Last time I was in town I scored a private tour of The Verb Hotel with Elizabeth Lowery, Director of Interior Architecture at Elkus Manfredi Architects and stylish lead behind the redesign of this humble-turned-hip Boston boutique hotel, just behind Fenway Park. The architects worked closely with the development team to embrace the area’s legacy .
Initially slated for a tear down—the hotel had become a HoJos after all—Samuels became disillusioned by the shiny new development happening all over the city and decided to re-imagine the 94-room mid-century modern hotel, knowing it would add character to the revitalized neighborhood.
The Verb Hotel first opened in 1959 as the Fenway Motor Hotel in a neighborhood that by the thriving indie music scene. Over the years a multitude of clubs popped up on Lansdowne Street, along with the alternative weekly newspaper the Boston Phoenix and rock radio stations.
Developer Steve Samuels and hotelier Robin Brown enlisted “vibe conservators” Stephen Mindich, publisher of the Boston Phoenix, and David Bieber, WBCN Creative Services Director to consult with Elkus Manfredi on the hotel’s new look and feel, which pays homage to the rock scene of the ’70s and ’80s. Bieber dipped into his enormous personal archives of pop-culture memorabilia which the designers used to decorate the lobby.
The two-story modernist building,designed by architects Irving Salsberg and Ralph Leblanc, went up in 1959.
The team stuck to a pretty strict budget. Easy upgrades like colored film was applied to the new windows to add rhythmic pops of color.
The architects dressed up a front façade with vertical wood siding and simple landscaping.
A circular skylight in the lobby lets in light and provides a glimpse of a new high rise across the street.
The front desk is upholstered in tufted black leather. Amps and electric guitars are propped up beside it.
The lobby, with its deep blue walls and tufted yellow banquette broadcasts that it is indeed a Boston boutique hotel. Authentic vintage music ephemera include backstage passes from the J. Geils Band, and torn $4.50 ticket stubs to a Blondie show at the Paradise on Commonwealth Avenue.
Music posters and vinyl records along with a vintage jukebox.
If the lobby’s not crowded, guests can spin records on the yellow turntable.
A display case in the breezeway connecting the main lobby with the guest rooms houses The Archives at the Verb, curated from Bieber’s warehouse of thousands of pop-culture memorabilia.
Original brick walls were painted vibrant hues and treated to music-related stenciled sayings.
“If the music is too loud, you’re too old.”
Photographs of numbers from Fenway park were pulled together to form the room numbers on hotel room doors.
Illuminated signs on black walls in the hotel lobby.
Guest rooms are clean and crisp with integrated wood veneer headboards.
Framed Phoenix newspaper pages hang on the walls in each room.
Mid-century dot pattern drapery and a shot of pink from the window film.
Photo courtesy of The Verb Hotel
Like many boutique hotels, the contemporary bathrooms are simple but don’t skimp on amenities.
The desk in each hotel room is equipped with a typewriter purchased on eBay.
Best part: the hotel courtyard has a pool. It’s like a resort, right downtown.
Check out the green stands at Fenway in the background.
Period-appropriate colors were carefully chosen.
The Verb Hotel, 1271 Boylston Street, Boston
Photos by Marni Elyse Katz/StyleCarrot