The Hotel Washington is a historic hotel located at 515 15th Street NW (between

Pennsylvania Avenue Pennsylvania Avenue is a primarily diagonal street in Washington, D.C. that connects the United States Capitol with the White House and then crosses northwest Washington, D.C. to Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown. Traveling through So ...

and F Street) in downtown

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

History

The Hotel Washington opened on April 4, 1918. Designed by the architectural firm of

Carrère and Hastings Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère ( ; November 9, 1858 – March 1, 1911) and Thomas Hastings (architect), Thomas Hastings (March 11, 1860 – October 22, 1929), was an American list of architecture firms, architecture firm ...

, the ten-story, Beaux-Arts hotel is the only commercial building designed by the firm in Washington, D.C. The facade features cream colored

sgraffito (; ) is an artistic or decorative technique of scratching through a coating on a hard surface to reveal parts of another underlying coating which is in a contrasting colour. It is produced on walls by applying layers of plaster tinted in con ...

decoration on a reddish-brown ground. The Hotel Washington was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

(NRHP) in 1995; in addition, the building is a contributing property to the Financial Historic District, listed on the NRHP in 2006, and the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site. On 14 October 2005, George H. W. Bush, Barbara Bush and Eunice Kennedy Shriver attended a press conference at the hotel to unveil The Extra Mile - Points of Light Volunteer Pathway. It is a mile-long pathway of bronze medallions on 15th Street. Various staff members from the Corporation for National and Community Service and AmeriCorps NCCC attended the event at the hotel. After the press conference concluded, Pres. Bush, Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Kennedy Shriver walked up 15th street to see the medallions. Following a 2006 buyout and extensive renovation, the property reopened in 2008 as the 317-room W Washington D.C. In 2021 the building was sold, ending its franchise with

W Hotels W Hotels is an American hotel chain founded by Starwood Hotels and Resorts but now owned by Marriott International operating around 70 upscale hotels and long-stay apartment facilities worldwide. History W Hotels was launched in 1998 with W ...

and reverting to an independent Hotel Washington.

In popular culture

The hotel was seen in the films '' Contact'' and '' The Firm''. Its roof terrace figured in the movies ''

The Godfather Part II ''The Godfather Part II'' is a 1974 American epic film, epic crime film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, loosely based on the 1969 novel ''The Godfather (novel), The Godfather'' by Mario Puzo, who co-wrote the screenplay with Cop ...

'' and '' No Way Out''.

Frank Murphy William Francis Murphy (April 13, 1890July 19, 1949) was an American politician, lawyer, and jurist from Michigan. He was a Democrat who was named to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1940 after a political career that included serving ...

and

John Nance Garner John Nance Garner III (November 22, 1868 – November 7, 1967), known among his contemporaries as "Cactus Jack", was the 32nd vice president of the United States, serving from 1933 to 1941, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A member of the ...

lived there. The entrance of the hotel was shown in the film Silkwood. The rooftop bar POV is also the location of Diana ( Gal Gadot) and Barbara's (

Kristen Wiig Kristen Carroll Wiig (; born August 22, 1973) is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. First breaking through as a performer with the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings, Wiig achieved stardom in the late 2000s for her ...

) lunch in the ''Wonder Woman'' sequel '' WW84''.

Notes

External links

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Three Stories From Hotel Washington
- Ghosts of DC blog Beaux-Arts architecture in Washington, D.C. Hotel buildings completed in 1918 Hotels established in 1918 Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. Hotels in Washington, D.C. Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Washington, D.C. Warren and Wetmore buildings {{WashingtonDC-NRHP-stub