Two friends built connected mansions facing the White House. A developer knocked them down and named a hotel after them.
The Hay-Adams stands at 800 16th Street NW in Washington, D.C., south-fronting onto Lafayette Square directly across from the White House. The site held the 1885 homes of John Hay and Henry Adams, two influential friends whose houses were joined together at 16th and H Streets NW.
In 1927 the Washington developer Harry Wardman bought the property, razed both homes and put up a 138-room residential hotel designed by the architect Mihran Mesrobian in Italian Renaissance style. It opened in 1928 as The Hay-Adams House.
Wardman did not enjoy it for long. His fortunes fell with the Great Depression, and in August 1930 he gave up most of his hotel and apartment empire, keeping only this building. In 1932 he defaulted on its loans and it was sold at public auction to the Washington Loan and Trust Company. The hotel magnate Julius Manger bought it afterwards.
Its setting is the reason to walk here even if you never go inside. Lafayette Square sits across the street, along with St. John's Episcopal Church, known as the Church of the Presidents. The hotel is a contributing property to both the Lafayette Square Historic District and the Sixteenth Street Historic District, and belongs to Historic Hotels of America.
The hotel trade takes it seriously too. Hans Bruland, its general manager, was named Independent Hotelier of the World by HOTELS magazine in 2015, a career that ran through Europe and the Westin group, including the St. Francis in San Francisco, before Washington.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
