Mayflower Hotel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the hotel in Washington, D.C. There are other historic hotels by the name of Mayflower, including the Mayflower Hotel on the Park in New York City (closed and demolished in 2004), the Mayflower Hotel in Beirut, and the Mayflower Park Hotel in Seattle.
| Mayflower Hotel | |
|---|---|
| U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
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| Location: | 1127 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. |
| Coordinates: | Coordinates: |
| Built/Founded: | 1922 |
| Architect: | Warren & Wetmore; Robert F. Beresford |
| Architectural style(s): | Beaux Arts |
| Added to NRHP: | November 14, 1983 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 83003527[1] |
| Governing body: | Private |
The Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, known locally as simply The Mayflower, is a historic hotel in downtown Washington, DC located on Connecticut Avenue NW, two blocks north of Farragut Square (one block north of the Farragut North Metro station). It is the largest luxury hotel in the U.S. capital and a rival of the nearby Willard InterContinental and Hay-Adams Hotels.
The Mayflower was built by Allen E. Walker, the land developer behind Brookland and other residential neighborhoods of Washington. Nicknamed the "Grande Dame of Washington" at its opening in 1925, the hotel was said to contain more gold trim than any other building except the Library of Congress. An extensive renovation completed in 1988 uncovered decorative effects, including a skylight, which had been covered up to mask the hotel's opulence during the Great Depression.
Shortly after opening, the Mayflower hosted a ball for the presidential inauguration of Calvin Coolidge. Although Coolidge himself never arrived, the hotel has sponsored a ball every Inauguration Day since. Franklin D. Roosevelt worked on his famous "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" inaugural address while a guest. His successor Harry S. Truman resided there for the first 90 days of his presidential term while the White House was undergoing renovations, and declared his intention to run for the presidency in 1948 at a dinner there. The Mayflower's lounge, Town & Country, has long been a social center for Washington's elite. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was said to lunch there daily for over twenty years. In 1975, the Mayflower was the site of former Peace Corps and Office of Economic Opportunity director Sargent Shriver's formal announcement that he would run for President of the United States.
The hotel came into spotlight several times in relation to political-sex scandals. President Kennedy's mistress, Judith Campbell Exner was established in the hotel and sneaked into the White House when his wife was away. Monica Lewinsky was staying there when her affair with Bill Clinton was in the news.[2]
On March 10, 2008, The New York Times reported that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer had on the evening of February 13 patronized a high class prostitution service called Emperors Club VIP[3] and met for over two hours with a $1,000-an-hour call girl in room 871 of the Mayflower Hotel, where Spitzer registered under the pseudonym George Fox, but with his own Fifth Avenue Manhattan address.[4][5] The resulting scandal caused him to announce his resignation on March 12, 2008.
[edit] Notes
- ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).
- ^ Eliot Spitzer's tryst at a high-class hotel Telegraph.co.uk 2008-03-13
- ^ Feuer, Alan. "Four Charged With Running Online Prostitution Ring", The New York Times, 2008-03-07.
- ^ CNN (2008-03-10). Sources: Spitzer under prostitution investigation. Retrieved on 2008-03-10.
- ^ Hakim, Danny; William K. Rashbaum (March 10, 2008). Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring. N.Y. / Region. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-03-10.
[edit] External links
- Renaissance Mayflower Hotel web site
- National Trust for Historic Preservation: Renaissance Mayflower Hotel
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places travel itinerary: Mayflower Hotel
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