Four Rooms at the Omni Parker House Hotel

The Atlas Obscura Podcast

SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura

Places & Travel, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

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Summary

In an homage to the 1995 movie Four Rooms, Dylan talks with historian Susan Wilson about how the history of Boston – and the United States at large – was influenced by events that occurred in four different rooms of the iconic Omni Parker House Hotel. This episode was recorded live at the WBUR Festival in Boston on May 31, 2025.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everyone.
0:04.8	We have something pretty different for you today.
0:08.4	This is a live episode of the podcast, as in we did it with real people in the audience.
0:17.3	So a little while ago, I was asked to speak at the WBUR Festival in Boston.
0:21.6	I was trying to figure out what I wanted to talk about.
0:24.6	And then I stumbled across this hotel, the Omni Parker House Hotel.
0:32.6	It is the longest continually operating hotel in America, big historical hotel in Boston, it's downtown,
0:39.3	it's near the Freedom Trail. And I realized that there were not just one, but multiple great
0:45.9	stories to tell about this hotel. There's just an insane amount of history that flows through this
0:53.6	hotel.
0:54.8	So I invited Susan Wilson, who is the hotel's official historian, to come and talk with me
1:00.7	in front of this live audience at the WBUR Festival.
1:04.1	So that is what you are going to hear today.
1:06.4	Also, I get to have my little, like, an Oprah moment at this live podcast thing.
1:10.9	Maybe you'll be jealous.
1:12.0	It was really fun.
1:12.7	Okay.
1:13.6	Here we go.
1:17.9	I'm Dylan Thuris.
1:19.1	Today with me is Susan Wilson, the best historian in Boston, which is saying something.
1:24.3	Susan, thank you for being here today.
1:25.5	Thanks for inviting me.
	...

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