Boston Hotel Buckminster

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Boston Hotel Buckminster
Sovereign Bank
sign in foreground

Boston Hotel Buckminster, formerly Hotel Buckminster and briefly Hotel St. George, is a historic hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. It is located on the triangular intersection of Beacon Street and Brookline Avenue in Kenmore Square. Along with the Hotel Commonwealth, it is one of two hotels located within one block of Fenway Park, the oldest baseball stadium in the nation and home to the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball.

History

Construction

The hotel, built in 1897, was designed for Arnold A. Rand by

Winslow & Wetherell,[1] architects of many large hotels and office buildings. At the time of its construction, the Hotel Buckminster was one of the first hotels in Boston and the largest building in Kenmore Square.[2]

Black Sox Scandal

On September 19, 1919, on a day that the

Arnold "Chick" Gandil, first baseman for the Chicago White Sox. There they conspired to fix the 1919 World Series, which was to take place thirteen days later, for personal gain. When the "Black Sox Scandal" was revealed it led to eight White Sox players, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, being banned from Major League Baseball for life. Also banned was Joe Gedeon, a second baseman for the St. Louis Browns who had placed a bet on the game and later informed to White Sox owner Charles Comiskey in hopes of getting a reward. The 1988 movie Eight Men Out is based on this scandal.[2][3][4][5]

WNAC radio and television

In 1929, pioneer station WNAC Radio moved to new studios inside the Hotel Buckminster, with the entrance on the Brookline Avenue side (21 Brookline Avenue), which would become the station's home for the next four decades. WNAC made history in January 1923 by linking up with New York's WEAF for the first chain broadcast (it lasts for only five minutes), and later formed a new company known as the Yankee Network. A second station (WAAB) was added at the same location (eventually moving to Worcester as today's WVEI). A pioneer FM station was added in the late 1930s. Later, WNAC converted most of its studio space into one of Boston's first television studios and began broadcasting on Channel 7 in June, 1948. For the next twenty years, WNAC operated an AM, FM and television station in the hotel basement. During this time the station went through various facility upgrades and changes in ownership. One of its earliest and most successful radio announcers was Fred Lang (1910–1968), hired c. 1936, who read the news for Yankee network over WNAC through World War II: Lang also did Queen for a Day, the Tell-o-test Quiz Show, and a music show with a laid back flavor leading some to credit him with pioneering the "Easy Listening" style. However, with dwindling affiliates and an aging listening audience, the Yankee Network disbanded in 1967, with the flagship Boston station WNAC changing call letters to WRKO and becoming a Top 40 music station. The television station call letters WNAC-TV remained, and in 1968 the radio and TV operations moved to 7 Bulfinch Place, near Government Center .[2][5]

World War II prisoner detention

A portion of the building was used in the 1940s by a detachment of

prisoners of war during World War II.[2][5]

Storyville nightclub

In 1950, Boston native George Wein moved his

Pizzeria Uno restaurant, but as of 2020 that had also closed.[2][4][6][7][8][9][10][11]

Renaming

A change in ownership in the 1960s led to the hotel being briefly renamed the Hotel St. George. The building was sold to

bus terminal, is located on an adjacent city block and is the hotel's closest MBTA
station.

In March 2020, the hotel announced on its Facebook page that it was closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic with no plans of reopening under the current management. The hotel's website was taken offline in June 2021.

In November 2021, real-estate developer IQHQ announced its acquisition of the Buckminster, serving its ongoing development plan on the adjacent lands in Fenway.[12]

References

  1. ^ Engineering Record 19 June 1897: 64.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Boston Hotel Buckminster, "About Us"". Archived from the original on 2010-10-26. Retrieved 2010-07-25.
  3. ^ ESPN.com, "Black Sox Gandil agrees to fix World Series"
  4. ^ a b My Secret Boston
  5. ^ a b c d Grahm Junior College Alumni Page
  6. ^ "Boston's Jazz History". Archived from the original on 2010-05-29. Retrieved 2010-07-25.
  7. ^ iTunes, The Longest Day by the Del Fuegos
  8. ^ Charlie Parker Session Details (March 10, 1953), Storyville, Boston MA, WHDH radio broadcast
  9. ^ Juliana Hatfield, "Notes and News" Archived July 16, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ Billie Holiday at Storyville Archived July 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ "Uno Pizzeria and Grill in Boston's Kenmore Square Has Closed".
  12. ^ "IQHQ | IQHQ Further Expands Presence in Boston's Fenway Area with Strategic Acquisition of The Buckminster". 2021-11-03. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
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