Site of the Sunflower Lunchroom

The Sunflower Lunch used to occupy 9 Cornhill at this approximate location.

NPS Photo/Woods

Quick Facts

Location:

9 Cornhill

Significance:

Site of the Sunflower Lunch

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

In 1915, the Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government (BESAGG) started a lunchroom called the Sunflower Lunch, with proceeds going to the organization’s operations. Suffragists first adopted the sunflower as a suffrage symbol for a Kansas suffrage campaign in 1867, and it soon became a national symbol of the suffrage movement. BESAGG's Sunflower Lunchroom was originally located at this address on Cornhill, before moving to 167 Tremont Street. According to The Woman's Journal, the Sunflower Lunch had one of the best 25 cent fixed-course lunches in the city.¹

In addition to offering meals, the Lunch room also served as a space for suffragists and other women’s groups to meet. For example, in 1916, BESAGG held a series of lectures from members of various women’s groups.²

The Sunflower Lunch had a variety of options for diners. (Credit: Blackwell Family Papers, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.)

Footnotes:

1. Blackwell family. Papers of the Blackwell family, 1831-1981, Folder 569. Other printed suffrage and anti-suffrage, 1894-1915, http://schlesinger.radcliffe.harvard.edu/onlinecollections/blackwell/item/48789720/147 seq. 147-148; The Woman’s Journal, June 26, 1915, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:53700401$210i.
2. “First in a Series of Lectures,” Boston Globe, March 21, 1916.