"Located in Lafayette Square across from the White House, The Hay-Adams is one of Washington D.C.’s most revered landmarks. This classic historic hotel in Washington, DC is named after the distinguished residents who previously lived on its site: John Hay, Private Assistant to President Abraham Lincoln and later Secretary of State, and Henry Adams, an acclaimed author and descendant of U.S. Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams.
The site where The Hay-Adams is now located has long been a favorite gathering place in the nation’s capital. In 1884, renowned architect Henry Hobson Richardson designed elaborate, Romanesque homes at 16th and H Streets that became Washington’s leading salons for years. The stimulating discussions of politics, literature, science and art attracted the era’s leading artists, writers and politicians, including sculptor August Saint-Gaudens, Henry James, Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain.
Hay, Adams, their wives, Clara and Marian and geologist Clarence King formed a close group of friends who dubbed themselves “The Five of Hearts.” They even had china and letterhead made that featured moniker.
Hay died in 1905, and after Clara died in 1914, ownership of the Hay house passed to their daughter Alice Wadsworth and her husband, Senator James Wadsworth. After Adams died in 1918, the Wadsworths bought his house, which they leased to the Brazilian Embassy.
The Hay-Adams Hotel
Washington developer Harry Wardman bought and razed both homes in 1927. In their place, he constructed an Italian Renaissance-style apartment-hotel designed by architect Mirhan Mesrobian. The 138-room Hay-Adams House cost $900,000. It featured a dazzling array of architectural elements, many of which have been preserved to this day including Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders, walnut wainscoting and intricate ceiling treatments with Tudor, Elizabethan and Italian motifs. Wood paneling from the Hay residence found a new home in the grand public space now known as the John Hay Room.
The Hay-Adams House opened in 1928 and quickly attracted prominent Washingtonians and elite travelers, including Ethel Barrymore, Amelia Earhart, Sinclair Lewis and Charles Lindbergh. Guests were drawn to the hotel by its unparalleled views of the White House, Lafayette Square and St. John’s Church, as well as such amenities as large suites, kitchens, steam heat, elevators, circulating ice water, and, in 1930, Washington’s first air-conditioned dining room."
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"Haunting
The Hay–Adams Hotel is said to be haunted by Henry Adams's beloved wife, "Clover" (Marian Hooper Adams), who committed suicide on this site in 1885, before the hotel was built. Her spirit is said to be walking the floors, trailed by the scent of mimosa."
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