Clintons Stay at Charles Hotel—But Together or Not?

Boston’s FleetCenter may have been the venue meticulously converted into a staging space for the 2004 Democratic National Convention (DNC), but Harvard Square’s Charles Hotel became the home to hundreds of VIPs and celebs who descended upon Boston this week to attend the convention, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, actors Ben Affleck and Danny Glover, singer Patty LaBelle, left-leaning filmmaker Michael Moore, comic pundit Al Franken ’73—and, not least of all, both Clintons.

Located in Cambridge, just adjacent to Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and owned by close Clinton friend Richard Friedman—who has also donated many thousands to the party—the Charles seemed like the natural place for very important Democrats to crash for the week.

That is, the famous and rich ones.

“We’re kind of only for celebrities and VIP types,” Charles Hotel Director of Public Relations Sophie Zunz told The Crimson on Wednesday. “There are no delegates staying here.”

Zunz said that The Charles signed a contract with the DNC Committee agreeing to fork over 80 percent of their hundreds-a-night rooms to donors and VIP types. As for the other 20 percent?

“We were booked solid six months ago,” Zunz said.

As for the question many are asking—did Bill and Hillary book one room or two?—Zunz was quick to settle rumors.

“Of course they stay in the same room! They’re married,” Zunz blurted to The Crimson, in response to a question about whether reporters were calling the hotel to ask about the couple’s sleeping arrangements.

But volunteers for the DNCC handing out fliers and information packets in the Charles’ lobby all week said that signs suggested the power couple were not particularly close.

“Hillary and Bill never left the hotel together. Not once,” said volunteer Jessica Fothergill.

A hotel employee told The Crimson that Bill checked out on Tuesday morning, while Hillary remained at the Charles through at least yesterday.

And Hillary seemed a little busier than Bill, the volunteers reported.

“She was in and out of the hotel in a minute,” Marsha Finkelstein said. “But Bill, he would shake everyone’s hands, meet everyone in the room. It is like a ballet—he just walked into a room and just dazzled everyone, and he doesn’t leave a room until everyone is satisfied.”

“Bill is just the master of making you feel special. And he’s very sincere,” Finkelstein added.

“I think he freaked out security a little bit when he went to Alpha Omega to buy a watch,” Fothergill said, referring to the upscale Square shop.

But for the Charles’ owner, Friedman, such celebrities are just regular clients.

“I’m really excited to have my closest and dearest friends at the hotel,” Friedman told The Crimson through a spokesperson Wednesday.

Even the hotel’s premier dinner restaurant, Rialto, got some Democratic spirit, offering up new menu items like the Ballot burger, Liberty lobster, and Revolution salad—complete with red tomatoes, white croutons, and blue cheese.

The party kicked off at the Charles last Sunday with a youth forum on voting called “The Power of One,” hosted by Cambridge’s vice-mayor Marjorie Decker and Lethal Weapon star Danny Glover. It continued at the Clintons’ private bash on Monday night at the Noir Bar in the hotel lobby.

The hotel also played host to various groups, like the White House Project, the National Democratic Institute and the DNC Finance Committee.

As for security?

According to Zunz, it doubled around the hotel this week. There were even security officers roaming through the hotel’s famous breakfast restaurant, Henrietta’s Table, which was named after Friedman’s pet hog.

“Secret Service only protects the person they are assigned to protect, so we have to offer other protection,” Zunz said.

The Clintons are known to stay at Friedman’s Martha’s Vineyard house when they visit there in the summer, and Clinton appointed Friedman chair of the National Capital Planning Commission, a group that offers guidance for federal land building in the D.C. region, in 2000.

Friedman is the president and CEO of Carpenter & Company, Inc., a national real estate and investment firm that runs the Charles Hotel Complex in Cambridge, the Logan Airport Hilton Hotel in Boston and the St. Regis Hotel and Condominium Tower in San Francisco. He graduated from Dartmouth College and coached the Harvard College skiing team from 1964 to 1971.

—Staff writer Lauren A.E. Schuker can be reached at schuker@fas.harvard.edu.