DC -- Penn Qtr -- Willard InterContinental Washington (1401 Penn Ave NW):
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- WILL_200817_01.JPG: Willard Intercontinental
Washington DC
Door Closed
Please use the far left door
We apologize for any inconvenience
- WILL_200817_07.JPG: Please pardon us.
The revolving door is temporarily closed.
Please utilize the door on the left.
- WILL_200817_10.JPG: Jean Monnet
1888-1979
Born in France, widely travelled, he died at age 90 near Paris, proud citizen of a united Europe he inspired and helped to create. Earlier, from his office in the Willard Hotel, he contributed greatly to America's victory program for wartime production while a member of the British mission in Washington during World War I.
Erected 1997 by the Jean Monnet Council
- WILL_200817_14.JPG: At this site on the 2nd of October 1922
General of the Armies
John J. Pershing
met with 140 World War I reserve officers and founded the "Reserve Officers Association of the United States"
At the meeting General Pershing said:
"I consider this gathering perhaps one of the most important, from a military point of view, that has assembled in Washington or anywhere else within the confines of this country within my time."
Army Reserve Brigadier General Henry J. Reilly was elected first national president, and the association's mission was defined:
"To support a military policy for the United States that will provide adequate national security and to promote the development and execution thereof."
Dedicated to the reservists of the uniformed services of the United States on the 2nd of October 1997. The 75th anniversary of the Reserve Officers Association of the United States.
- WILL_200817_17.JPG: The United States Court of Claims held its first meeting in "Willard's Hotel" on this site on May 11, 1855. The court was established to allow citizens to sue the U.S. Government. In 1861, President Lincoln wrote of the court:
"It is as much the duty of the government to render prompt justice against itself, in favor of citizens, as it is to administer the same between private individuals."
This memorial is placed here on behalf of the United States Court of Federal Claims and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the successor courts to the Court of Claims, to commemorate its 150th anniversary.
Edward J. Damich
Chief Judge,
U.S. Court of Federal Claims
Paul R. Michel
Chief Judge,
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Commissioned by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims Bar Association, October 25, 2006.
- WILL_200817_19.JPG: The Peace Convention
The Old Willard Hotel was the scene of the last major effort to restore the union and prevent the Civil War. At Virginia's invitation, delegates from twenty-one of the then thirty-four states met in secret session from February 4 to 27, 1861, in a vain attempt to solve the differences between the North and South.
To honor those who worked for peace and unity, this memorial is erected by the Virginia Civil War Commission.
February 1961
Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Washington Peace Convention held here at the Willard Hotel.
Dedicated on February 11, 2011
President Barack Obama, Senator Jim Webb of Virginia
and Mayor Vincent Gray, District of Columbia
Erected by the Lincoln at the Crossroads Alliance with the Support of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation.
- WILL_200817_25.JPG: The New Willard
Erected 1901
Site of Joshua Tennison's Hotel 1818. John Strother 1821. Basil Williamson 1824. Frederick Barnard 1828. Proprietor of Mansion Hotel, Azariah Fuller American House 1833. City Hotel 1843. Willard's Hotel 1847-1901.
Distinguished Guests
Presidents Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln, Grant, Harding and Coolidge. Vice Presidents Henricks, Marshall and Dawes.
Also:
The Marquis de Lafayette, Jenny Lind, Charles Dickens, Lord and Lady Napier, Lloyd George, Edward Everett, Roscoe Conkling, John Sherman, Julia Ward Howe, John Howard Payne, Dion Boucicault.
Post Office Department 1836.
- WILL_200817_29.JPG: In honor of
Julia Ward Howe
who wrote the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" here at the Old Willard Hotel November 21, 1861
"In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born
across the sea,
with a glory in his bosom that transfigures
you and me."
Presented by the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic
January 24, 1938
...
- WILL_201102_41.JPG: We want our guests to stay with confidence
Per local mandate by the DC government, guests are required to wear a face covering in all public spaces of the Willard InterContinental.
Thank you for your understanding as we strive to be mindful of the health and well-being of our guests.
- WILL_201227_05.JPG: Masks Are Mandatory.
All guests are REQUIRED to wear a face covering in all public spaces of the hotel, per local mandate by the DC government.
Thank you for your understanding as we strive to be mindful of the health and well-being of our guests.
Willard Intercontinental
Washington, DC
- WILL_201227_48.JPG: Joseph Baer Danzansky
1914-1979
Humanitarian... Businessman... Washingtonian
"All my life I have had a love affair with the City of Washington."
In a time of racial strife he brought reconciliation and mutual respect.
In the struggle between management and labor he worked for reason and moderation.
\In a marketplace driven by self interest, he served the public interest.
- Wikipedia Description: Willard InterContinental Washington
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Willard InterContinental Washington is a historic luxury hotel located two blocks east of the White House in Washington, 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 the Washington Metro.
History:
The hotel's site, 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, has accommodated guests since 1816, but the Willard was formally founded by Henry Willard when he bought the property in 1850. The present twelve-story structure, designed by famed hotel architect Henry 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 the Oliver Carr Company and Golding Associates. The two partners then brought in the InterContinental 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 on August 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 to February 27, 1861, the Peace 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 the Virginia 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 several assassination threats, detective Allan Pinkerton smuggled Abraham Lincoln into the Willard during the weeks before his inauguration; there Lincoln lived until his inauguration on March 4, holding meetings in the lobby and carrying on business from his room.
On March 27, 1874, the Northern and Southern Orders of Chi Phi met at the Willard to unite as the Chi Phi Fraternity.
Many United States presidents have frequented the Willard, and every president since Franklin Pierce, including George 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 of Ulysses S. Grant to drink brandy and smoke a cigar 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 for Woodrow Wilson's League 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 while Warren 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 Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., on October 2, 1922 formally established Reserve Officers Association (ROA) as an organization.
The first recorded meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research was convened at the Willard on May 7, 1907.
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 his March 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, the Duke of Windsor, Harry Houdini, Gypsy Rose Lee, Gloria Swanson, Emily Dickinson, Jenny Lind, Charles Dickens and Joe Paterno.
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