When entering the building now housing our Copley place hotel , there was a barbershop to the left, a coatroom on the right and around the corner were the elevators, office, telephone rooms, office of the Manager and ladies’ cocktail lounge. To the left of the stairs leading to the second floor was the entrance to the men’s locker room and bowling alleys. Behind the stairs was the entrance to the gallery of the swimming pool.
The double stairway to the second floor was of marble with finely hand-wrought iron balustrades with bronze handrails. They led to a large elliptical lobby on the second floor with a 20 foot ceiling. There was red marble from Spain, black marble from Belgium, black and gold marble from Italy and pink marble from Minnesota, along with other marble from France, Tennessee and Colorado.
Off this main lobby were the lounge and dining room. The lounge was 40 feet wide by 80 feet long fitted with every comfort. The dining room, with a capacity of 250 people, was 35 feet by 80 feet.
The third floor consisted of the 40 by 80 foot library, billiard room with 10 tables and 5 card rooms along with the Grill room and bar. The fourth floor contained the ladies’ dining room and private dining rooms with the remaining floors comprised of guest rooms.
Tucked into the Back Bay, the studio transforms slowly across the seasons, with light filtering through tall windows onto neutral tan walls and deep forest green accents. A battered card catalog of neighborhood sketches sits beside a vintage suitcase, hinting at travelers who once passed through on their way to Copley Square. Rugs soften the hardwood, plants trail from reclaimed shelving, and a single reading lamp throws a warm pool over an armchair angled toward the window. On the desk, a notebook lies open beside a fountain pen and a chipped ceramic mug, waiting for new observations about streets, gardens, and everyday comings and goings in central Boston.
