Boston's music-themed hotel is The Verb Hotel, a restored 1959 motor hotel at 1271 Boylston Street in the Fenway. Every room has a record player and rock artwork, and guests can borrow from a vinyl library thousands of records deep. It suits music fans, concertgoers headed to Lansdowne Street and Red Sox fans who want to sleep beside Fenway Park.
We know of no other hotel in the city built around music. The hotel's own site lists no in-house concerts or Beatles-themed bistro, so this guide sticks to what it does offer, and to the live music nearby.
What makes The Verb Hotel a music hotel?
The building opened in 1959 as the Fenway Motor Hotel, a two-story modernist motor court designed by Irving Salsberg and Ralph Leblanc. Its rebirth as The Verb, with restoration by Elkus Manfredi Architects, leaned on the neighborhood's music history: the clubs of Kenmore Square and Lansdowne Street, the rock stations WBCN and WFNX, and the Boston Phoenix alternative weekly. Phoenix publisher Stephen Mindich and David Bieber, WBCN's longtime creative services director, curated the memorabilia on the walls from the Phoenix archives.
The theme runs through the stay rather than stopping at the lobby. Rooms come with turntables, the record library spans genres and decades, and the decor is mid-century, with music and pop-culture details throughout.
Rooms at The Verb
- Deluxe Balcony rooms (one king or two queens), about 300 square feet, have private balconies; the hotel calls them its amplified rooms.
- Stadium rooms (king or two queens) face Fenway Park.
- Pool View rooms overlook the pool.
- Backstage trailers are ten stationary trailers set between the hotel and Fenway Park. Each is about 325 square feet with a king bed and a semi-private patio. An accessible trailer has a queen bed, a roll-in shower, a ramp and its own record player with a Marshall amp.
Standard rooms also run about 300 square feet with retro accents and rock artwork.
Pool and dining
The outdoor pool is heated through the winter. Food comes from Hojoko, next door at the same address, which calls itself a rock 'n' roll tavern built around Japanese izakaya: sushi, robata-grilled yakitori and street-food small plates, with craft cocktails, sake, wine and beer. It takes reservations and handles groups.
Live music near The Verb
The Verb's location is the other half of the theme. The Fenway and the Massachusetts Avenue corridor hold several of Boston's main music rooms:
- Citizens House of Blues Boston, 15 Lansdowne Street, and MGM Music Hall at Fenway, 2 Lansdowne Street, the two concert halls on the street behind Fenway Park.
- Paradise Rock Club, 967 Commonwealth Avenue, a rock club further out Commonwealth Avenue.
- Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Berklee Performance Center at 136 Massachusetts Avenue.
- Wally’s Café Jazz Club, 427 Massachusetts Avenue in the South End, a family-run jazz club open since 1947, with live music every night, jam sessions Tuesday to Saturday and no reservations.
For records to take home, Newbury Comics on Newbury Street stocks exclusive color vinyl and signed releases. The Bleacher Bar under Fenway's center-field bleachers needs no game ticket.
Who should book The Verb?
The Verb makes the most sense if your trip centers on a show on Lansdowne Street, a Red Sox game or the Fenway's museums, with the Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum both in the neighborhood. Check the Red Sox schedule and the Lansdowne Street concert calendars before you pick dates. For the rest of the neighborhood, see our guide to things to do in Fenway and Boston after dark. Rates and availability for The Verb Hotel are on Expedia.
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