Boston City Jail To Be Reinvented As 4-Star Hotel

BOSTON— While converting an existing structure into a hotel is not an uncommon occurrence, converting a maximum security prison into a hotel is— and that’s exactly what Boston’s going to get when developers Carpenter & Co. debut the planned Charles Street Jail Hotel in late 2004. Developers are slated to break ground later this year on the $77 million transformation, which includes “practically gutting” the building’s interior, said Darren Messina, director/development for Carpenter. Owned by Massachusetts General Hospital, the new hotel will feature 305 guestrooms, 75 of which will be located in the former prison, while the remainder will be situated in a soon-to-be-constructed 15-story attached tower. The historic prison, originally built in 1851, also will house the hotel’s lobby and public spaces, meeting rooms, two restaurants, administrative offices and a fitness room. The new tower, in addition to guestrooms, will accommodate a small ballroom and exercise area. Designed in an X-shape, one wing of the five-story jail will be used by the hospital, which sits adjacent to the property. Though the property is listed on both state and national historic registers, which is why the developers are unable to knock it down and construct a new building in its place, the Charles Street Jail has not been out of commission for too long. In fact, the last inmates were transferred to a replacement facility in May 1990. Since then, the building has sat vacant as Mass. General debated possible uses for the property. “The hospital went back and forth on how to use it. Research space? A hotel? A few of the major [U.S.] hospitals have hotels on campus and they [Mass. General] thought it was an amenity they needed to stay competitive,” said Messina. Because of its historic stature, the building’s granite exterior must remain intact. The hospital has already completed a full restoration of the prison’s façade. This is not the case for the building’s interior. “We’re gutting the interior and laying it out in a way that works,” he explained, joking there will be about two cells for every guestroom. Its maximum-security roots created a facility that was safe and effective, but ultimately not conducive to a hotel. Individual cells were arranged in a five-story block centered within an open interior, and arranged so that no cells sat against an outside wall— thus no cells had windows. “We’re taking the cell block out,” stated Messina, adding that one or two cells might be kept for curiosity’s sake. “We might keep a couple cells and use them as a phone booth or retail space just for fun,” he said.