Where to Stay: the Jefferson

One thing locals are often not terribly good at recommending are hotels. We visit museums, dine at restaurants, stroll through neighborhoods, and a myriad of other things that give each city its own feel. What we don't do, is stay at our local hotels.

Well, that's not entirely true. I do stay at hotels, but I do it with large tour groups, and the determining factor has more to do with the ability to feed 97 eighth-graders breakfast and park several giant buses than the details you might find important in a visit here. So, on that note, I will endeavor from time to time to evaluate some local hotels with an eye to help our out of town visitors find a place to stay.

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A Local Lens - January

A monthly series by E. David Luria, Founder & Director of the Washington Photo Safari

Willard Hotel

Called by many “the residence of presidents” since nearly every president since Franklin Pierce has either stayed there or attended an event there, the Willard Hotel on 14th Street and Constitution Ave NW is one of Washington’s most stately and historically rich hotels. 

A staging ground for peace and freedom, the Willard was the site of the Peace Congress in 1861, a last ditch effort to avert the Civil War; a mere 100 years later, in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. penned his I Have a Dream speech at the hotel before delivering it on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Moreover, it is said that the term “lobbyist” was coined here because of solicitors seeking favors from President Grant while he enjoyed his brandy and cigar in the hotel lobby.

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