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User / wallyg / Boston - Beacon Hill: Cheers
Wally Gobetz / 48,701 items
Thanks to the success of the TV show "Cheers," this building on the corner of Beacon Street and Brimmer Street in Beacon Hill, has become Boston's most-visited tourist attraction. The facade found fame on the legendary sitcom, but puzzled visitors will find that's where the similarities end--often heading to the replica bar at Cheers Faneuil Hall. The downstairs pub, foremtly the Bull and Finch, inspired the show's character but not its look. It still functions as a bar and restaurant, but one that's designed to part ways between you and your wallet for logo'd tshirts and drink concoctions that Norm would never touch. Upstairs, the Hampshire House, inspiration for Melville's, still functions as a restaurant and reception center.

Designed and built in 1910 by the society architect, Ogden Codman, for fellow Brahmins Bayard and Ruth Thayer, the five-story Georgian revival townhouse with Federal Style influence was, and still is, lavishly decorated with Italian marble, carved oak paneling, and crystal chandeliers. Outside, a wrought iron balcony, known as Boston black lace, runs across the front just above the familiar iron railing and canopied Palladian windows. Those windows not only looked out onto the Victorian elegance of the Boston Public Garden, but they also looked into the social world of Boston’s elite, as 84 Beacon Street became one of the most fashionable salons in the city. The Hampshire House acquired its name during WWII when the Thayer family sold the building. It was leased as a small private luxury hotel to the owners of the Lincolnshire Hotel, who dubbed the mansion the Hampshire House after the English colony. In 1969, Tom Kershaw and Jack Veasy bought the building and planned to turn the downstairs servant's recreation area into an English Pub. Seeking a name with authentic British character, they named it after Bostonian Charles Bulfinch--the Bull & Finch Pub.

In 1981, a couple from Hollywood--Mary Ann and Glenn Charles--happened upon the Bull & Finch while looking for a neighborhood bar to serve as inspiration for their new TV series. Falling in love with the warm, cozy, atmosphere, they photographed they had their model for an NBC pilot, which aired on September 30, 1982. 11 years, 275 episodes and over 100 Emmy nominations later, the show about a bar "where everybody knows your name" closed its run as one of the most popular ever to be aired on television. After the finale, a live aftershow was aired at the real pub. The exterior facade was used on the show, but the producers changed the interior because they needed an island bar instead of a wall bar to suit their live studio audience.
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Dates
  • Taken: Mar 1, 1999
  • Uploaded: May 21, 2006
  • Updated: Nov 21, 2023