0.3 business
Address:
515 15th street, nw
, Washington 20004, United states
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Lonely Planet review
- Ryan Ver Berkmoes
- Lonely Planet author
What can you say about a place where everyone on the list of famous guests is dead? Okay maybe a couple are still kicking, but probably not for much longer. The Hotel Washington opened in 1918 and has changed remarkably little since. It's a living time capsule of a place, which may be its appeal or curse.DC's oldest continuously operating hotel has sat just around the corner from the White House since 1918 and is largely unchanged since it was built. Air-con got added at some point and the paint is routinely refreshed but otherwise there's a sense that time stopped in the 1950s here. If the lobby seems ageless, maybe it's because the plants are plastic. Rooms are not spacious and are decorated from the 'colonial' chapter of the standard hotel furniture catalogue (but note that those on high floors facing west have great views of the Executive Branch). For all of its faded charms, the Hotel Washington actually manages to charm, largely thanks to a veteran staff who have an old-fashioned view that jobs should be for life.
