New Boston hotel replaces Beacon Hill jail
Once the Bastille of Boston, the Charles Street Jail spent decades as a decrepit dustbin of humanity and pigeons until it was shut down by court orders in 1990.
Behold what a little high-speed wireless and $120 million in improvements can do by 2007. Voila! C'est Hotel liberate!
Set to open in a few months, the luxury Liberty Hotel in the heart of Boston's Beacon Hill promises Boston visitors one of the best locations in the city. The Liberty has 300 posh rooms painted in tones of pale rose and taupe. Expect rich mahogany wood furnishings, stainless steel accents, imported linens and flat panel tvs.
Book ahead and ask for the best views of the Charles River, or the Boston skyline.
Vestiges of the old jail, which held prisoners for 139 years, remain in the hotel bar. Jail cells are part of the decor. The hotel's Cambridge-based developer also carefully preserved the original building's 90-foot rotunda with a new dramatic cupola.
But most of the hotel's rooms are new construction located in a 16-story tower linked by catwalks to the original 1851 granite structure.
Visitors will pay four-star luxury prices for rooms here where thousands once stayed for free.
