The Quincy House on Brattle Street in Boston, taken in 1860. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library.
The scene in 2014:
Located just as short distance from Scollay, Adams, Dock, and Faneuil Hall Squares, the Quincy House enjoyed a prominent location in downtown Boston. The hotel was built around 1819, and was constructed of granite, only a few years before similar materials were used to build Quincy Market just a few block away. In its heyday, it was one of the best hotels in Boston, and was also used by many different labor unions as a meeting place.
The 1860 photo, taken by photography pioneer Josiah Johnson Hawes, shows the hotel’s original appearance, before a renovation in the 1880s that added an additional three stories and a clock tower, as seen in this photo from the City of Boston Archives. However, by the 1920s the aging hotel suffered from increased competition, and closed in 1929. The building itself was demolished in 1935, less than 30 years before the entire neighborhood was taken down to build City Hall and the City Hall Plaza, as seen in the 2014 photo.
Delighted to see the photo from 1860. FYI In 2004 I donated a silverplate serving tray from Quincy House “Bell and Johnson” to the Boston Society Old State House Museum. We delivered it “in person” (I live in California.) The tray had been in our family for three generations, but I felt it belonged back home in Boston. It came to me through the Canfield family (Mildred Silsbee Canfield), then the Silsbee family (my mother was a Silsbee). I don’t know how the Canfields came to have it. It has a gadroon border and lovely engraving of acorns with “Belle and Johnson” in the center. I’m thrilled to see the old photo of Quincy House!