Today in History—October 16: America’s First Modern Luxury Hotel’s Grand Opening

On this day in 1829, the Tremont House officially opened in Boston with a gala for city leaders. The dinner featured five courses and no fewer than 44 items, including turkeys, hams, chickens, stewed haddock, pears, grapes, puddings, and pastries.

Located at the intersection of Tremont and Beacon streets, it was America’s first modern luxury hotel. Its 170 rooms each cost $2 a day and offered indoor plumbing and running water (at least on the first floor; pipes were still a work in progress). Soap was included.

Not bad for a venture that was essentially a gamble for a group of merchants, who had no examples of palatial hotels to emulate when they formed a company, got plans approved, and funded the project.

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Guests stepped inside a lobby upon arrival, a revolutionary concept when most inns funneled visitors toward the bar area. The Tremont House did also have a bar, plus a ladies’ parlor, gentlemen’s smoking room, and reading room. Chandeliers dripped crystals, there were plush Turkish carpets on the floors, and French ormolu clocks dotted mantels (whatever those were).

A lobby skylight featured elaborate stained-glass designs, and walls were inlaid with marble. Even the doors were a wonder: stacked oak and pine held together by bronze, weighing 450 pounds apiece.

The hotel was built in the Greek Revival style, and its pioneering design and architecture choices were much lauded and, soon, much copied.

The Tremont House was available both as a residence and for short-term guest stays. Notable guests during its heyday included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Dickens, and Andrew Jackson.

By the late 1850s, however, the hotel was showing its age. Visiting royalty in the 1860s stayed elsewhere, the snub a clear sign that the Tremont House’s halcyon days were over. Still, the hotel hung on for a few more decades.

It ended as it had begun: In 1894 the property’s final manager proposed one last feast featuring the same menu as its opening, before the Tremont House was razed in January 1895.