Queer Places:
The Lenox Hotel, 61 Exeter St, Boston, MA 02116
Woodlawn Cemetery, 302 Elm St, Everett, MA 02149, United States
Lerman Chester Prior, historically recorded in various contexts as Lucius C. Prior (October 9, 1883 - July 28, 1935), was a prominent American hotel manager and pioneer in the early twentieth-century New England hospitality industry.
Born on October 9, 1883, in East Boston, Massachusetts, he was the son of Roscoe Henry Prior and Mary Elizabeth Gallagher Prior. Raised alongside his brother, Roscoe Henry Prior Jr., he attended local public schools before embarking on a career that would make him one of Boston's most influential hotel operators during the golden age of Back Bay luxury accommodations.
Prior entered the hospitality profession as a bookkeeper working under Sylvanus Stokes, the early operator of The Lenox Hotel. His sharp business acumen led to his rapid advancement within the industry, culminating in his appointment as manager of The Lenox Hotel in 1915, an 11-story fireproof luxury property at Boylston and Exeter Streets that had briefly stood as Boston's tallest building upon its opening in 1900. Prior subsequently assumed leadership of the nearby Hotel Brunswick at Boylston and Clarendon Streets (demolished), eventually managing both grand Back Bay establishments as president and general manager of their operating corporations.
Recognized as a creative innovator, Prior frequently defied conventional hotel management practices to introduce modern entertainment concepts to the city. He established the Egyptian Room at the Hotel Brunswick, which gained renown as Boston's first formal supper club, and pioneer-marketed the concept of sidewalk cafés in New England urban hotel design. His venues transformed Copley Square into a vibrant social, cultural, and night-life destination for affluent travelers and celebrities throughout the 1920s.
The onset of the Great Depression severely impacted luxury hospitality, placing immense financial strain on both properties. Forced to navigate severe economic pressure, Prior oversaw the closure of the historic Hotel Brunswick in February 1935. The stress and physical toll of managing these financial hardships contributed to a decline in his health. Suffering from a recurring heart ailment that first afflicted him in 1934, Prior retired from active business management in May 1935. He passed away on the morning of July 28, 1935, at his farm in Saxonville, Massachusetts, at the age of 51, and was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett, Massachusetts.
Prior's legacy intersects with early twentieth-century LGBTQ and queer social history through the socio-spatial network of Boston's Back Bay hotel culture. During the 1920s and 1930s, high-end hotel lounges, dining rooms, and semi-private guest quarters in urban centers like Copley Square served as crucial covert meeting places for gay men, queer patrons, and clandestine social circles, operating under the relative anonymity afforded by luxury hospitality. Historical analysis linking Back Bay hotel management circles to later public scandals—most notably the 1942 military espionage and "House of Degradation" investigation involving United States Senator David I. Walsh—highlights how Boston's hotel establishments, including the Lenox and Brunswick networks established under Prior's tenure, served as institutional anchors within the broader, informal queer networks that navigated New England's elite social landscape during the interwar era.
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