As Evening Falls On The Willard Hotel
by Cora Wandel
Title
As Evening Falls On The Willard Hotel
Artist
Cora Wandel
Medium
Photograph
Description
This is the famous corner point of the historic Willard Hotel in Washington, DC. The hotel was founded by Henry Willard in 1847, and is two blocks from the White House at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Fourteenth Street. It has a distinguished history of notable guests, including most Presidents and endless dignitaries and celebrities. It was a favorite "watering hole" for Ulysses S. Grant, who enjoyed drinking whiskey and smoking cigars in the lobby. Abraham Lincoln was smuggled into the hotel by detective Allan Pinkerton amid several assassination threats and stayed there under tight security from February 23, 1861 until his inauguration on March 4th of that year. The President-elect conducted business from his room. Later that year, in November 1861, Julia Ward Howe wrote the lyrics to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" while she was staying at the hotel. Six Vice Presidents have lived in the Willard during their terms in office, and two of them, Millard Fillmore and Calvin Coolidge, continued to reside at the hotel for a short period after they became President to give the outgoing President and his family additional time to move out. In 1963, prior to his March on Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr. stayed at the hotel and wrote his famous "I Have a Dream" speech which he delivered during the march from the Lincoln Memorial. Other notable guests were P.T Barnum, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Gloria Swanson, Gypsy Rose Lee, the Duke of Windsor, Charles Dickens, and a lot more. Famous films have been shot here, including the finale of the Steven Spielberg movie “Minority Report”. On the night this photograph was taken, I attempted to walk into the hotel as is often my habit while in that neighborhood, but there was tight security at the entrance and no one was allowed in who was not a guest. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was staying there and had visited with President Trump earlier that day. Such is life in Washington, DC, and in famous hotels like the Willard.
Uploaded
June 27th, 2017
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