Union Oyster House

Union Oyster House is a restaurant at 41–43 Union Street in Downtown Boston, Massachusetts. Open to diners since 1826, it is among the oldest operating restaurants in the United States and the oldest known to have been continuously operating. The building, which is part of the Blackstone Block Historic District, was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 2003.

Union Oyster House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
U.S. Historic district Contributing property
Pictured in 2025
Location	41–43 Union Street, Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°21′41″N 71°3′25″W
Built	c. 1716 (309 years ago) (1716)
Architectural style	Georgian
Part of	Blackstone Block Historic District (ID73000315)
NRHP reference No.	03000645[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	May 27, 2003
Designated NHL	May 27, 2003
Designated CP	May 26, 1973

History

The building itself was built around 1716.^[2] In 1742,^[2] before it became a restaurant, Hopestill Capen's dress goods business, At the Sign of the Cornfields, occupied the property. In 1771, printer Isaiah Thomas published his newspaper, the Massachusetts Spy, on the second floor.^[2] The restaurant originally opened as the Atwood & Bacon Oyster House on August 3, 1826.^[3]

The Union Oyster House has had several famous people in history as regular diners, including the Kennedy family, John F. Kerry, and Daniel Webster.^[4] Webster was known for regularly consuming at least six plates of oysters.^[5] In 1796, Louis Philippe was living in exile on the second floor.^[2][6] He earned his living by teaching French to young women. Labor economist and Haverford College president John Royston Coleman worked here incognito as a "salad-and-sandwich man" for a time in the 1970s and documented the experience in his book The Blue Collar Journal.^[7]

As of 2015^[update], the restaurant was selling an estimated 60,000 plates of oysters each year (or 164 plates daily).^[2]

Expansions

The business has expanded into the adjacent buildings on either side of the original central section.^[2] The bar expansion is on the left, facing Bell in Hand Tavern; its Union Goods merchandise store is on the right, next to the Yankee Publishing Building at 33 Union Street.

Owners

Between 1826 and 1913, the Atwood family owned the business. They sold it to the Fitzgerald family, who changed the name of the business to Union Oyster House. In 1940, the Greaves brothers became the new owners. Thirty years later, they sold it to the Milano family, who own it as of 2025.^[2]

Gallery

• 
  Signage
• 
  1945 view
• 
  First-floor plan and details

See also

• Food portal

• List of the oldest restaurants in the United States
• Cuisine of New England
• List of National Historic Landmarks in Boston
• List of seafood restaurants
• National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Boston, Massachusetts
• Ebenezer Clough, mason, who is believed to have worked on the building's construction