Hotel Alexandra (Boston)


The Hotel Alexandra, historically the Walworth Building, is a High Victorian Gothic structure built in the 1870s with a sandstone facade at the corner of Washington Street and Massachusetts Avenue in the South End of Boston, Massachusetts.

History

The hotel was developed by the Walworth Brothers who founded The Walworth Manufacturing Company which was a pioneer in steam technology in the late 19th century. The hotel is of Victorian Heritage as it was named after Alexandra of Denmark. The hotel was opened in 1875 to crowded cobblestone streets, filled not with cars, but horses and buggies. The South End of Boston was barely 20 years old. Always a distinct building, the hotel originally stood prominently especially since most of the buildings around it were warehouses. In 1900 the hotel began a gradual desolation after the opening of an elevated train line right outside.

Rebirth

The hotel was discovered indefinitely vacant in the early 1990s. The residential hotel, which featured 50 rooms and 2,000 square-foot flats with high, elegant ceilings, was acquired by the Church of Scientology.