Travel

Farewell to the Hotel Harrington, Washington’s Longest-Running Hotel

The Hotel Harrington closed on December 12, 2023, after more than 109 years. – © David H. Enzel, 2024

The Hotel Harrington, once known as “Washington’s Tourist Hotel,” closed its doors on December 12, 2023, after more than 109 years of continuous operation.

Opened on March 1, 1914—when Woodrow Wilson was President and the world stood on the edge of war—the Harrington quickly became a fixture in downtown Washington. Located just steps from the White House and the National Mall, it earned the distinction of being the city’s longest-operating hotel and, for generations, a true Washington institution.

I walked past it countless times but never stepped inside. Now, that chance is gone.

Below is a circa-1932 postcard of E Street NW, looking west at 11th Street. On the right, the Thrift Shop at 1011 E Street is doing brisk Depression-era business; on the left stands the Hotel Harrington. A distinguished bank building once occupied the northwest corner, but it too has vanished.

Thrift Shop 1011 E St NW (c. 1932)
Grainy, circa-1932 postcard of E Street NW facing west at 11th Street. The Thrift Shop, at 1011 E St NW, is on the right, doing brisk Depression-era business. Harrington Hotel on the left. Note the distinguished bank building, long gone, on the northwest corner of 11th and E. (Source: Streets of Washington on Flickr)

The following photo of the Hotel Harrington is from the archives of the Library of Congress:
Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Hoachlander, A., photographer. (1933) Hotel Harrington, Eleventh & E Streets, Northwest, Washington, District of Columbia, DC. Washington D.C. Washington, 1933. Price, V. B., trans Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/dc0989/.

See also, The Washington Post.

CDG Terminal 1: ‘The Camembert’

Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) Terminal 1 – © David H. Enzel, 2024

Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG) opened on March 13, 1974. It has three terminals. Terminal 1 (shown above) is the oldest terminal. It was inaugurated on March 8, 1974 by French Prime Minister Pierre Messmer (1916-2007), after eight years of construction.

Designed by the young architect Paul Andreu (1938-2018), this first terminal featured an innovative design of brutalist architecture. It has a central circular building linked to seven satellites. Designed to facilitate the distribution of passenger flows, this singular structure earned the terminal its nickname, which is still used today, the Camembert.

The first Air France flight from Paris-Charles de Gaulle took off on April 30, 1974. The Caravelle F-BHRA, the first aircraft of its type delivered to Air France, took off for Belgrade and Sofia, with a crew led by flight captain Henri Cibert.

Paris-Charles de Gaulle is the busiest airport within the European Union. In 2022, it handled 57,474,033 passengers and 34,657 aircraft movements, thus making it the world’s ninth busiest airport and Europe’s third busiest airport (after Istanbul and Heathrow) in terms of passenger numbers.

Sources: Air France | Wikipedia

More of Washington’s Cherry Blossoms

I went back on Sunday March 25th to enjoy Washington’s cherry trees. It was a cold morning without any clouds in the sky. The blossoms were still beautiful.

Sunrise at the Tidal Basin, View of the Jefferson Memorial, Cherry Blossoms in Bloom – © David H. Enzel, 2024
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Washington, DC – © David H. Enzel, 2024

Mineo’s Pizza, Pittsburgh

Mineo’s Pizza House, Pittsburgh, PA – © David H. Enzel, 2012

In 1954, Giovanni Mineo came to Pittsburgh from Sicily where he had worked as a baker. Riding a street car down Murray Avenue, he found a rental space for his pizzeria at the original location of 2130 Murray Avenue. On September 13, 1958, he introduced pizza to the primarily Jewish Squirrel Hill neighborhood. In the 1970’s, Mineo’s moved next door to the current location of 2128 Murray Avenue and his teenage sons Dominic and Giovanni Jr (“John”) began working with their father. Although Giovanni died in 1996, sons Dominic, John, and manager Gary Robinson hold true to his traditions and recipes.

Scott Feldman, Giuseppi’s Pizza, Rockville, Maryland – © David H. Enzel, 2004

I grew up eating Mineo’s pizza at least once a week. I loved it as did most students at Taylor Allderdice High School, the local high school.

Now that I live in Washington, I go as often as I can to Giuseppi’s Pizza in Rockville, Maryland for a similar Pittsburgh experience, including lots of Pittsburgh Steelers paraphernalia on the walls.

Exuberance in the Heart of DC: H Street Festival

Dancing at the H Street Festuval, Washington, DC – © David H. Enzel, 2023

The H Street Festival began as a modest block party with about 500 participants more than a decade ago. Today, it draws over 150,000 people and stretches across 11 blocks with 14 themed stages. The festival showcases a vibrant mix of music, dance, youth performances, fashion, poetry, heritage arts, and family-friendly activities.

The streets were alive with energy — a joyful, exuberant celebration of community and culture.

Dancing at the H Street Festuval, Washington, DC – © David H. Enzel, 2023

H Street NE Bridge, Washington, DC – © David H. Enzel, 2023

Library of Congress

Main Reading Room, Library of Congress – © David H. Enzel, 2024

The Library of Congress in Washington, DC is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, films and video, audio recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office.

Congress moved to Washington, D.C. in 1800 after holding sessions for eleven years in temporary national capitals in New York City and Philadelphia. Also in 1800, as part of an act of Congress providing for the removal of the new national government from Philadelphia to Washington, President John Adams approved an act of Congress providing $5,000 for books for the use of Congress—the beginning of the Library of Congress.

However, in 1814, the British burned Washington, destroying the Capitol and the small congressional library in its north wing. Former President Thomas Jefferson offered to sell his comprehensive personal library of 6,487 books to rebuild the Library of Congress. Congress accepted his offer in 1815. Jefferson’s concept of universality is the rationale for the comprehensive collecting policies of today’s Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress is among Washington’s top attractions. Every Library of Congress visitor must reserve timed-entry pass. Passes are available here. It’s worth planning ahead as slots fill up.

Sources: Library of Congress | Wikipedia

Paris: Musée Picasso

Musée Picasso, Paris – © David H. Enzel, 2022

The Musée Picasso is an art gallery located in the Hôtel Salé in rue de Thorigny, in the Marais district of Paris, dedicated to the work of the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). The hôtel Salé is probably, as Bruno Foucart wrote in 1985, “the grandest, most extraordinary, if not the most extravagant, of the grand Parisian houses of the 17th century”.

The museum collection includes more than 5,000 works of art (paintings, sculptures, drawings, ceramics, prints, engravings and notebooks) and tens of thousands of archived pieces from Picasso’s personal repository, including the artist’s photographic archive, personal papers, correspondence, and author manuscripts. A large portion of items were donated by Picasso’s family after his death, in accord with the wishes of the artist, who lived in France from 1905 to 1973.

Photograph of Jaqueline Roque by David Douglas Duncan at the Musée Picasso

Jacqueline Roque (1927–1986) (shown above) was best known as the muse and second wife of Pablo Picasso. Their marriage lasted 11 years until his death, during which time he created over 400 portraits of her, more than any of Picasso’s other loves. Here, she poses with her striking portrait created in California. The photograph was made by David Douglas Duncan (1916-2018), an American photojournalist, known for his combat photographs and for his extensive domestic photography of Pablo Picasso and his wife Jacqueline.

United States Air Force Thunderbirds

USAF Thunderbirds at Joint Base Andrews – © David H. Enzel, 2022

On September 17, 2022, I saw the awe-inspiring “Thunderbirds” air demonstration squadron of the United States Air Force (USAF) perform at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, the home of Air Force One. The Thunderbirds squadron was was created in 1953 and is based in Nevada.

The USAF Thunderbirds are the third-oldest formal flying aerobatic team (under the same name) in the world, after the French Air Force Patrouille de France formed in 1931 and the United States Navy Blue Angels formed in 1946.

The Thunderbirds Squadron tours the United States and beyond performing aerobatic formation and solo flying in pristine, specially marked aircraft.

The Thunderbirds have performed at over 4,000 airshows worldwide, accumulating millions of miles in hundreds of different airframes over the course of their more than fifty-four years of service. Flying high-performance fighter jets is dangerous. And when flying in extremely close formation, the danger is compounded.

In total, twenty-one Thunderbirds pilots have been killed in the team’s history. Three fatal crashes have occurred during air shows, two of them in jets.

The Thunderbirds perform aerial demonstrations in the F-16C Fighting Falcon. Over 4,600 aircraft have been built since production was approved in 1976. Although no longer being purchased by the U.S. Air Force, improved versions are being built for export customers.

‘Art on Call’

Six U.S. Presidents lived in the Sheridan-Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, DC between 1916 and 2018: Warren G. Harding, William Howard Taft,, Herbert Hoover, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Barack Obama. (Artist: Peter Waddell) – Photo © David H. Enzel, 2021

From 2000 until 2009, Cultural Tourism DC led “Art on Call”, a city-wide effort to restore Washington’s abandoned police and fire call boxes as neighborhood artistic icons. Cultural Tourism DC partnered with the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the District Department of Transportation on this initiative. The project is now managed by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.