Old prison transformed in trendy hotel
Anyone seeking a chic and trendy hotel in Boston with a most unusual past should make an immediate reservation: an architectural feat has transformed this former prison – which only closed its doors to inmates in 1990 – into a landmark hotel with an ironic name: the Liberty Hotel.
In the heart of bustling Boston
In 2007 after a mammoth renovation job, Boston's celebrated penitentiary, built in 1851 by Boston's best known architect – Bryant - became a $150 million luxury monument at the foot of Beacon Hill,Boston's historic district overlooking the Charles River. What better site could ever exist in Boston?
Light and power
The building's spectacular spacial qualities inspired the team commissioned to touch up Bryant's original architectural plan, which had laid out the prison in the shape of a cross according to the international model for prison construction during the second half of the 19th century. It comprised a central octagonal building with four circular wooden bays and four spread wings with three-storey vaulted windows set off cornerstone mouldings that are common in French architecture. Did you know that at the time, its windows allowed four times more light to enter than those of any other penitentiary?
A golden prison
Entering the hotel you are guided from the lobby to an escalator that rises to the rotonda and the reception level. Between the escalators is a squared, multi-textured mosaic of historic scenes, images and portraits of figures from penal society. Even the signs are in synch « Solitary confinement » instead of the traditional « Do Not Disturb », and the bar Alibi, that is in the former sobering up cell. Beside the rotonda is the restaurant bar Clink, where the waiters wear prison uniforms with handstitched prison numbers that signal the prison's opening - « 1851 » - and its renaissance - « 2007 » - as a hotel.
Special regimens for special inmates
Elegantly decorated in pale rose and taupe tones with mahogany accents and stainless steel finish, the 300 hotel rooms feature large bay windows from which some offer a view over the CharlesRiver. Besides the range of services that the hotel provides - including concierge, valet parking… - guests can also make use of the well-equipped exercise room that is open 24 hours a day. The Liberty Hotel is the first to provide sessions with Koko, an all-in-one muscle and cardio training machine that allows users to design and follow a personal physical work-out program.
A far cry from « dry bread and water»
The Liberty Hotel is also home to three restaurants, of which the famous Clink is one, that serve regional specialties and cocktails. There's also the bar Alibi, where you will sip your drink in a cell… And last there is the contemporary Italian restaurant Scampo, under the mantle of Lydia Shire, a culinary legend in Boston and James Beard prize winner.
In sum, the Liberty Hotel is nothing if not a gilded cage.
