- Willard InterContinental Washington
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name = Willard Hotel
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location = 1401--1409 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.Washington, D.C.
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architect =Henry Janeway Hardenbergh
architecture = Beaux Arts
added =February 15 ,1974
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refnum =74002177
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governing_body = The Willard InterContinental Washington is an historic luxuryhotel located two blocks east of theWhite House inWashington, D.C. Among its facilities are numerous luxurious guest rooms, several restaurants, the famed Round Robin Bar, and voluminous function rooms. It is two blocks from the Metro Center station of theWashington Metro .History
The hotel's site, 1401
Pennsylvania Avenue NW, has accommodated guests since 1816, but the Willard was formally founded byHenry Willard when he bought the property in 1850. The present twelve-story structure, designed by famed hotel architectHenry Janeway Hardenbergh , opened in 1901. It was for many years the only hotel from which one could easily visit all of downtown Washington, and has consequently hosted innumerable dignitaries in its history.The Willard family sold its share of the hotel in 1946, and due to mismanagement the hotel closed in 1968. A lengthy legal battle ensued, at the end of which the
Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation purchased the property, held a competition and ultimately awarded it to theOliver Carr Company andGolding Associates . [Barbara Gamarekian, " [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9A0DEFD91F3BF937A3575AC0A960948260 The Willard is Restored as a Jewel of Pennsylvania Avenue] ", "New York Times ",1986-09-04 ] 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 contingent was added. The Hotel was thus re-opened amid great celebration onAugust 20 ,1986 which was attended by several Supreme Court Justices and distinguished senators such as Edward Kennedy. In the late 1990s the hotel once again underwent significant restoration.Famous guests
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 the
U.S. Secretary of State 's house. 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.From
February 4 toFebruary 27 ,1861 , thePeace Congress , featuring delegates from 21 of the 34 states, met at the Willard in a last-ditch attempt to avert the Civil War. A plaque from theVirginia 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 patriotic "Battle Hymn of the Republic " to the same tune.On
February 23 ,1861 , amid severalassassination threats, detectiveAllan Pinkerton smuggledAbraham Lincoln into the Willard during the weeks before his inauguration; there Lincoln lived until his inauguration onMarch 4 , holding meetings in the lobby and carrying on business from his room.OnMarch 27 , 1874, the Northern and Southern Orders of Chi Phi met at the Willard to unite as theChi Phi Fraternity .Many
United States presidents have frequented the Willard, and every president sinceFranklin Pierce , includingGeorge W. Bush , has either slept in or attended an event at the hotel at least once; the hotel is hence also known as "the residence of presidents". It was the habit ofUlysses S. Grant to drink brandy and smoke acigar while relaxing in the lobby. Folklore, additionally promulgated by publicists for 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, as the verb to lobby is found decades earlier and did not originally refer to Washington politics. Plans forWoodrow Wilson 'sLeague of Nations took shape when he held meetings of the League to Enforce Peace in the hotel's lobby in 1916.Calvin Coolidge lived at the hotel for a month in 1923 whileWarren G. Harding 's widow vacated the White House.Several hundred officers, many of them combat veterans of World War I, first gathered with the General of the Armies,
John J. Pershing "Blackjack", at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., on October 2, 1922 formally establishedReserve Officers Association (ROA) as an organization.The first recorded meeting of the
American Association for Cancer Research was convened at the Willard onMay 7 ,1907 [cite journal | author = Triolo V | title = The American Association for Cancer Research, 1907–1940: Historical Review | journal = Can Res | volume = 21 | issue = 2 | pages = 137–167 | year = 1961 | pmid = 13778091] .Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his famous "I Have a Dream " speech in his hotel room at the Willard in 1963 in the days before hisMarch on Washington .On
September 23 ,1987 Bob Fosse collapsed in his room and later died.Among the Willard's many other famous guests are
P. 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 andJoe Paterno .Steven Spielberg shot the finale of his film "Minority 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, seen in the photo above, was constructed on a soundstage for the final scene.References
=External links= commonscat|Willard InterContinental
* [http://washington.intercontinental.com/ Willard InterContinental Washington]
* [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5158557 NPR interview with Barbara Bahny, public relations director at the historic Willard Hotel]
* [http://willarddc.com/sd Willard InterContinental: Sustainable Development Initiative]
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