Existing comment:
Site of
Rhodes Tavern
1799-1984
Built in 1799, in the hope that the new capital would become a great city.
Opened as a tavern and inn by William Rhodes, 1801.
Washington's first 'town hall,' where White House architect James Hoban and other
citizens met to petition Congress for representation and locally elected government, 1801.
Polling place in first City Council election, 1802.
Early boarding house used by members of Congress, 1807-1814.
Spared the torch during the British burning of Washington, 1814.
First home of the bank of the Metropolis, 1814-1836, and of Riggs Bank, 1840-1845.
Washington Stock Exchange, 1881-1884.
National Press Club, 1909-1914; visited by Presidents Theodore Roosevelt,
William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.
Witness to every inaugural parade from Thomas Jefferson's in 1805
until Ronald Reagan's in 1981.
Ballot initiative to preserve the building approved by Washington citizens, 1983.
Razed, 1984.
This marker placed by the Rhodes tavern -- DC Heritage Society, June 7, 1999,
with the help of pennies collected by DC Public School students. |