Hotels – Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

Puritan House (1810)

by Dan/January 22, 2020/Federal, Gloucester, Hotels

The oldest brick building in the town of Gloucester is a former hotel at 1-3 Washington Street and 2 Main Street that was built in 1810. It was constructed by Col. James Tappan, a New Hampshire schoolteacher who once taught Daniel Webster. An addition in 1840 doubled the size of the building. As related in The Gloucester Book (1921), by Frank Lucius Cox, “It has been known successively as the Tappan Hotel, Gloucester House, Mason House and Puritan House, but during recent years it has not been used as a hotel. During the middle of the nineteenth century all the important social functions of the town were held at this hotel.” Winslow Homer stayed at the hotel in 1873. Today it has a sign put up in 1978 that says “Blackburn Tavern” for a former restaurant located in the building. Currently Tono Restaurant occupies the building on the Main Street side, while GAP Promo is on the Washington Street side.

Bismark Hotel (1900)

by Dan/January 4, 2017January 4, 2017/Commercial, Hotels, Italianate, Westfield

In the early 1860s, businessman John C. Buschmann established the Railroad House Hotel on Depot Square, near the train station, in Westfield. In 1899 his son, Thomas Buschmann, hired architect Augustus W. Holton to design a larger hotel to replace the existing one. Called the Bismarck Hotel, it opened in 1900. The building (16 Union Avenue) continued as a hotel until 1930, after which it housed a series of small industrial firms. In 2001 it was acquired by Pilgrim Candle, which already occupied Buschmann’s Block next door. Continue reading “Bismark Hotel (1900)”

Red Lion Inn (1897)

by Dan/January 22, 2016January 22, 2016/Colonial Revival, Hotels, Stockbridge, Taverns

The famous Red Lion Inn at 30 Main Street in Stockbridge has a long history going back to 1773. The structure grew from its early beginnings through additions. Its current configuration dates to 1897 after it was rebuilt following a fire in 1896.

Foster House Hotel (1843)

by Dan/January 12, 2015/Greek Revival, Hotels, Westfield

The building at 50 North Elm Street in Westfield was built in 1843 as a hotel by Micajak Taylor. In the 1850s the building was known as the Pontoosic House Hotel and from the 1890s the hotel and tavern/restaurant was known as the Foster House. Thought to be the oldest continuously operated tavern in western Massachusetts, the Foster House has now been closed for several years.

Old Draper Hotel (1871)

by Dan/May 7, 2014May 7, 2014/Commercial, Hotels, Italianate, Northampton

The Warner House, also known as the Warner Tavern or Warner’s Coffee House, was for years the most popular public house in Northampton. After it was destroyed by fire in 1870, a new building, planned by J.M. Miner, was constructed on its former location on Main Street. Called the Fitch Hotel, it consisted of a central block flanked by two wings. Only the westernmost wing survives today. It features an “F” monogram in the center of the roof pediment of the façade. The hotel, located at 179 Main Street, later became the Draper Hotel. The hotel is described in an article (“Industrial Northampton”) that appeared in Western New England (Vol. I, No. 11, October, 1911):

Northampton is unusually well-equiped, for a city of its size, with high-class hotels and restaurants. The Draper, the most prominent hotel in Northampton, is favorably known throughout the country as a result of its entertaining well the people from almost everywhere who are drawn to Northampton by college exercises and by business affairs. The Draper compares favorably in quality with hotels in large cities. The rathskeller is particularly well known among men who have occasion to visit Northampton. The hotel aims to provide its patrons with whatever they wish and to its excellent dining room and rathskeller has recently been added a “self-service” restaurant and lunch room where one may get a wholesome meal in a short time and at small cost. The Draper offers both American and European rates.

Hotel Northampton (1927)

by Dan/May 21, 2013May 21, 2013/Colonial Revival, Hotels, Northampton

The Hotel Northampton, at 36 King Street in Northampton, was first opened in 1927. The hotel was funded by a five-year subscription drive by the local chamber of commerce to provide Northampton with an appropriately substantial and luxurious hotel. The Colonial Revival-style Hotel Northampton is one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s “Historic Hotels of America.” Attached to the hotel is the old Wiggins Tavern, a building which dates back to 1786 and was moved to Northampton from Hopkinton, New Hampshire. The Tavern had been opened by Benjamin Wiggins, an ancestor of Lewis Wiggins, the entrepreneur who had built the Hotel Northampton.

Maplewood Hotel, Holyoke (1890)

by Dan/December 4, 2012/Holyoke, Hotels, Houses, Queen Anne, Romanesque Revival

Built c. 1889-1890 at 328 Maple Street, at the end of a group of row houses in Holyke, the former Maplewood Hotel was modeled on the elegant residential hotels of larger cities. It was constructed by Frank Beebe, of the Beebe, Webber & Co. woolen mill. He lived in the hotel from 1890 to 1906.

Next to the former hotel, at 330 Maple Street, is a Queen Anne-style house, built earlier in the 1880s. Since 1924, the house and the hotel have been connected on the interior and are regarded as a single property. 330 Maple Street is currently rented by Templo Emanuel Inc.