Partner Robert Cronin
Queer Places:
Lincoln Shire Residences, 15 River St, Boston, MA 02108
19 Myrtle St, Boston, MA 02114
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA
Conrad Stuart Shumway (July 7, 1922 - January 15, 2012) had moved to Boston from Vermont in the early 1950s. One day, he walked into the Lincolnshire Hotel bar (now Lincoln Shire Residences) on Charles Street for a drink. It was really a men’s bar for the hotel but the hotel’s business was fading away and it turned into a gay men’s bar: I met my partner there on June 27, 1952. He was in the real estate business. Shumway and his partner ran boarding houses on Beacon Hill for the next 20 years.
Conrad Stuart Shumway was born July 7, 1922 in Bradford, VT, son of Conrad Silas Shumway and Jeanette Hay. He graduated from Burlington High School in Burlington, VT. He served as a second class petty officer in the Navy during World War II, stationed in the Panama Canal Zone and the Galapagos Islands.
He was employed by Dun & Bradstreet in Park Square, Boston, for seven years and in 1955 entered into a real estate partnership with his companion of over 48 years, Robert Cronin. Their partnership was "Cronin & Shumway," which owned and managed numerous rooming houses on Beacon Hill for many years. Aside from their business relationship, Conrad and Robert travelled the world and lived a remarkable life together. Conrad had many interests. He loved to draw landscapes, tell stories of his youth in Vermont and his experience running rooming houses. Most importantly, however, he enjoyed the companionship of his friends. He was a long-time member of Old South Church and the Beacon Hill Civic Association.
My published books:
