Ye Olde Oyster House, 41 Union Street, Boston

Your visit to Boston would not be complete without a call to the historical Oyster House, which has been doing continuous business since 1826, with the same stalls and oyster bar in their original positions. On the second floor of this building lived Louis Philippe, afterwards King of France, during his exile, and here he taught the French language to many prominent Bostonians of the period. Previous to 1826 it had been the well-known store of Thomas Capen, importer of silks and fancy dress goods and was known as "At the Sign of the Cornfields." Thomas Capen succeeded his father, Hopestill Capen, with whom in 1769 Benjamin Thompson of Woburn, afterwards Count Rumford, was apprenticed as clerk. Here at the same time the distinguished merchant, Thomas Parkman, learned his trade. In the upper part of the building, Isaiah Thomas published the "Massachusetts Spy," having for its motto, "Open to all parties, but influenced by none," from 1771 to the beginning of hostilities of the Revolutionary War in April, 1775, when it was moved to Worcester, Mass., where it was long known as the oldest paper in America in point of continuous service. During a part of the Revolutionary period, Ebenezer Hancock, a paymaster of the Continental Army, had his headquarters here. Air cooled and conditioned. Union Oyster House, Inc. near Faneuil Hall.
Courtesy of Boston Public Library