Boston attraction's Crimes-Haunts : OMNI PARKER HOUSE

The Omni Parker’s paranormal history may actually pre-date the historic hotel. In 1770 while attempting to deter some children from sledding on a hill on formerly located at this site, a British soldier got into a skirmish with the surrounding crowd. What began with the crowd throwing rocks, ended with soldiers shooting into the crowd and killing five children. This blood stained snow may have laid the paranormal foundation for what many consider the most haunted hotel in all of New England.

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The hotel’s most famous resident ghost belongs to its founder, Harvey Parker. Mr. Parker passed away on May 31, 1884 at the age of 79. It is debatable, though if Mr. Parker ever really left his beloved hotel, for it is said that he occasionally makes an appearance to check in with guests to ensure they are enjoying their stay. His ghostly apparition is said most often appear on the hotel’s 10th floor. This floor ironically did not even exist during his lifetime as the hotel was only eight stories at the time. So if you ever visit the Omni Parker and not an older heavyset man with beard and mustache in Victorian era clothing asking if everything is o.k., rest assured it is just the hotel’s former founder trying to make your stay a pleasant one.

In addition to Mr. Parker’s presence the 10th floor is said to also be the source of a rocking chair which guests have complained creaks all hours of the night. The odd part of this? The hotel has never carried any rocking chairs on the premise.

One additional floor has been noted for some infrequent “odd” occurrences. One elevator reportedly has been known to stop at the 3rd floor despite not being selected and despite efforts to fix the apparent mechanical glitch. Individuals have argued that it may be the ghost of either Charlotte Cushman or Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow and a number of other prominent writers (including Emerson and Thoreau) would often gather on the third floor for monthly meetings of their Saturday Club in which members would read poetry and debate the hot topics of the day. It is said that Longfellow is the mysterious guest pushing the third floor button just so as to attend another one of his Saturday Club Meetings. In regards to Charlotte Cushman, she was a famous nineteenth-century actress known for playing both male and female roles. She actually lived in the Charles Dickens Suite on the third floor where she passed away in 1876. Some people figure Ms. Cushman just never left.

Finally, as if this activity was not enough to possess the third floor, a traveling liquor salesman whom passed away in Room 303 is said to still haunt the floor with his laughter and whiskey fused breath. In fact the complaints about 303 persisted so often that the hotel actually decided to retire the room and made it into a storage closet, which it remains to this day.

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• Website: omnihotels.com
• Address: 60 School Street, Boston, MA
• Cost: Free