Willard Hotel | |
.jpg) Willard Hotel in 2016 | |
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| Location | 1401–1409 Pennsylvania Avenue NW,Washington, D.C., U.S. |
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| Coordinates | 38°53′48″N77°01′56″W / 38.89667°N 77.03222°W /38.89667; -77.03222 |
| Built | Original six structures: 1816; 210 years ago (1816)[1] Unified structure: 1847; 179 years ago (1847)[2] Current structure: 1901; 125 years ago (1901)[3] |
| Architect | Henry Janeway Hardenbergh (hotel)[3] Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates andVlastimil Koubek, annex |
| Architectural style | Beaux-Arts[3] |
| NRHP reference No. | 74002177 |
| Added to NRHP | February 15, 1974 |
TheWillard InterContinental Washington, commonly known as theWillard Hotel, is a historic luxuryBeaux-Artshotel located at 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW inDowntown Washington, D.C. It is a member ofHistoric Hotels of America. Among its facilities are numerous luxury guest rooms, several restaurants, the Round Robin Bar, the Peacock Alley series of high-end shops, and large function rooms. Owned jointly by Carr Companies andInterContinental Hotels & Resorts,[4] it is two blocks east of theWhite House, and two blocks west of theMetro Center station of theWashington Metro.
The first structures to be built at 1401Pennsylvania Avenue NW were six small houses constructed by ColonelJohn Tayloe III, ofThe Octagon House,DC, andMount Airy,Virginia, in 1816.[1] Tayloe leased the six buildings to Joshua Tennison, who named them Tennison's Hotel.[1][5] The structures served as a hotel for the next three decades, the leaseholder and name changing several times: Williamson's Mansion Hotel, Fullers American House, and the City Hotel.[5] By 1847, the structures were in disrepair and Tayloe's son,Benjamin Ogle Tayloe (of theBenjamin Ogle Tayloe House), was desperate to find a tenant who would maintain the structures and run them profitably.[6]
The current hotel was founded by Henry Willard, a former chief steward on the steamer "Niagara" on the Hudson River, personally suggested by “Ogle” Tayloe's second wife, Miss Phoebe Warren, formerly of Troy, New York, in 1847; when he leased the six buildings, combined them into a single structure, and enlarged it into a four-story hotel he renamedWillard's Hotel.[2][6][7] Willard purchased the hotel property from Ogle Tayloe in 1864, but a dispute over the purchase price and the form of payment (paper currency or gold coin) led to a majorequity lawsuit that ended up in theSupreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court split the difference inWillard v. Tayloe. 75 U.S. 557 (1869): The purchase price would remain the same, but Willard must pay in gold coin (which had not depreciated in value the way paper currency had).
The present 12-story structure, designed in theBeaux-Arts style by famed hotel architectHenry Janeway Hardenbergh, opened in 1901.[3][8] It suffered a major fire in 1922 which caused $250,000 (equivalent to $4,696,322 as of 2024),[9] in damages.[10] Among those who had to be evacuated from the hotel wereVice PresidentCalvin Coolidge, severalU.S. senators, composerJohn Philip Sousa, motion picture producerAdolph Zukor, newspaper publisherHarry Chandler, and numerous other media, corporate, and political leaders who were present for the annualGridiron Dinner.[10]
The Willard family sold its share of the hotel in 1946, and due to mismanagement and the severe decline of the area, the hotel closed without a prior announcement on July 16, 1968.[11] The building sat vacant for years, and numerous plans were floated for its demolition. In 1975, theNational American Indian Council announced it had purchased the building for its headquarters.[12] It eventually fell into a semi-public receivership and was sold to thePennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation. They held a competition to rehabilitate the property and ultimately awarded it to the Oliver Carr Company and Golding Associates.[13] The two partners then brought in theInterContinental Hotels Group to be a part owner and operator of the hotel. The Willard was subsequently restored to its turn-of-the-century elegance and an office-building wing was added. The hotel's reopening on August 20, 1986, amid great celebration, was attended by severalU.S. Supreme Court justices and U.S. senators. In the late 1990s, the hotel once again underwent significant restoration. Among its facilities are numerous luxury guest rooms, several restaurants, the Round Robin Bar, the Peacock Alley series of high-end shops, and large function rooms.[8]
The first group of three Japanese ambassadors to the United States stayed at the Willard with seventy-four other delegates in 1860, where they observed that their hotel room was more luxurious than theU.S. Secretary of State's house.[14] It was the first time an official Japanese delegation traveled to a foreign destination, and many tourists and journalists gathered to see the sword-carrying Japanese.[15]
In the 1860s, authorNathaniel Hawthorne wrote that "the Willard Hotel more justly could be called the center of Washington than either theCapitol or theWhite House or theState Department."[16]
From February 4 to February 27, 1861, thePeace Congress, featuring delegates from 21 of the 34 states, met at the Willard in a last-ditch attempt to avert theCivil War. A plaque from the Virginia Civil War Commission, located on the Pennsylvania Ave. side of the hotel, commemorates this courageous effort. Later that year, upon hearing a Union regiment singing "John Brown's Body" as they marched beneath her window,Julia Ward Howe wrote the lyrics to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" while staying at the hotel in November 1861.[8]
On February 23, 1861, amid severalassassination threats, detectiveAllan Pinkerton smuggledAbraham Lincoln into the Willard; there Lincoln lived until his inauguration on March 4, holding meetings in the lobby and carrying on business from his room.[17]
On March 27, 1874, the Northern and Southern Orders of Chi Phi met at the Willard to unite as theChi Phi fraternity.
ManyUnited States presidents have frequented the Willard, and every president sinceFranklin Pierce has either slept in or attended an event at the hotel at least once; the hotel hence is also known as "the residence of presidents."[18]Ulysses S. Grant first stayed there as a lieutenant in 1852.[19] It was his habit to drink whiskey and smoke acigar while relaxing in the lobby. Folklore (promoted by the hotel) holds that this is the origin of the term "lobbying," as Grant was often approached by those seeking favors. However, this is probably false, asWebster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary dates the verb "to lobby" to 1837.Grover Cleveland lived there at the beginning of his second term in 1893, because of concern for his infant daughter's health following a recent outbreak ofscarlet fever in the White House.[20] Six sitting vice-presidents have lived in the Willard.Millard Fillmore andThomas A. Hendricks, during his brief time in office, lived in the old Willard; and then four successive vice-presidents,James S. Sherman,Thomas R. Marshall,Calvin Coolidge and finallyCharles Dawes all lived in the current building for at least part of their vice-presidency. Fillmore and Coolidge continued in the Willard, even after becoming president, to allow the first family time to move out of the White House.
The first recorded meeting of theAmerican Association for Cancer Research was convened at the Willard on May 7, 1907.[21]
Plans forWoodrow Wilson'sLeague of Nations took shape when he held meetings of theLeague to Enforce Peace in the hotel's lobby in 1916.
A fire broke out in April 1922 while Calvin Coolidge was staying in the building. Attempting to re-enter the building, he was asked to identify himself to the fire marshal, to which he responded, "I'm the Vice President." The fire marshal's response was "What are you vice president of?"[22]
Several hundred officers, many of them combat veterans ofWorld War I, first gathered with the General of the Armies,John J. "Blackjack" Pershing, at the Willard Hotel on October 2, 1922, and formally established theReserve Officers Association (ROA) as an organization.[23]
In 1935 the hotel was used as a place of confinement forWilliam P. MacCracken Jr., Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics, after he was convicted ofcontempt of Congress in theAir Mail scandal. According toThe Washington Post, "Chesley Jurney, theSenate sargeant at arms, had no place to hold MacCracken who, after being sentenced, showed up at Jurney's house and stayed the night. The next day he was confined to a room at the Willard Hotel."[24]
DuringWorld War II the British government rented several of the Willard's floors for its supply organization.Jean Monnet had his office there. In 1997 a memorial plaque was erected near the hotel's entrance to commemorate this episode.[25]
Martin Luther King Jr., wrote his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in his hotel room at the Willard in 1963, in the days leading up to his August 28March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.[8]
Among the Willard's many other famous guests areP. T. Barnum,Mark Twain,Walt Whitman,General Tom Thumb,Samuel Morse, theDuke of Windsor,Harry Houdini,Gypsy Rose Lee,Gloria Swanson,Emily Dickinson,Jenny Lind,Charles Dickens,Bert Bell,Joe Paterno, andJim Sweeney.[26][27]
Steven Spielberg shot the finale of his filmMinority Report at the hotel in the summer of 2001. He filmed withTom Cruise andMax von Sydow in the Willard Room, Peacock Alley and the kitchen. A replica of the terraced roof of the office building was constructed on a soundstage for the final scene.[28]
On February 22, 2012,AustralianForeign MinisterKevin Rudd gave a dramatic resignation speech in the hotel's Douglas Room.[29]
In the days leading up to the 2021January 6 United States Capitol attack, a series of rooms and suites in the hotel functioned as an informal command center headed byDonald Trump's personal lawyerRudolph Giuliani for aWhite House plot tooverturn the results of the 2020 election.[30]
The 12th president ofSouth Korea, PresidentMoon Jae-in stayed in the hotel during his 2021 visit.[31]
IndianPrime MinisterNarendra Modi stayed in the hotel during his 2023 visit.[32]
The Willard is a member ofHistoric Hotels of America, the official program of theNational Trust for Historic Preservation.[33]
The AAA gave the hotel four diamonds out of five in 1986. The hotel has maintained that rating every year, and received four diamonds again for 2016.[34]Forbes Travel Guide (formerly known as Mobil Guide) declined to give the hotel either four or five stars in 2016, but did add it to its list of "recommended" properties.[35] In July 2024, Americas Great Resorts added the hotel to its Top Picks as a landmark property.[36]
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