Parker (Harvey D.) is born in Temple, Maine.

Harvey Parker, a Maine farm boy, arrives in Boston in 1825 and finds work taking care of livestock, serving as a coachman for a wealthy Watertown woman, and being a waiter. He buys Hunt’s café on Court Square in 1832,* and subsequently transforms the restaurant into Parker’s, the precursor to the Parker House, which he opens in 1855 as one of Boston’s most elegant hotels. Parker lives at 141 Boylston Street by 1835. He dies in 1884 and is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery.