When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
VINTAGE ORIGINAL
PARKER HOUSE KEY FOB
BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS
1855-1865
This key fob is very old so it very well may be one of the original key fobs from 1855-1865 era. I have no way to verify this but this is an old item that predates all of the other items I found when researching. It is about 1 3/4” wide by 2” tall.
For its age this is in very good condition. Normal wear from age and use, especially for being close to 170 years old. You see the condition in the photos.
The Parker House Hotel was established by Harvey D. Parker and opened on October 8, 1855. Additions and alterations were made to the original building starting only five years after its opening.
The hotel was home to the Saturday Club, which met on the fourth Saturday of every month, except during July, August, and September. Among the Saturday Club's nineteenth-century members were poet, essayist, and preeminent transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet and The Atlantic Monthly editor James Russell Lowell, novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, poets John Greenleaf Whittier and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, diplomat Charles Francis Adams, historian Francis Parkman, philosopher, educator and abolitionist Amos Bronson Alcott and sage-about-town Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.[4]
Charles Dickens resided in the Parker House for five months in 1867–1868 in his own apartments; he first recited and performed "A Christmas Carol" for the Saturday Club at the Parker House, then again for an adoring public at nearby Tremont Temple. The Parker House kept the door to Dickens' guest room when he stayed in 1867 and the mirror used by him for rehearsals, both of which remain on display at the hotel.
The hotel introduced to America what became known as the European Plan. Prior to that time, American hotels had included meals in the cost of a room, and offered them only at set times. The Parker House charged only for the room, with meals charged separately and offered whenever the guest chose.
Actor John Wilkes Booth stayed at the hotel April 5–6, 1865, eight days before assassinating Abraham Lincoln. He was apparently in Boston to see his brother, actor Edwin Booth, who was performing there. While in Boston, Booth was seen practicing at a firing range near the Parker House.
This vintage original Parker House key fob from Boston, Massachusetts dates back to 1855-1865. The black key fob showcases a theme of hotel and motel, making it a sought-after collectible item for those interested in advertising and room keys. Made in the United States, this piece of history offers a unique glimpse into the past and the iconic Parker House hotel in Boston during the mid-19th century.
