Why Charles Dickens’ Ghost Haunts the Omni Parker House Hotel

Have you heard about Boston’s most haunted hotel, the Omni Parker House? As someone who has stayed there overnight, I’m here to dish all about the hotel’s supposed literary ghosts.

Boston is my all-time favorite city in the US. Boston has it all: museums, shopping, architecture, music, history, great bookstores, and some very cool literary travel destinations. I went to grad school there, and I can’t get enough of this really unique US city.

On my frequent travels to Boston, I have gotten to stay at the iconic Omni Parker House hotel in downtown Boston and learn all about its history of literary guests (some of whom supposedly loved it so much, they came back to haunt the place after they died).

Over the years, so many writers have either called Boston home or passed through it on their American travels. That includes American writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sylvia Plath, Phillis Wheatley, and Louisa May Alcott. Over the years, the Omni Parker hotel became a popular meeting place for writers in Boston.

Let’s dive right in to the history of famous writers at the Omni Parker hotel (once called Parker House). In this post, we’ll learn which writing group met in the Omni Parker lobby, which famous writer gave a private debut reading of his work there, what stories have been inspired by the Omni Parker, and which writer supposedly haunts one of the most haunted hotels in the US.

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A Brief History of the Omni Parker House

The Omni Parker Hotel is situated on a prominent corner of the Boston Common, the enormous green space in downtown Boston and the oldest town common in the US. 

The Omni Parker first opened in 1855, the dream-come-true for a farm boy from Maine seeking his fortune in the big city. Harvey D. Parker first moved to Boston in 1925 and worked a variety of jobs before eventually partnering with John E. Hunt to open a brand new Boston hotel, the Parker House. 

Parker’s innovative hotel management plan of separating the costs of room and board freed the hotel restaurant to operate as a business. Its chefs cooked up some new recipes that are still famous to this day: the Boston Cream Pie and the Parker House Roll. 

Over the years, the Parker House has transferred ownership and management several times, while still maintaining itself as a premiere hotel in Boston and attracting countless famous guests. The hotel has been a favorite with people like Judy Garland, James Dean, Sarah Bernhardt, Joan Crawford, Babe Ruth, Ulysses S. Grant, James Garfield, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Jimmy Carter, and, well, I think you get the idea.

John F. Kennedy announced his congressional campaign here in 1946 and also proposed to Jaquie at Table 40. More ominously, John Wilkes Booth stayed at the Parker House for eight days before assassinating President Lincoln at the nearby Ford’s Theater. 

That’s not even beginning to name the famous writers who have visited the Omni Parker House (we’ll get to that in the next section). 

The Parker House was originally designed in an Italianate-style, but under the ownership of J. Reed Whipple, the hotel was almost entirely rebuilt in 1927. The updated design of the Parker House Hotel was in the classical style, and it retains this style to date. 

As it’s been operating since 1855, the Omni Parker House stakes a claim as the oldest operating hotel in the US. 

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Famous Writers Who’ve Stayed at the Omni Parker Hotel

The Omni Parker House has been a Boston institution for so long that countless writers have stayed, met, or worked here. Some of them even still haunt the place, according to some guests.

Here are a few famous Omni Parker House guests you might be interested in if you’re a lover of books and literary travel.

The Saturday Club at the Omni Parker

During the mid-1800s, the Omni Parker Hotel became the preferred rendezvous location for what became known as the “Saturday Club.” On the last Saturday of each month in the 1850s, writers gathered at the Omni Parker House to share their latest work and engage in literary discussions. 

Among the Saturday Club writers were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry James. These famous American writers were regular members of the Saturday Club, but they would also host guests from time to time. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s son, Edward Emerson, wrote a book about The Saturday Club, in which he describes them as “brave illuminators — poets, scholars, statesmen, workers in science, art, law, medicine, large business, and good citizenship” who “soon drew friends with genius or wit into their circle.”

In 1867, Charles Dickens apparently visited the Omni Parker House and gave a private reading of A Christmas Carol to the Saturday Club before giving the official American debut to the public the following evening.

The Saturday Club meetings at the Omni Parker House eventually became an avenue through which the writers published their works. Their periodical, The Atlantic Monthly is still published to this day, only now it’s called The Atlantic.  

Charles Dickens at the Omni Parker

Charles Dickens didn’t just pop in for one night only at the Omni Parker Hotel, though. On his second tour of the United States, he chose to make Boston, and the Omni Parker House, his home base. He rented out two suites of rooms on the third floor of the Omni Parker for about six months between 1867-1868.

Visitors to the Omni Parker unfortunately won’t be able to see or stay in the same rooms Dickens did, since the hotel was rebuilt after Dickens’ lengthy stay. However, you can still see two items of Charles Dickens memorabilia on display at the Omni Parker: the door to Dickens’ suite, and the mirror from his room. 

The door to rooms 138-139 can be found displayed behind glass in the Omni Parker Hotel, with a plaque identifying it as the door to Dickens’ room. During Christmastime, staff at the Omni Parker hang a wreath in recognition of Dickens’ role in reviving the Christmas holiday with his famous novella, A Christmas Carol. 

In the Omni Parker Hotel mezzanine, you can also see Charles Dickens’ hotel mirror, in front of which he supposedly practiced his famous dramatic readings of his works. The mirror is enormous, with an intricately carved wooden frame. 

The plaque underneath it reads: “Mirror from the rooms at the Parker House occupied by Charles Dickens 1867 & 1868 authenticated by the Boston branch of the Dickens Fellowship.”  “Look closely and see reflections of Dickens as he practiced a ‘Christmas Carol.’”  

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Related: Next time you’re in London, make sure to check out the Charles Dickens House and Museum. If you can’t make it in-person, there are sometimes virtual tours available.

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Does Charles Dickens’ Ghost Haunt the Omni Parker?

That’s right, some people believe that the Omni Parker House is haunted by the ghost of Charles Dickens himself. There’s an urban legend that if you stand in front of Dickens’ mirror and say his name three times, the elevator bells will chime. Some people have even claimed to have seen Dickens’ reflection in the mezzanine mirror.

There have been other reports of Dickens haunting the Omni Parker. Some people report smelling cigar smoke on the third floor, where Dickens’ rooms were located. There have also been reports that the elevator will frequently call at the third floor, the floor on which Dickens stayed, even when no one pushed the 3rd floor button. 

Of course, some guests don’t associate this haunting with Dickens but with the famous inhabitant of room 303 (more on that later). 

Does Charles Dickens really haunt the Omni Parker House in Boston, or is it all just urban myth? You’ll have to check it out for yourself to find out. 

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Related: If you like visiting spooky and haunted places, check out this nearby spooky destination that is an easy day trip from Boston and will definitely appeal to literary travelers.

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Mark Twain at the Omni Parker

In 1877, Mark Twain became the latest famous writer to stay at the Omni Parker Hotel in Boston. 

There’s even an anecdote involving Twain’s famous wit during his stay. The story goes that when a Boston Globe reporter came into Twain’s room, Twain looked fully relaxed in an easy chair, with his newspaper and cigar, and told the reporter, 

“You see for yourself that I’m pretty near heaven—not theologically, of course, but by the hotel standard.”

Mark Twain on the omni parker house hotel

Mark Twain apparently stayed in room 168 at the Omni Parker, though again, the current hotel is not the same building in which he stayed. 

Malcolm X at the Omni Parker House

Malcolm X didn’t stay in the Omni Parker House to my knowledge, but he still has a literary connection to the hotel. He worked as a busboy in the hotel’s restaurant in the 1940s. 

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Related: In December, you can attend the Dickens Festijn in Deventer, Netherlands. It’s the world’s largest Dickens festival, and it’s truly remarkable (and free!)

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The Omni Parker House in Literature

As the Omni Parker House has been a Boston institution for centuries, it is perhaps unsurprising that it features in a number of famous novels. 

Edith Wharton, one of my favorite American novelists, includes the Parker House as a location in her Pulitzer-Prize-Winning The Age of Innocence. The beguiling Countess Olenska books a room at the Parker House Hotel. When her beau, Newland Archer, finds out, he leaves Newport immediately to come and find her. His messenger to the Parker House returns to say Countess Olenska is out, so Archer storms over there to find her himself. On his way through the Boston Commons, he finds her sitting on a bench, and at last the two are face-to-face as he has long desired. 

The Omni Parker House also supposedly served as inspiration for a Stephen King story, 1408. Some people believe the famous ghost story is based on the haunted happenings that have been reported from the Omni Parker room 303, though King’s personal assistant denies the association. 

Why room 303? This room hosted a long-term guest of the hotel, who supposedly never left, even after death. Guests have complained about the room smelling of whiskey and cigars, no matter how thoroughly the room has been cleaned. 

The Omni Parker Hotel also features in an important scene in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. In the famous play, Willy describes meeting a salesman named Dave Singleman at the Parker House in Boston. His meeting with Singleman is what inspires Willy’s ambition to become a salesman, the “greatest career a man could want.” 

The Omni Parker House also gets mentioned in more novels, such as The Secret History by Donna Tartt and The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.

“We all went to Boston and checked into the Parker House. That’s a lovely hotel, do you know it? No? Dickens used to stay there when he came to America.’

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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Related: If you enjoy literary walking tours, check out this walking tour of The Age of Innocence sites in New York City.

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Staying at the (Haunted?) Omni Parker House

I had the chance to stay at the Omni Parker house during one of my frequent trips to Boston during grad school, and I definitely recommend staying here if you get the chance. As far as location, you really can’t find a better spot for a Boston hotel. It’s located by several T-stops, on the corner of the Boston Commons, and along the Freedom Trail. Staying at the Omni Parker, you are also within easy walking distance of some of the best Boston bookstores.

At the time, I had no idea of the hotel’s storied history or literary connections. I also didn’t know that it was supposedly haunted, though my first thought when I entered the lobby and saw the elevator doors was that it looked like something out of The Twilight Zone, or the entrance to the Hollywood Studios’ Tower of Terror ride.

I’m happy to report I had no experiences with ghosts at the Omni Parker, so I can’t add any more to the already rich lore of this historic Boston hotel. With the total lack of ghosts, I enjoyed my stay at the Omni Parker. My room was on the small side, like those you find in any downtown city unless you’re ready to spend a fortune, but I had everything I needed and was perfectly comfortable.

The ambience at the Omni Parker Hotel is really unique, and it feels like stepping back into Boston’s history when you enter. You, too, can stay overnight at the Omni Parker House, though it doesn’t run cheap. The most affordable time to stay is during the dead of winter, because only us fools go to Boston in February. 

If staying at the Omni Parker is over your budget, you can always stop by to get the original Boston Cream Pie from the bakery or try an original Parker House roll. 

I always recommend booking your hotels through Hotels.com so you can benefit from their rewards program. You can earn points on hotels of any chain as well as independently owned hotels and vacation rentals. 

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The Omni Parker House Hotel in Boston is one of the best places to visit on a literary tour of Boston, and one that any literary traveler should have on their bucket list.

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