New Boston Historical Society
New Boston, New Hampshire

Undated photo of J. Reed Whipple donated by Ruth Saltmarsh

Joseph Reed Whipple

Joseph Reed Whipple (1842-1912) was a New Boston man who owned hotels in Boston, Massachusetts including the Parker House, Young's Hotel, and the Hotel Touraine. He was described in the New York Times as "one of the best known hotel men in America."

J. Reed Whipple never forgot his home town. He established the Valley View Farm in New Boston to supply his Boston hotels, helped rebuild New Boston village after the Fire of 1887, created New Boston's first public library, and brought the railroad to New Boston.

J. Reed Whipple was born September 8, 1842 in New Boston, New Hampshire to John and Philantha (Reed) Whipple. He was educated in New Boston schools until he was eighteen, when he went to Boston to open a grocery store with his brother James B. Whipple. After the Whipple brothers' store failed J. Reed Whipple worked in a Boston restaurant and became interested in the hotel business.

The Parker House in Boston in 1910

In the late 1860s Whipple approached Harvey D. Parker in his Parker House hotel and asked for a job. When Parker asked him, "What can you do?" the young man replied, "Anything." Parker said, "I like your grit!" and took Whipple to the hotel basement where he put him to work opening oysters. Whipple was soon promoted to the steward's office at the Parker House, where he worked for nine years. In 1876 Whipple and his partner George Hall became proprietors of Young's Hotel. In 1891 Whipple, by then the sole proprietor of Young's Hotel, bought the Parker House, too.

War of the Whiskers
Facial hair was fashionable for men in the 1800s — think of photos from the Civil War era — but towards the end of the century people began to wonder if beards and mustaches might be unsanitary. In 1892 Whipple ordered all the waiters in his two hotels to remove their beards, an edict which was widely reported in the nation's press. An editorial in the Pittsburgh Dispatch encouraged the waiters to strike before submitting to "such a manifestation of sumptuary despotism. The beard of the juggler with hotel crockery is as dear to him as the hirsute magnificence of any other man." A delegation from the Boston Waiters Alliance informed Whipple that no one would comply with his order, which he rescinded after some deliberation.

Dining room of the Hotel Touraine

Whipple in New Boston
When the New Boston town center burned in May 1887, Whipple provided financial assistance to people who had lost their homes and businesses, donated half the cost of rebuilding the town hall and the school, and built a new general store. The following year Whipple established New Boston's first public library in one corner of the general store and donated 2,000 books. Over a century later our town's library is still called the Whipple Free Library.

The Valley View Farm in New Boston included a piggery (far right), Whipple's house and barns (center right) and henneries (cemter left).

Whipple purchased 2,500 acres of farm land in New Boston to establish his Valley View Farm with a modern dairy barn and creamery to supply his Boston hotels with milk, cream, butter, eggs, and pork. He employed 90 men to tend to his 350 cattle, 2,000 chickens, and 1,800 Yorkshire pigs. This was at a time when the population of New Boston was in decline; it is possible that half the town was employed directly or indirectly by Whipple's Valley View Farm.

Local farmers brought their milk to Whipple's Creamery where it was processed by Swedish milkmaids.

Whipple encouraged the construction of the New Boston Railroad which opened in 1893 to connect New Boston — and Whipple's farm, too! — to Manchester, New Hampshire and Boston, Massachusetts. Trains left New Boston twice daily with produce for the Boston hotels and returned with barrels of slops to feed the pigs. Many New Boston homes had pieces of hotel silverware which had come from Boston mixed in with the slops.

In 1897 Whipple built "Boston's finest hotel," the Touraine, at a cost of $3,000,000. At the time of his death he had plans for yet another new hotel at the corner of Newbury and Arlington Streets in Boston.

Guests at Whipple's three hotels could read about the Valley View Farm in a book Whipple published in 1910, About The Farm, from which some of the photos on this page were copied.

The banquet in the barn

In 1911 Whipple invited 450 hotel men and guests to travel from Boston to New Boston by a special train to tour his Valley View Farm. Tables were set up in the hay barn for a luncheon prepared by the chef of the Touraine and seven cooks, served by 70 waiters. An orchestra played in one corner of the barn. The menu included soft-shell crabs, Penobscot salmon, young pig, chicken, tongue, ham, deviled lobsters, and baked beans. Moët & Chandon champagne was served.

from the Boston Herald, June 1911

Whipple's New Boston house at the intersection of the Francestown and Weare roads is across the street from the 1909 Guernsey barn.

J. Reed Whipple died in Boston June 15, 1912 after an operation for cancer of the stomach. He left no will; his wife Rose Gay Higgins (1843–1918) and daughter Lizzie May Whipple Pierce (1868-?) inherited his estate, estimated at $3,000,000. Whipple was predeceased by a son John Reed Whipple (1871–1899) who worked in his father's business. Joseph Reed Whipple is buried in the New Boston Cemetery.

Nonah Poole visits the Omni Parker House historical exhibit in 2014.

In 2014 historian Susan Wilson invited the Historical Society to Boston to celebrate her new book "Heaven, By Hotel Standards: The History of the Omni Parker House" which includes her research into J. Reed Whipple and his New Boston connections. Boston Cream Pie was served at the book launch; this pie was invented in in the late 1860s or '70s by a chef at the Parker House. The current hotel, rebuilt on the same site 15 years after Whipple's death, has images of the Valley View Farm on view in its lower level Historical Gallery. -- Dan R. 2023

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