four-star, AAA four-diamond hotel[one] [2] in downtown Boston, Massachusetts managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. It stands on Copley Square, part of an architectural ensemble that includes the John Hancock Tower, Henry Hobson Richardson'south Trinity Church building, and Charles Follen McKim'due south Boston Public Library.[3]

The Fairmont Copley Plaza is recognized equally one of the Historic Hotels of America, a plan of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.[4] It is currently under consideration for local landmark status with the Boston Landmarks Committee.[5] [ needs update ]

Construction and opening [edit]

Copley Square in 2013, the hotel entrance on the correct

The Copley Plaza was congenital on the original site of the Museum of Fine Arts[half dozen] and named in honor of John Singleton Copley, an American painter. The full cost was $5.5 million.

The hotel's architect was Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, who also designed other hotels, including the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. and the Plaza Hotel in New York City, the Copley Plaza'south sister hotel.[6] [seven] The 7-floor hotel is constructed of limestone and buff brick in the Beaux-Arts style. The Eastward-shaped building is supported by pilings driven to a depth of 70 feet (21 m) below the street level.

When it opened in 1912, Boston Mayor John F. Fitzgerald presided over a reception with over a thou guests. Rooms had been booked as early on as 16 months in accelerate. Its first manager, who also lived at the hotel, served for 22 years and he and the hotel were and so prominent equally to merit an obituary in the New York Times.[8] It became for some years the site of the almanac Harvard-Yale dance and other post-football dances, denounced past the authorities of local women's colleges who forbade their students from attention: "These dances have naught to exercise with the colleges in question, but take merely a fiscal involvement in them. At that place is not doubt that they are of an extremely questionable nature owing to the fact that they are entirely opened to the public."[9]

The hotel marked its centennial with another ribbon cut ceremony by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino on Baronial 16, 2012.[10]

Buying [edit]

Sheraton Hotels bought The Copley Plaza in 1941.[11] They renamed information technology the Sheraton-Plaza Hotel in 1951[12] and operated it under that proper name until 1972, when they sold it to John Hancock Insurance for $6.five million.[13] The new owners renamed the hotel The Copley Plaza, merely Sheraton connected to operate the property until 1974, when John Hancock hired Boston hospitality management firm Hotels of Distinction'due south Alan Tremain to run The Copley Plaza. During this time, the restaurants in the hotel were considered some of the best in the urban center and featured such chefs equally Lydia Shire, Jasper White, and Gordon Hamersley.

John Hancock sold the hotel in 1988 for $56 million to local man of affairs James A. Daley, in partnership with a subsidiary of Harvard Academy.[14] In 1993, Harvard brought in Wyndham Hotels & Resorts to manage The Copley Plaza and it became The Copley Plaza - A Wyndham Hotel.

In September 1996, Saudi Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud and Olympus Real Manor Corporation partnered to buy the hotel from Harvard for $70 million.[fifteen] Fairmont Hotels, which Prince Al Waleed then owned a decision-making interest in, assumed management of the hotel, which was renamed The Fairmont Copley Plaza Boston.[16]

On September 21, 1999, Prince Al Waleed bought out Olympus's share of the hotel, bold 100% ownership.[17] Between 1999 and 2001, Fairmont Hotels was significantly reorganized, with Prince Al Waleed merely owning a 16.5% stake in the resulting company. On July 24, 2001, Fairmont Hotels bought a 50% pale in the hotel[18] from Prince Al Waleed for $23 million.[19] On Feb eleven, 2003, Fairmont bought out Prince Al Waleed'southward remaining 50% stake in the hotel for a farther $23 million.[20] Past this point, Prince Al Waleed'southward straight stake in Fairmont had decreased to 4.nine%.

Fairmont sold the hotel to FelCor Lodging Trust Inc. in September 2010 for $98.5 1000000.[21] This was part of Fairmont's movement away from direct real estate ownership, just Fairmont continued to manage the hotel. FelCor was sold to RLJ Lodging Trust in April 2017,[22] and RLJ sold the hotel in December 2017[23] to Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. for $170 million.[24] The hotel has more recently been branded simply equally Fairmont Copley Plaza.[25]

Features [edit]

From approximately 1930–1945, this round bar was located at the Copley Plaza.

The entrance hallway has been called "Peacock Alley" since the 1920s. The 5,000-square-foot (460 mii) lobby has a 21-foot (6.4 m) high gilded coffered ceiling with matching Empire style crystal chandeliers and Italian marble columns. Much of the classical compages and decor has been preserved, including the back-to-back "P" monogram.

The hotel is known for these manufacture firsts: the beginning hotel completely air-conditioned in Boston, the first hotel with an international reservations organisation, and the first to accept credit cards.[ citation needed ]

Historical events [edit]

From its opening, the hotel was a center of the social life of Boston'south elite. In 1913, Hamilton Fish, Jr., held a "Lenten dance" where "society leaders ... from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington and Boston greeted the coming of daylight this morning at the Copley Plaza Hotel".[26]

In the 1920s, John Singer Sargent kept rooms at the hotel and painted portraits there.[27] Sargent used ane of the hotel's employees, a black lift operator named Thomas McKeller, as the model for the Greek god Apollo in his ornament of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.[28] [29]

Frederick Kerry, paternal gramps of United states Senator John Kerry, committed suicide with a gunshot to the head in the restroom of this hotel on November 23, 1921.[30]

In the 1930s, the Boston Equus caballus Prove awarded The Copley-Plaza Challenge Trophy.[31]

In February 1935, civic leaders held a dinner for Baby Ruth at The Copley Plaza to gloat his return to Boston subsequently xvi years with the New York Yankees.[32]

On Baronial three, 1940, back-upward catcher for the Cincinnati Reds, Willard Hershberger, despondent over a series of losses in which he performed poorly, took his own life in the bathroom of his Hotel room at the Copley Plaza. He was discovered laying beside the tub with his throat slit. He was simply 30 years old. His father had also committed suicide and he told Reds Manager, Bill McKechnie that he was going to "exercise it, too ..."

On March 29, 1979, a disgruntled one-time employee set multiple fires in both The Copley Plaza and the nearby Sheraton Boston hotels. The fire at the Copley Plaza, which was occupied by 430 people at the time, injured 30 and killed one.[33] Among those injured was media mogul Sumner Redstone, who survived by hanging from a third-story window. His hand was partially paralyzed from the fire. Pic director Rob Cohen was also rescued from the burn, which partly inspired his 1996 motion picture Daylight.[34]

Celebrity guests [edit]

The Dartmouth Street entrance to the Fairmont Copley Plaza

The Copley Plaza Hotel has been host to many famous people. Every United states of america President since William Howard Taft, and royalty from Greece, Thailand, Abyssinia, Saudi arabia, Iran, Belgium, Denmark, and the United Kingdom have visited the hotel.[ citation needed ] Celebrities including John Lennon, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra, and Luciano Pavarotti have as well been guests. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton chose the Copley Plaza for their second honeymoon.[35]

In popular culture [edit]

The climax of Robert B. Parker's 1973 Spenser novel The Godwulf Manuscript takes place in Room 411 of the hotel.

The hotel provides the setting of a few scenes in the 1999 cult archetype film The Boondock Saints.

Other movies and TV shows filmed at the property include The Equalizer ii, The Firm, Bride Wars, and American Hustle.

The fictional Tipton Hotel from the Disney Aqueduct Sitcom, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody shares the aforementioned address as the real hotel, 138 St. James Avenue. This, along with the Hotel Vancouver would serve as the inspiration for the Tipton.

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Mobil Travel Guide: The Fairmont Copley Plaza Boston MA". www.forbestravelguide.com. Archived from the original on 2010-08-21.
  2. ^ http://www.aaa.biz/approved/Diamond_Awards/2010/2010_4D_Lodgings.pdf [ expressionless link ]
  3. ^ Teresa Chiliad. Hanafin (1988-10-30). "Quality Inn Owner in Serious Talks to Buy 'Grande Matriarch' Copley Plaza". The Boston Globe.
  4. ^ "Celebrated Hotels of America". National Trust for Celebrated Preservation. Retrieved 13 Baronial 2012.
  5. ^ https://www.cityofboston.gov/images_documents/PETSTATS_June2016_tcm3-53570.pdf[ bare URL PDF ]
  6. ^ a b Mary Melvin Petronella and Edward W. Gordon (2004). Victorian Boston today: twelve walking tours. UPNE. pp. lxx. ISBN978-one-55553-605-three.
  7. ^ Marie Morris (2005). Frommer's Boston 2006. Frommer'southward Serial. Vol. 112. John Wiley and Sons. pp. 79. ISBN978-0-7645-8890-7.
  8. ^ "Robert South. Gardner" (PDF). New York Times. 18 May 1940. Retrieved thirteen August 2012.
  9. ^ "5 Colleges Bar Girls from Football game Trip the light fantastic toe" (PDF). New York Times. 19 November 1925. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  10. ^ Kaiser, Johanna (xvi August 2012). "Fairmont Copley Plaza celebrates 100 years with second ribbon cutting". Boston World . Retrieved twenty August 2012.
  11. ^ "Sheraton Corporation of America, 1957 Annual Report". digitalcollections.lib.uh.edu.
  12. ^ "Sheraton Corporation of America, 1952 Annual Report".
  13. ^ "Hancock to Sell Copley Plaza". The New York Times. v November 1988.
  14. ^ "Hancock to Sell Copley Plaza". New York Times. v November 1988. Retrieved xiii August 2012.
  15. ^ "Renovation set for 'iconic' Fairmont Copley". 3 August 2010.
  16. ^ Julie Hatfield (1997-02-25). "Renovators Check in at Copley Plaza New Owners Vow to Restore Quondam Luster". Boston Globe.
  17. ^ "Entities Beneficially Owned by HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud Assume 100% Buying of the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel".
  18. ^ https://www.hotelbusiness.com/fairmont-buys-50-equity-stake-in-boston-hotel/ [ dead link ]
  19. ^ "Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Inc. Purchases 50% Stake in Copley Plaza Boston / July 2001".
  20. ^ https://www.hotelbusiness.com/fairmont-hotels-completes-copley-plaza-boston-buyout/ [ dead link ]
  21. ^ "FelCor Lodging Trust purchases the Fairmont Copley Plaza for $98.5 million".
  22. ^ "RLJ to purchase fellow lodging trust FelCor | Reuters". Reuters. 24 Apr 2017.
  23. ^ "RLJ Lodging Trust Announces Sale of Fairmont Copley Plaza Boston for $170 meg". xv Dec 2017.
  24. ^ "Boston'south Historic Fairmont Copley Plaza Trades in $170 Million Bargain | Central Realty Commercial Existent Manor Quincy,MA". 20 December 2017.
  25. ^ ""Fairmont Copley Plaza" - Luxury Hotel in "Boston" - Fairmont, Hotels & Resorts".
  26. ^ "Hamilton Fish, Jr., Gives Lenten Ball" (PDF). New York Times. 22 February 1913. Retrieved thirteen August 2012.
  27. ^ Trevor Fairbrother, John Singer Sargent: The Sensualist (Seattle Art Museum, 2000), 111
  28. ^ Guy C. McElroy, Facing History: The Black Epitome in American Fine art, 1710-1940 (Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1990), 111
  29. ^ Whyte, Murray (February 13, 2020). "Who gave shape to John Vocalizer Sargent'south gods and goddesses at the MFA? He was a Black man named Thomas McKeller". BostonGlobe.com . Retrieved 2020-02-27 .
  30. ^ Michael Kranish, Brian Mooney, Nina J. Easton, John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography By The Boston World Reporters Who Know Him Best (Boston Globe, 2004), 5
  31. ^ "Erin'south Son Victor in Hunter's Competition" (PDF). New York Times. 16 Oct 1937. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  32. ^ Dawson, James P. (1 March 1935). "Ruth is Acclaimed by Fans in Boston" (PDF). New York Times . Retrieved 13 Baronial 2012.
  33. ^ "two,000 Abscond 2 Boston Hotel Fires; 64 Hurt" (PDF). New York Times. 30 March 1979. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  34. ^ Paul A. Christian, Boston'due south Burn Trail: A Walk Through the City'due south Fire and Firefighting History (Boston Fire Historical Society), 61-62
  35. ^ Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger, Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century (HarperCollins, 2010), 101

External links [edit]

  • Fairmont Copley Plaza official website
  • Fairmont Copley Plaza on Historic Hotels of America
  • Wulff, June (15 August 2005). "Catie Copley: For the Fairmont Copley Plaza's canine administrator, every 24-hour interval is a walk in the park". Boston Earth . Retrieved 2009-08-12 .
  • Associated Printing (3 Dec 1987). "Hotel maids told: do floors by hand". New York Times . Retrieved 2009-08-12 .

Coordinates: 42°20′57″N 71°04′35″West  /  42.349295°N 71.076286°W  / 42.349295; -71.076286

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairmont_Copley_Plaza

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