The pristine pavement and glistening granite curbing between West Street and Temple Place in Downtown Crossing look just beautiful. The Jersey barriers in front of the Blake and Amory buildings came down earlier this winter, clearing an unsightly mess that had clogged pedestrian and road traffic for too long. It also marked the end of a three-year development project that turned the Blake and Amory buildings into the Godfrey Hotel Boston, which began accepting reservations Thursday.
That a piece of sidewalk should illicit excitement is due to the effect the renovation of these two Historic Register-listed buildings, dating to 1908 and 1904 respectively, has on the neighborhood. That area of Washington Street, from the Godfrey to the Paramount Theater, was once a shabby retail mishmash. Now it’s vibrant and architecturally appealing.
“Once the scaffolding came down, this wonderful cityscape opened up, and another block was transformed,’’ says Rosemarie Sansone, president and CEO of the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District. Sansone once worked in the Blake and Amory buildings before BID moved to nearby Arch Street. “From the Ritz-Carlton development, the Paramount, Millennium Place, and now the Burnham Building and Millennium Tower, one block after another along Washington Street has been renovated, and this finishes it all off beautifully.’’
There are two parts of the building still far from finished, though: Amory’s ground floor corner will house a restaurant, scheduled to open in March (the name of the restaurant is still under wraps), and Blake’s corner will be occupied by Massachusetts coffee roaster George Howell, with a store expected to open soon. Both will have hotel lobby and street entrances.
As the new year dawned, a building crew was finishing the upscale boutique hotel’s interior. Plasterers and painters tweaked the Godfrey’s public areas, and a newly trained housekeeping crew distributed the “room in a box’’ packages containing all the amenities and niceties for the 242 guest rooms, including evocatively fragranced Heeley toiletries (from debonair British designer and perfumer James Heeley) and retro analog clocks.
The bedrooms themselves, which range from spacious kings to open-plan studios with living areas, have an urban design and echo the lobby’s palette of gray and brown with hints of rust and plum. It’s a clean, modern look with the emphasis on ease-of-use over opulence. Techies, and anyone who’s ever battled with a hotel remote, take note: the Godfrey Hotel Boston is the first US hotel to offer InnSpire, which allows guests to stream photos, videos, and music from mobile devices, access hotel amenities such as room service and concierge directly on the HDTV in their room, and even watch good old TV — but effortlessly.
The hotel puts visitors right in the thick of things: It is steps away from the Old South Meeting House at the corner of Milk and Washington streets, and the venerable Old State House. It’s walking distance either to the Rose Kennedy Greenway and the harbor, or, in the opposite direction, to Boston Common, Beacon Hill, the Public Garden, and the Back Bay. Restaurants galore, the Opera House, the Emerson/Paramount Center, and the Orpheum Theatre are all close by.
Officially, the Blake and Amory project was titled the 59 Temple Place development, referring to the building’s main entrance on Temple. Wisely, the Godfrey’s entrance stands at 505 Washington St., adding considerable grandeur to the main thoroughfare.
The Blake and Amory buildings were designed by architect Arthur Hunnewell Bowditch and recall Downtown Crossing’s time as a fashionable place to shop. On the ground floor there was retail (Sansone remembers her father taking her to the building to buy ballet shoes at Capezio’s), and above the shops were workshops, mostly in the garment trade. Later, they became office space.
A century of careless commercial tenants left little of ornamental or historic value inside the buildings. However, past the newly built main lobby, with its sleek bar and lounge, guests reach the old elevators and stairwell, where the marble steps, polished breccia walls, and original ironwork balustrade and wood banister are all beautifully renovated.
Bowditch was known for his ornate terra cotta work, and the Blake and Amory’s Gothic Revival exterior was, just like the stairwell, painstakingly cleaned and restored until it gleamed once more. “Nearly half of the white terra cotta tiles that clad the exterior were either severely damaged or missing altogether,’’ says the Godfrey’s general manager, Larry Casillo. “The end result is stunning.’’
He’s right. When you’re done admiring the sidewalk, remember to look up.
GODFREY HOTEL BOSTON 505 Washington St., Boston. Rooms from $200. 617-804-2000. www.godfreyhotel boston.com.
Linda Laban can be reached at soundz@me.com.
