Once-glamorous Park Plaza gets a $95 million makeover
DINA RUDICK/GLOBE STAFF
By Taryn LunaGLOBE CORRESPONDENT MARCH 11, 2015
When the Statler Hotel, now the Park Plaza, opened in 1927, it was the largest hotel in New England and the first in the country to offer in-room radios. For decades, the union property was the epicenter of Boston’s Democratic political scene, frequented by presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy, who sat under Baccarat crystal chandeliers at events in the hotel’s opulent Versailles-style ballroom.....
The hotel was built by Ellsworth Milton Statler, one of America’s first hoteliers and a developer known for state-of-the-art amenities.
Boston’s elite flocked to the hotel’s glamorous opening gala, wowed by the Spanish Renaissance motif, gold-leaf coffered ceilings, and floor tiles imported from Spain. The radio system broadcast the evening’s entertainment: four orchestras and performances by a soprano and a quartet.
As a hotel with a union workforce, the Park Plaza was the place Democratic politicians rested their heads while in Boston, and it was a popular campaign party spot on election nights.
Its famous guests included the likes of Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, Barack Obama, and Fidel Castro, as well as cinema greats Judy Garland and Spike Lee. Microsoft founder Bill Gates slept there, as did legendary athletes Muhammad Ali and Larry Bird.
“It was a premier hotel, and it always had that cachet about it,” said Paul Sacco, president of the Massachusetts Lodging Association. “It’s one of those classic Boston hotels with an incredible heritage."
