Union Oyster House

Walking along the Freedom Trail in Boston, it is easy to miss the plaque outside the Union Oyster House. But if you pass it by, you are missing not only a good meal, but an extraordinary chapter in American history.

The Union Oyster House is the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the United States, serving diners since 1826. But the building itself reaches even deeper into Boston’s past. In the years leading up to the American Revolution, the building housed the shop of Ebenezer Hancock, the brother of John Hancock. It is here that local patriots exchanged news as tensions grew with Britain. Members of the Sons of Liberty frequented this area and the walls of the Oyster House witnessed the revolutionary spirit that shaped the city.

When the Union Oyster House opened as a restaurant in 1826, it helped popularize the American oyster bar. Fresh oysters are still served on the wooden counter that still stands today.

Over the centuries, countless public figures have passed through the doors of the Oyster House. John F. Kennedy, as a senator, would slip upstairs to a booth that is now known as the “Kennedy Booth.”

Today, the Union Oyster House is a living piece of the Freedom Trail and a place that holds nearly 300 years of stories.