The Hotel Harrington opened on March 1, 1914. Woodrow Wilson was President. The country was on the cusp of World War I. The hotel, which was near the White House and the National Mall, closed on December 12, 2023, after more than 109 years. It was Washington’s longest operating hotel and a Washington institution.
I went past it many times but never went in. Now it’s too late.
The Hotel Harrington is on the left of the following circa-1932 postcard:
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/.
