The Washington Hilton is a
hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
It is located at 1919 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., roughly at the boundaries of the
Kalorama,
Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle (or DuPont Circle) is a traffic circle, park, neighborhood and historic district in Northwest Washington, D.C. The Dupont Circle neighborhood is bounded approximately by 16th Street NW to the east, 22nd Street NW t ...
, and
Adams Morgan neighborhoods.
The Washington Hilton, located on the former site of the
Oak Lawn estate, was designed by architect
William B. Tabler and developed by
Uris Buildings Corporation
Uris Buildings Corporation was a New York City commercial real estate development company created by Harold and Percy Uris in 1960 from a predecessor private partnership. They retained 60% ownership in the corporation. One of the last building ...
. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on June 25, 1962 and the hotel officially opened three years later, on March 25, 1965. The hotel structure features a distinctive double-arched design. It long sported the largest pillar-less hotel
ballroom in the city. Numerous large events have been regularly hosted at the Hilton Washington, including the annual dinners of the
White House Correspondents Association
The White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) is an organization of journalists who cover the White House and the president of the United States. The WHCA was founded on February 25, 1914, by journalists in response to an unfounded rumor t ...
and the
Radio and Television Correspondents Association, as well as the
National Prayer Breakfast
The National Prayer Breakfast is a yearly event held in Washington, D.C., usually on the first Thursday in February. The founder of this event was Abraham Vereide. The event—which is actually a series of meetings, luncheons, and dinners—has ...
.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the hotel hosted a number of big musical acts for concerts in their large ballroom, including
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential rock acts ...
and
Jimi Hendrix. In 1972 it was home to the first
International Conference on Computer Communications The first International Conference on Computer Communications was held October 24–26, 1972 in Washington, DC at the Hilton Washington. It was organized by BBN Technologies under the direction of Bob Kahn and was one of the first public demonstrati ...
which demonstrated new
ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical fou ...
technology.
The hotel was the site of the
assassination attempt on
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Ronald Reagan by
John Hinckley Jr.
John Warnock Hinckley Jr. (born May 29, 1955) is an American man who attempted to assassinate U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C. on March 30, 1981, two months after Reagan's first inauguration. Using a .22 caliber revolver, Hinck ...
on March 30, 1981. The attempt occurred at the hotel's T Street NW exit. As a result, the hotel is sometimes colloquially referred to by locals as the "Hinckley Hilton".
The hotel was renamed the Hilton Washington in 1998. It was purchased in June 2007 by an investment firm jointly owned by former professional
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
star
Magic Johnson. From 2009-2010 it underwent a $150 million renovation. When that was completed, the hotel returned to its original name.
References
External links
Official siteLadies and Gentlement, From Los Angeles, California ... The Doors!- 1967 Doors concert at Washington Hilton
Hendrix Plays the Washington Hilton (1968)- 1968 Jimi Hendrix concert at the Washington Hilton and review from the
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
{{Hotels in Washington D.C.
Hotel buildings completed in 1965
Brutalist architecture in Washington, D.C.
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
Skyscraper hotels in Washington, D.C.
Hotels established in 1965
Dupont Circle
Adams Morgan
Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan
1965 establishments in Washington, D.C.