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Travel Back in Time: Hotel Alexandra

The aging building may have been named after a European princess.

Despite the layers of controversy and caked dirt shrouding its faded façade, the Hotel Alexandra is a grand old dame with a tumultuous history. “It’s not unusual but it’s very distinctive in the South End,” Hope Shannon of the South End Historical Society said of Ruskinian Gothic architecture featured on the long-time dilapidated building at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Washington Street. “Right now it’s dirty. If they would power wash it they would see it’s much brighter. It was always a distinct building. Especially since most of the buildings around it were warehouses. So it would’ve stood out pretty prominently.” While the South End was by no means entirely affluent when the Alexandra was built in 1875, it catered to the …

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South End Historical Society Hosts Annual House Tour

Featured homes give a nod to the neighborhood's past, present and future.

As it has for over four decades, this year's South End House Tour will give residents and neighbors a chance to catch an unobstructed glimpse into some of the neighborhood's most coveted abodes. For $25, members of the public receive a map of six to eight homes open for visits between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 16. The Tour committee only accepts homes that haven't been part of the tour before, or in the last 10 years, in an effort to keep the event fresh, said Executive Director Hope Shannon. "It's a long process finding people who are willing to be part of the House Tour," she acknowledged. "We usually start actively looking, soliciting and vetting potential owners around the beginning of May." This year's theme is Past, …

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