Beacon Inn | Boston Bed and Breakfast | Boston Hotel | Brookline, Massachusetts

Now, if you’re a Red Sox fanatic—and after trucking around town to see a statue and plaque, you should be by now (see our previous post about the Huntington Avenue Grounds)—you can continue your tour of the Olde Towne Teams’ former haunts on another college campus: Boston University.

Until 1953, Boston enjoyed two baseball clubs: the National League Braves (formerly the Boston Red Stockings, the oldest continually-playing team in American sports), before the team moved to Atlanta via Milwaukee, and the American League Red Sox (formerly the Boston Americans; confused yet?)

On the site of what is now BU’s Nickerson playing field stood the Braves Field, a stone’s throw from Fenway. Built in 1915, it held its ground for 37 years—hosting three World Series and an All Star Game—before being demolished to make way for university dorms and Astroturf.  But it wasn’t entirely demolished, and that’s where things get interesting.

Baseball fans should see what’s left of Braves Field because, well, the jewel-box-park style of concourse under the right-field pavilion’s bleachers looks just as it did back in the day (unlike Fenway’s concourse, which has been more recently updated), and because Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Leon Cadore and Braves pitcher Joe Oeschger battled it out for a pair of complete-game performances… that lasted for a still-record 26 innings! In other words: you’re in the presence of past greatness.

Everyone else—looking at you, moms and dads taking your kids on college visits—should see it because you’re going to want to tell your friends that you saw something other than the back of a student tour guide’s head. Regular tourists and rabid baseball fans alike, take note; for a quintessentially Boston experience, the Beacon Inn can help.

Not often does Boston have the pleasure of hosting music festivals full of critically acclaimed musicians. But on May 25 and 26, City Hall Plaza will attract thousands of fans with the Boston Calling Music Festival!

Artists like fun., The National, Marina and the Diamonds, The Shins, Dirty Projectors, and many more will come together for a two-day event that is fun for the whole family! You can choose between one-day passes, weekend passes, VIP one-day passes, or VIP weekend passes!

Be sure to bring sunscreen or an umbrella, because the show will go on rain or shine. Wear light clothing and comfortable shoes, as there will be limited seating, And remember to leave all food and beverages at home! Some of Boston’s most popular food trucks will be on hand to serve delicious food all day! If you’re over 21, beer and wine will also be served in the beer garden and VIP areas.

If you’re coming from out of down for the festival and are looking for a place to stay during the festival, the Beacon Inn is just a short train ride from City Hall Plaza! At the Inn, you are far enough from all the craziness at the festival yet still close enough to get to the show early. You’ll want to make sure you get a good spot to see the performers in action!

Be sure to catch one of the Boston’s greatest events and spend your nights afterward at our bed and breakfast! Our rooms are perfect for unwinding after a long day of dancing!

We’re almost halfway through April which means that May graduation dates are just around the corner! Our Boston bed and breakfast locations are located close to several area schools, including Boston College, Boston University, Simmons College, Emmanuel College, and more. Our historic brownstones offer a quiet refuge from the hustle and bustle of graduation season, yet our proximity to local attractions and public transportation make us a convenient hub for your Boston visit.

This is always a very popular time of year for Boston hotels so we recommend booking your rooms early! Some of the busier graduation weekends are currently closed to online bookings but we do still have rooms available! You can call us directly at 617-566-0088 or 888-575-0088 for up-to-date availability and rates. Let the Beacon Inn be your home away from home this graduation season.

On rare occasion, The Beacon Inn bed and breakfast hosts the most American type of guest: those road-tripping across country to visit every National and American league baseball park. In that spirit—and the spirit of this, the first month of the baseball season—we’re duty-bound to remind our other, more relaxed guests that Fenway Park is open for business. You are welcome to worship there during your stay, and we have it on good information that Boston’s holy leaders give dispensation for mistaking this green jewel for a Temple.

Yawkey Way, the street on which Fenway is parked, is tree-lined and especially pretty at sunset, on game day, when it’s closed to automotive traffic and opens up to allow fans to stroll among souvenir hawkers, baseball cap vendors, and street food purveyors. If marinating in the history of the area brings about a Red Sox conversion experience to a stark-raving Sox fan, the baseball-deranged staff at the front desk can help!

The bed and breakfast staff can recommend a number of other Boston baseball sites that recall the sport’s early glory days. Head over to Huntington Avenue, home of Northeastern’s campus, to see the site of the Huntington Avenue American Base Ball Grounds.

While the site itself is unimpressive today (it’s Northeastern’s indoor athletic arena), there is a plaque and statue on an adjacent street named World Series Way. Both the plaque and statue were erected in 1993, the former to memorialize the park’s hosting the first World Series in 1903 and the latter to commemorate Cy Young pitching the first perfect game of the modern era one year later in 1904.

That should be plenty of baseball touring for one afternoon, and imagining Cy Young pitching a no-hitter will work up an appetite. If that’s the case, Chicken Lou’s is a short walk from World Series Way, and despite it’s small size (it’s a 10’ by 20’ shack), it serves up delicious sandwiches with names like the Cholesterol (bacon, egg & cheese), TKO (chicken, swiss, bacon & honey mustard), and Naughty Nuggets (fried chicken nuggets). Just like The Babe used to eat.

Are you stuck looking for a last-minute hotel for the 2013 Boston Marathon? Then look no further! The staff at the Beacon Inn has you covered. We have a limited number of rooms available at both our 1087 and 1750 Boston bed and breakfast hotels for travelers looking for a place to stay during the Marathon. It’s just a few days away so book now before our last few rooms fill up! Our hotels are located close to public transportation and are just off the Marathon route. With two locations on Beacon Street at approximately the 23- and 24-mile markers, we are one of the best choices for hotels close to the Boston Marathon. You can cheer the runners on from the sidelines without even leaving our front porch! Check our availability online or call us directly at 617-566-0088 for more information.

In the food truck business, Boston restaurateurs would have to put hundreds of trucks into operation to rival the number of trucks operated by chefs in Austin, Texas and Portland, Oregon—both food truck meccas boasting 600 trucks (or “carts”) apiece. If new food trucks continue to rumble into business at the current rate of 28 per year, it won’t be long before Boston, like Portland, can support a food truck tourism industry. This month marks the beginning of food-truck-hunting open season; it’s time to wash off your handkerchief for 7 months of glorious mouth-wiping, and mouth-watering, gastronomic goodness.

It’s possible to sample all of Boston’s 78 truck-rateaurs—and make no mistake, some of this street food puts sit-down gourmet dining to shame in quality and price—in as little as two weeks. Here at the Beacon Inn, we realize (some of us, reluctantly) that most of our bed and breakfast guests want to do more than nosh-nom-nom their way around Brookline and Boston, so we’ve developed a list of our favorite trucks and keep a schedule of their destinations at our front desk. This list is updated from time-to-time, and we’ll occasionally post these updates, as reviews, on our blog.

In no particular order, the Beacon Inn’s top-three food truck favorites:

The Chicken and Rice Guys: lamb gyro plate
Roxy’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese: Mighty Rib Melt
The Dining Car: Honey Truffle Goat Cheese Sandwich

Spring has finally come to Boston which can only mean that it’s time for the Boston Marathon! An annual event since 1897, the Marathon attracts runners from all over the world, and we’ve had the opportunity to host many of these athletes over the years at our Boston bed and breakfast. Beginning in Hopkinton, the course travels over 26 miles of Greater Boston, passing through Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, and Brookline, before reaching the finish line in Copley Square.

The 2013 Boston Marathon will be held on Monday, April 15, known as Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts. Though the holiday was initially created to commemorate the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first military engagements of the Revolutionary War, it has become known colloquially as “Marathon Monday” due to the fact that the Marathon is run on this day each year. With the coming of spring in beautiful Boston and Brookline, this is the perfect time to visit our city.

Our two hotels in Brookline are located right on the Marathon route on Beacon Street at approximately the 23- and 24-mile markers, giving you some of the best front row seats to the action! Whether you’re here as a runner or just to cheer from the sidelines, the Beacon Inn is the perfect place to stay when visiting Boston for the Marathon. Time is running out so call us at 617-566-0088 to book your room today!

If you’ve seen movies like “The Artist” or “Hugo,” you’ve fallen in love with what it must have been like to go to the movies in the 1930s. With lines down the street, friends and family would gather together and watch films as a grand event. The ambiance of the theaters back then were much different than they are today with red curtains draped over the screen and a marquee outside.

The Coolidge Corner Theatre captures what it must have been like to go to the movies when they were first introduced! With an old-fashioned sign hanging overhead and the marquee displaying films now showing, you really get to view movies as if you’ve gone back in time.

The building was originally built as a church in 1906 before it was redesigned in 1933 as an Art Deco movie palace. It was the first ever movie theater constructed in the area and it remains today as one of Brookline’s biggest attractions. Showing movies that you wouldn’t typically find in a big blockbuster cinema, you can unwind and enjoy the movies in their truest form.

They serve a wide selection of candy and beverages and they even have a humble selection of beers and wines for those of you over 21! Come stay with us at our Brookline bed and breakfast and spend an evening at the Coolidge watching movies like you’ve stepped back in time!

 
This weekend the blizzard “Nemo” hit the city of Boston, dropping a whopping 24.9 inches of snow. That’s the most snow we’ve seen in 10 years! This caused the closure of the MBTA, power outages, driving bans, and a pretty nasty case of cabin fever for most local residents.

The amount of snow on the ground caused people to get creative while traveling from one place to another. Many found it more convenient to cross-country ski all the way down Beacon Street. Others used the lids of their garbage pails as they slid down snowbanks the size of full-grown men.

Here at the Beacon Inn we’re staying positive by keeping ourselves updated on all the progress made in the area. Though many businesses are closed, we have been keeping track of all the restaurants still in service and we are happy to help accomodate you if you’re stuck in the city. Here you can watch the snow fall from your window while sipping our complimentary hot chocolate. So come on down!

 
As a student in downtown Boston, the Boston Duck Tour might give you a bit of a fright. Those boats on wheels are massive and you hope to the heavens that the driver can see you as you cross the street. Then there’s the flashing lights that come from the cameras in the passenger seats and you wonder if any unflattering pictures of you will surface on the Internet.

But all of the silly fears aside, the Boston Duck Tour is an innovative way to explore the city of Boston that’s fun for the entire family.

The big boats on wheels are actually World War II amphibious landing vehicles that take you through Newbury Street, the Freedom Trail, Fenway Park, and Quincy Market. And when you’ve spotted all of Boston’s most famous sites, the Duck Tour takes you on the Charles River, where you can catch a view of the city unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.

 
As you head out of class, your fear of the Duck can wither away because the ConDUCKtors are highly trained operators of the vehicles and they hignly encourage waving and quacking at pedestrians.

So if you’re looking for something to do when you’re in Boston, the Duck Tours are a fun adventure and a perfect way to see the city! A stay at the Beacon Inn is the perfect way to relax and unwind after a day of sightseeing. We are just minutes away from all the local attractions Boston has to offer, but just far enough that you won’t have to listen to all the quacking!