Fairmont Copley Plaza
The Fairmont Copley Plaza and Copley Square, 2007
General information
Location138 St. James Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts
United States
Opening1912
OwnerAshkenazy Acquisition Corp.
ManagementFairmont Hotels and Resorts
Design and construction
Architect(s)Henry Janeway Hardenbergh
Other information
Number of rooms383
Website
Fairmont Copley Plaza

The Fairmont Copley Plaza is a Forbes four-star, AAA four-diamond hotel[1][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's Trinity Church, and Charles Follen McKim's Boston Public Library.[3]

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

Construction and opening

The hotel in the 1920s
Copley Square in 2013, the hotel entrance on the right

The Copley Plaza was built on the original site of the Museum of Fine Arts[6] and named in honor of John Singleton Copley, an American painter. The total 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's sister hotel.[6][7] The seven-floor hotel is constructed of limestone and buff brick in the Beaux-Arts style. The E-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 thousand guests. Rooms had been booked as early as 16 months in advance. Its first manager, who also lived at the hotel, served for 22 years and he and the hotel were so prominent as to merit an obituary in the New York Times.[8] It became for some years the site of the annual Harvard-Yale dance and other post-football dances, denounced by the authorities of local women's colleges who forbade their students from attending: "These dances have nothing to do with the colleges in question, but have merely a financial interest in them. There 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 cutting ceremony by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino on August 16, 2012.[10]

Ownership

Sheraton Hotels bought The Copley Plaza in 1941.[11] They renamed it the Sheraton-Plaza Hotel in 1951[12] and operated it under that name until 1972, when they sold it to John Hancock Insurance for $6.5 million.[13] The new owners renamed the hotel The Copley Plaza, but Sheraton continued to operate the property until 1974, when John Hancock hired Boston hospitality management firm Hotels of Distinction's Alan Tremain to run The Copley Plaza. During this time, the restaurants in the hotel were considered some of the best in the city and featured such chefs as Lydia Shire, Jasper White, and Gordon Hamersley.

John Hancock sold the hotel in 1988 for $56 million to local businessman James A. Daley, in partnership with a subsidiary of Harvard University.[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 Estate Corporation partnered to buy the hotel from Harvard for $70 million.[15] Fairmont Hotels, which Prince Al Waleed then owned a controlling 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, assuming 100% ownership.[17] Between 1999 and 2001, Fairmont Hotels was significantly reorganized, with Prince Al Waleed only owning a 16.5% stake in the resulting company. On July 24, 2001, Fairmont Hotels bought a 50% stake in the hotel[18] from Prince Al Waleed for $23 million.[19] On February 11, 2003, Fairmont bought out Prince Al Waleed's remaining 50% stake in the hotel for a further $23 million.[20] By this point, Prince Al Waleed's direct stake in Fairmont had decreased to 4.9%.

Fairmont sold the hotel to FelCor Lodging Trust Inc. in September 2010 for $98.5 million.[21] This was part of Fairmont's movement away from direct real estate ownership, but 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 as Fairmont Copley Plaza.[25]

Features

Peacock Alley
From approximately 1930–1945, this circular bar was located at the Copley Plaza.

The entrance hallway has been called "Peacock Alley" since the 1920s. The 5,000-square-foot (460 m2) 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 architecture and decor has been preserved, including the back-to-back "P" monogram.

The hotel is known for these industry firsts: the first hotel completely air-conditioned in Boston, the first hotel with an international reservations system, and the first to accept credit cards.

Historical events

From its opening, the hotel was a center of the social life of Boston's 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 one of the hotel's employees, a black elevator operator named Thomas McKeller, as the model for the Greek god Apollo in his decoration of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.[28][29]

Frederick Kerry, paternal grandfather of US 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 Horse Show awarded The Copley-Plaza Challenge Trophy.[31]

In February 1935, civic leaders held a dinner for Babe Ruth at The Copley Plaza to celebrate his return to Boston after 16 years with the New York Yankees.[32]

On August 3, 1940, back-up 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 only 30 years old. His father had also committed suicide and he told Reds Manager, Bill McKechnie that he was going to "do it, too ..."

On March 29, 1979, a disgruntled former 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 thirty 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. Film director Rob Cohen was also rescued from the fire, which partly inspired his 1996 film Daylight.[34]

Celebrity guests

The Dartmouth Street entrance to the Fairmont Copley Plaza

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

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 classic film The Boondock Saints.

Other movies and TV shows filmed at the property include The Equalizer 2, The Firm, Bride Wars, and American Hustle.

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

References

  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
  3. ↑ Teresa M. Hanafin (1988-10-30). "Quality Inn Owner in Serious Talks to Buy 'Grande Dame' Copley Plaza". The Boston Globe.
  4. ↑ "Historic Hotels of America". National Trust for Historic Preservation. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  5. ↑ https://www.cityofboston.gov/images_documents/PETSTATS_June2016_tcm3-53570.pdf
  6. 1 2 Mary Melvin Petronella and Edward W. Gordon (2004). Victorian Boston today: twelve walking tours. UPNE. pp. 70. ISBN 978-1-55553-605-3.
  7. ↑ Marie Morris (2005). Frommer's Boston 2006. Frommer's Series. Vol. 112. John Wiley and Sons. pp. 79. ISBN 978-0-7645-8890-7.
  8. ↑ "Robert S. Gardner" (PDF). New York Times. 18 May 1940. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  9. ↑ "5 Colleges Bar Girls from Football Dance" (PDF). New York Times. 19 November 1925. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  10. ↑ Kaiser, Johanna (16 August 2012). "Fairmont Copley Plaza celebrates 100 years with second ribbon cutting". Boston Globe. Retrieved 20 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. 5 November 1988.
  14. ↑ "Hancock to Sell Copley Plaza". New York Times. 5 November 1988. Retrieved 13 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 Old Luster". Boston Globe.
  17. ↑ "Entities Beneficially Owned by HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud Assume 100% Ownership of the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel".
  18. ↑ https://www.hotelbusiness.com/fairmont-buys-50-equity-stake-in-boston-hotel/
  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/
  21. ↑ "FelCor Lodging Trust purchases the Fairmont Copley Plaza for $98.5 million".
  22. ↑ "RLJ to buy fellow lodging trust FelCor | Reuters". Reuters. 24 April 2017.
  23. ↑ "RLJ Lodging Trust Announces Sale of Fairmont Copley Plaza Boston for $170 million" (Press release). 15 December 2017.
  24. ↑ "Boston's Historic Fairmont Copley Plaza Trades in $170 Million Deal | Key Realty Commercial Real Estate 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 13 August 2012.
  27. ↑ Trevor Fairbrother, John Singer Sargent: The Sensualist (Seattle Art Museum, 2000), 111
  28. ↑ Guy C. McElroy, Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940 (Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1990), 111
  29. ↑ Whyte, Murray (February 13, 2020). "Who gave shape to John Singer Sargent's 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 Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best (Boston Globe, 2004), 5
  31. ↑ "Erin's Son Victor in Hunter's Contest" (PDF). New York Times. 16 October 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 August 2012.
  33. ↑ "2,000 Flee 2 Boston Hotel Fires; 64 Hurt" (PDF). New York Times. 30 March 1979. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  34. ↑ Paul A. Christian, Boston's Fire Trail: A Walk Through the City's 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
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