History Checks In Local Hotels Have Witnessed Important Political, Cultural Events by Anna Gawel They are Washington, D.C., institutions that have endured political scandal and espionage. They have seen the Civil War, the Civil Rights movement and everything in between, and have housed world leaders, virtually every U.S. president, and scores of cultural icons from Frank Sinatra and Elvis to Jean Harlow and Tom Cruise. What place has played such an important role in shaping the nationÌs history and holds so much fascinating history of its ownÛthe White House, Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court? No, try the Willard, the Watergate and the Mayflower, as well as countless other hotels in the Washington area. In fact, the hotel industry here has seen political dynasties topple, power change hands and HollywoodÌs elite pass through its corridors. The older, established hotels such as Marriott Wardman Park, Hotel Washington and The Georgetown Inn, as well as some of their younger upstarts such as the Four Seasons and St. Gregory, have all had a front-row seat to the comings and goings in the nationÌs capital and have been witness to some of the most monumental e vents in U.S. history. The Willard Inter-Continental Washington in particular has earned its nickname as ÏThe Residence of Presidents,Ó hosting every U.S. president in some capacity from Franklin Pierce in 1853 to President George W. Bush. Born in 1816 as a hostelry and converted into a hotel by Henry Willard in 1850, this Washington, D.C., landmark has even coined some of the most popular political terms we use today. When President Ulysses S. Grant wanted to escape the pressures of politics, he would venture to the WillardÌs opulent lobby for a cigar and brandy. There, all sorts of would-be power brokers would approach him for favorsÛGrant branded these nuisances Ïlobbyists.Ó In 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln was smuggled into the Willard because of assassination threats, remaining there until his inauguration. In fact, LincolnÌs first paycheck went to the Willard to cover his $773 tab for the 10Òday stay. With the Civil War looming, the Willard had Southerners leave on the F Street exit and Northerners leave on the Pennsylvania Avenue exit to avoid violent clashes. The hotel also hosted a last-ditch peace convention to thwart the war, without much success, and when guest Julia Ward Howe woke to the sound of Union soldiers marching outside her window, she penned ÏThe Battle Hymn of the Republic,Ó the future anthem for Union troops. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. also wrote his famed ÏI Have a DreamÓ speech while staying at the Willard, and the hotel has not only hosted esteemed writers such as Mark Twain and Walt Whitman, it has also been immortalized in some of their writings. For example, Nathaniel Hawthorne once wrote that the Willard Ïmay be much more justly called the center of Washington and the Union than either the Capitol, the White House or the State Department.Ó The hotel has a tradition of courting celebrities and other colorful characters, such as P.T. Barnum, Harry Houdini, Mae West and Gloria Swanson, and it recently continued that tradition by providing the backdrop for the thriller ÏMinority Report,Ó Steven SpielbergÌs highly anticipated collaboration with Tom Cruise. Right next door to the Willard, the Hotel Washington has also seen its share of presidents and politicians, but one guest in particular stands out amid all the suits and ties. With his trademark sideburns, flashy jumpsuit and irrepressible charm, Elvis had free reign of the hotel during his legendary visit with President Richard Nixon. A frequent guest, the king was notorious for raiding the kitchen and preparing his own foodÛsurprisingly, peanut butter-banana-marshmallow sandwiches were not already on the menu. Jim Bischoff, director of sales for Hotel Washington, said that the hotel also prides itself on some of its unique quirks. For example, in the 1920s, Hotel Washington not only had three faucets in its bathroom sinksÛone for hot, cold and ice coldÛit was also one of the only hotels to have phones in the bathrooms because, as Bischoff pointed out, Ïyou never know when youÌre going to need room service.Ó The Grand Dame of Washington, D.C., otherwise known as the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, has also sheltered a wide range of big-name celebrities, foreign dignitaries and political heavyweights. Since its infancy in 1925, numerous presidents and leaders from around the globe have flocked to the Grand Dame, including Charles de Gaulle, Bill Clinton, Winston Churchill and Prince Takamatsu of Japan. During President John F. KennedyÌs inaugural ball, a blizzard draped the city, hampering travel and stranding many of KennedyÌs guests at the Mayflower. Thus, WashingtonÌs most powerful leaders and VIPs were strewn about the hotel, sleeping on lobby couches and anywhere else they could find room. More recently, Monica Lewinsky sought refuge in the hotel during the impeachment proceedings of President Clinton. From the infamous to the famous, the hotel has also been the stomping ground of countless entertainers, including Groucho Marx, James Cagney, Bette Davis, John Wayne, Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Streisand, Muhammed Ali and legions of other stars. One starÛblond bombshell Jean HarlowÛwas so captivated by the MayflowerÌs switchboard system that she spent one morning putting orders through to room service and making wake-up calls to unsuspecting guests. By 1932, the hotel was home to 23 members of Congress and had established itself as a premier destination of choice for many notable guests, but World War II forced some drastic changes. The Grand Dame lost her enormous skylights, which were blacked out for fear of air raids, and other striking features were altered. But life went on, and in Suite 776, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote the rousing line, ÏWe have nothing to fear but fear itself,Ó which would rally millions of Americans during the war. Another Marriott property, the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, also boasts an interesting connection to WWII. Before the United StatesÌs entry into the war, espionage and intrigue enveloped the historic hotel. A beguiling British spyÛcode name CynthiaÛoperated out of Marriott Wardman Park as she spied on the French Vichy Embassy. Cloaked in the darkness of night, she would visit her lover, an embassy employee whom she had compromised, and steal top-secret documents, transporting them back to the hotel and photographing them in a lab she had set up in her room. The Marriott Wardman Park was named for its builder, Harry Wardman. In fact, Wardman was one of the most prolific builders in Washington, D.C.Ìs historyÛat one time it was said that 10 percent of the cityÌs population lived in dwellings created by the master builder. Among his many upscale properties, Wardman also designed The St. Regis Washington, D.C., formerly the Carlton Hotel. Launched in 1926, the regal St. Regis quickly earned a reputation for luxury and elegance, which in turn drew many prominent world figures, royalty, politicians and celebrities. The St. Regis has hosted every U.S. president since Calvin Coolidge, and its past guest list reads like a whoÌs who in classic Hollywood. Funnyman Charlie Chaplin and screen sirens Joan Crawford and Katherine Hepburn are just some of the celebrities that have graced the hotelÌs ornate Grand Lobby. In addition to the St. Regis, Wardman also constructed the British Embassy and the Hay-Adams Hotel. In fact, no building was immune to WardmanÌs talentsÛnot even his own home. In 1928, he sent his wife and daughter to Europe and dismantled his homeÛto the surprise of his unwitting familyÛand transformed it into the present Wardman Tower, which is part of the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. The tower now enjoys a place in film and television history: The theater located inside the tower was home to the first televised broadcast of NBCÌs ÏMeet the PressÓ and was the place where Jim Henson and a certain green frog got their start. In addition to the theater, the Wardman Tower consists of several apartments, one of which was home to Perle Mesta, affectionately dubbed ÏThe Hostess with the MostessÓ in elite Washington circles. Mesta held her renowned dinner parties at both the tower and the St. Regis where political insiders, industry captains and the upper echelons of Washington society wined and dined like royalty. Similar to Katherine Graham, Mesta elevated dinner parties from mere social gatherings to lavish soir»es that were the place to be seen and mingle with other movers and shakers. Mesta shared space with other Wardman Tower residents such as Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, and the facilities have been used for 11 presidential inaugural galasÛwith one notable exception: Gerald Ford, upon becoming president after NixonÌs resignatio n, chose not to celebrate the somber occasion. Nixon actually used the Wardman Tower during his first unsuccessful bid for presidency against Kennedy, and in a peculiar coincidence, jurors for the Watergate trial were later housed in the tower. However, no other hotel has a more directÛand destructiveÛlink to Nixon than the SwissY¨tel Washington, the hotel located inside the Watergate complex. Built in 1967, the hotel was jettisoned onto the world map just five years later when a small group of men associated with NixonÌs Committee to Re-Elect the President broke into the offices of the Democratic National Committee. What ensued of course led to the downfall of a president and one of the greatest political debacles in U.S. history. The offices have long been renovated and a plaque noting the buildingÌs infamy was stolen long ago, but even after 30 years, the enigma surrounding the Watergate scandal is just as potent as ever. ÏA lot of people still inquire about it,Ó said Atsuko Higuma, marketing manager for SwissY¨tel Washington. ÏOne common misconception is that the break-in occurred in the hotel, but it actually happened in the offices inside the building.Ó Most hotels are constantly fielding questions from inquisitive tourists (and reporters) about which celebrities and political bigwigs are staying there, but ultimately management bears the responsibility of shielding guestsÌ privacy from prying eyes. So while Watergate unfolded in full view of the public, many other secrets are kept just thatÛsecret. ÏMost of the time people stay here because they donÌt want anyone to know that theyÌre staying here,Ó said Andrew Crosby, spokesman for the Hay-Adams. The intimate, old-world style hotel is a stoneÌs throw from the White House and has welcomed presidents, diplomats and other top government officials, many unbeknown to the general public. ÏA good hotel kisses but never tells,Ó said Hector J. Torres, vice president of sales and marketing for Capital Hotels, which includes the St. Gregory Luxury Hotel & Suites, a relative newcomer on the Washington, D.C., landscape. Torres said that hotels must balance the desire for publicity with the need to be discreet about guestsÌ identities. Sometimes though, the struggle to maintain secrecy ends up all in vain. For instance, when the St. Gregory opened, its first guest was actor, director and former ÏFonzÓ Henry Winkler. In consideration of other guests, Winkler, a stogie smoker, would go outside for his smokes, so eventually fans and the press learned of his whereabouts anyway. Torres says that most of the celebrities he sees are very gracious and accommodating. ÏThe higher up some of these guests are, the nicer they really are,Ó he said. ÏOf course there are always your monsters and premaddonnas, though I wonÌt dare mention who they are, but most guests are quite wonderful and appreciate every effort you make.Ó Even if hotels cannot always divulge juicy tidbits about their guests, there are many other interesting details about the hotel industry that the public may not be aware of. For example, the Four Seasons in Georgetown is owned by William Louis-Dreyfus, father of ex-Seinfelder Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The JW Marriott adorns its hotel with intricate sculptures of the Lincoln Memorial, the White House and firefighters raising the flag over ground zeroÛall of which are made completely out of white chocolate. At The Latham Hotel, the hallway of an entire floor was built to mirror the streets of GeorgetownÛcomplete with gas-lit lamps, doors that resemble row houses and a cobblestone walkway. And the roof of the Latham is decked out with umbrellas and cabanas that line the outside pool, giving off a Ì50s Tropicana feel. Many people may have already spotted a celebrity and not even realized it. Teeny boppers would have swooned if they had known that musicians NÌ Sync and Christina Aguilera stayed at the Latham for nearly a week. And at a sister property of the Latham, The Georgetown Inn, Michael Snapkoski, regional director of sales, said that a then-unknown singer named Jewel used to play piano in the lobby of the hotel, about a decade before her multi-platinum album skyrocketed to the top of charts and made her a pop sensation. If you walked next door to The Georgetown InnÌs restaurant, Daily Grill, you may have stumbled upon former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, who would regularly eat lunch there every Sunday. And if you had wanted to hobnob with former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, you might have caught him at the Mayflower, where he ate lunch religiously every day for 20 years. Of course, if you had stayed at The Westin Fairfax in its heyday as a residential apartment hotel, you may have caught a glimpse of a young George H. Bush or his sonÌs future political rival, Al Gore, scampering aboutÛboth of who once lived at the hotel with their parents. Anna Gawel is the assistant editor for The Washington Diplomat.