Mayflower Hotel
The Mayflower Hotel is a historic hotel in downtown Washington, D.C., located on Connecticut Avenue NW. It is two blocks north of Farragut Square and one block north of the Farragut North Metro station. The hotel is managed by Autograph Collection Hotels, a division of Marriott International.
The Mayflower is the largest luxury hotel in Washington, D.C., the longest continuously operating hotel in the Washington metropolitan area, and a rival of the nearby Willard InterContinental Washington and Hay–Adams Hotels.
The Mayflower has been called the "Grande Dame of Washington" and the "Hotel of Presidents", President Harry S. Truman, a frequent guest of the hotel, called the Mayflower Hotel the city's "Second Best Address" after the White House. It was also a charter member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It ranked a four-star hotel.
History
Construction, sale, and renaming
The site on which the Mayflower Hotel sits was, after the organization of the District of Columbia in 1792, initially owned by the federal government, which finally sold the property to Nathaniel Carusi for $5,089. Carusi, in turn, sold the site to the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary in 1867 for $50,000. The order built the Convent of the Visitation on the site, a structure that occupied the land until the construction of the Mayflower Hotel itself.The Mayflower Hotel was built by Allan E. Walker, the land developer behind Brookland and other residential neighborhoods of Washington. Initially called the Hotel Walker, it was to have 11 stories, 1,100 rooms, and cost $6.2 million. On May 27, 1922, the Walker Hotel Company was organized, with Allan Walker as president. The corporation issued 80,000 shares of preferred stock worth $2 million and 80,000 shares of common stock, and purchased a site on the north half of the block on DeSales Street between 17th Street and Connecticut Avenue. Plans for the hotel, whose cost was now pegged at $6.75 million, now included an 11-story, 1,100-room hotel facing Connecticut Avenue, whose first two floors would be common rooms, and an eight-story residential hotel facing 17th Street. Robert F. Beresford of Washington, D.C., and the New York City architectural firm of Warren and Wetmore were appointed the architects, and Beresford said the structure would be built of concrete and brick around a steel frame. Indiana limestone would be used for the facade on the first three floors, with rusticated brick and terra cotta trim on all upper floors. By June 6, however, the cost of the hotel had risen to $8 million, largely due to a sizeable expansion in the size of the ballrooms, meeting rooms, and other public spaces on the first two floors and first basement level.
Ground for the new hotel was broken in July 1922. Structural engineer F. E. Gillen designed the foundation, and oversaw its construction. As excavation began, workers quickly uncovered the stumps of massive cypress trees, some of the trunks nearly in diameter. Geologists estimated the stumps at 100,000 years old. As workers dug deeper, they discovered that an underground branch of Rock Creek ran below the site. This forced the foundation to be dug to bedrock, some below ground. The facade along Connecticut Avenue was in length, along DeSales Street in length, and along 17th Street in length. The main promenade running through the center of the hotel was wide and long, while the lobby was wide and long. Wainscoting and floors in the public rooms of the hotel were of Botticino marble and featured walnut moldings. A glass dome covered the Palm Court, which as decorated on the interior with ornamental ironwork in the Italianate style.
Excavation of the foundation was completed in late November 1922, several weeks ahead of schedule. Steel for the frame began arriving the week of January 21, 1923, and erection of the building's frame was expected to take 10 weeks. More than 500 men worked on erecting the frame, while 2,000 men erected the facade and interior walls, and worked laying electrical, water, sewer, and gas lines. Longacre Engineering Company of New York was the general contractor. Construction costs continued to rise, however. Although scheduled to open January 1, 1924, the hotel remained unfinished. The Allan E. Walker Investment Company, the largest shareholder in the Hotel Walker Company began running short of funds, slowing construction. Nearing bankruptcy, the Walker Investment sold its interest in the Hotel Walker to C.C. Mitchell & Company, builder of large apartment complexes and hotels in Boston and Detroit. The reported price of the sale was $5.7 million for the $8.5 million hotel. But in fact, costs had risen much higher, and the hotel's final cost was closer to $11 million. The new owners changed the name to the Mayflower Hotel in honor of the 300th anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower and the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock.
About the hotel
The Mayflower Hotel opened on February 18, 1925. The hotel sat on of land, and had roughly of interior space. Several heating oil furnaces and one of the world's largest air conditioning units kept the hotel at an even year round. The hotel's promenade, as completed, was wide and long.The hotel had 440 guest rooms, each with its own shower bath. Guest suites had a sitting room, dining room, bath, and up to seven bedrooms. The hotel's 500 residential guest apartments each had its own kitchenette, dining room, and drawing room with fireplace. Some had as many as 11 rooms, and up to five baths.
The cruciform lobby had a mezzanine on the north, west, and south sides, and marble-clad piers divided the north and south walls into three bays. A small cocktail lounge was located along the north wall, while the reception desk occupied the south wall. The lobby received light from a coffered skylight. Four great bronze torchères, hand-wrought and trimmed with gold, dominated the lobby. The main lobby entrance on Connecticut Avenue had a stairway that led down to the first below-ground level, where public restrooms, the barber shop, and a shoeshine stand were located. A secondary corridor and steps behind the elevators led to the Presidential Room; another secondary corridor to the east of the front desk led to the Mayflower Coffee Shop. The four elevators to the east of the lobby, joining it to the Promenade, had bronze doors with images of the Mayflower vessel on them.
The Mayflower featured three restaurants. The Palm Court featured a glass dome supported by iron latticework, numerous palm trees, and a marble fountain and pool with water lilies growing in it. The Presidential Restaurant was decorated with the seals of the Thirteen Colonies. Both were located on the main floor. The Garden Terrace was located on the first below-ground floor. The Italianate style room featured a coffered ceiling done in copper, a marble fountain, plaster walls in warm pastel tints, alcoves designed to look like arbors, and murals of early Washington, D.C., and nearby Mount Vernon. Two well-known hoteliers managed the restaurants: Jules Venice, the maitre d'hotel, and Sabatini, former chef at Delmonico's.
The hotel's Grand Ballroom featured a stage with proscenium, beneath which was a hidden thrust stage that could be projected out into the ballroom. The Grand Ballroom's main entrance was on 17th Street, where a covered, semi-circular carriageway allowed up to three carriages at a time to unload patrons. The hotel also had several small, private ballrooms for more intimate events. Next to the ballroom on the 17th Street side was the Chinese Room—a sumptuous meeting and banqueting room inspired by The Peacock Room by James McNeill Whistler.
The Mayflower Hotel's interior design was created by E. S. Bullock of Albert Pick & Co. The furnishings, which cost $1.25 million, were antique and reproduction pieces in the Sheraton, Louis Quinze, and early Renaissance styles. "Walls, floors, stairs, pilasters and wainscoting in the lobby and the major function rooms clad in a wide array of American and imported marbles, and ceilings and walls throughout the first floor and mezzanine ornamented by finely cast, low-relief plaster decorations, often further embellished with gold leaf." The use of gold gilt to trim decoration was extensive; newspapers said the hotel contained more gold trim than any other building except the Library of Congress. Original artworks, some by quite famous artists, adorned the public spaces. These included four larger-than-life-sized portraits of the first four presidents by painter and muralist Louis Grell of Chicago. Three marble statuary groups were also displayed in the lobby and public areas: La Sirene by Denys Puech; Flora by William Couper; and The Lost Pleiad by Randolph Rogers. Two smaller pieces by Rogers, Nydia, the Blind Girl of Pompeii and Boy and Dog, were also on display.
The Mayflower Hotel offered a wide range of amenities to its guests, including air conditioning in all public rooms and ice water and fans in all guest rooms. Services included daily maid service, a laundry, a barber shop, a beauty salon, a garage for automobiles, a telephone switchboard, and a small hospital staffed by a doctor.
Construction of the Annex
With the Mayflower Hotel finished but not yet furnished in September 1924, plans were made to enlarge the structure even before it opened. The new owners perceived high demand for guest room suites, and quickly designed a $1 million addition. Construction began in October 1925, and within six weeks the deep foundation had been dug. The addition opened on May 31, 1925.The most prominent features of the Annex were the Presidential Suite and the Vice Presidential Suite. The Presidential Suite occupied the 10th floor, and was decorated in green and gold in the Italianate style. The Vice Presidential Suite occupied the ninth floor, and was decorated in dull and bright yellow in the Louis XVI style. Each suite had 13 rooms, which included a foyer, drawing room, library, secretary's room, dining room, and five bedrooms—each with its own bath and kitchenette. Each suite also had a maid's room, with an attached bath. The furnishings of both suites were copies of museum pieces. The Presidential Suite featured a marquetry table with ormolu fittings; a Louis XVI cabinet with painted panels; Oriental rugs; bronze and marble urns in the Neoclassical style; drapes of silk damask; and underdrapes of silk taffeta. The suite's dining room featured Queen Anne style furniture. The Vice Presidential Suite featured a dining room with furniture in the Sheraton and Hepplewhite styles. Dining room furniture in both suites was manufactured from satin-walnut, and featured painted decorations and marquetry. The bedrooms in both suites featured Louis XVI-, Adam-, and Federal-style furniture made of satinwood, walnut, and mahogany. Each piece was painted, lacquered, or marquetried. Dust-covers for the beds were also of taffeta. Sofas and chairs in each suite were upholstered in imported brocades, while the walls were covered in hand-made tapestries. Each suite had numerous shaded lamps, porcelain and crystal art objects, and gilt mirrors. Original oil and watercolor paintings as well as etchings and engravings—many of them by famous artists—decorated the suites. Each suite's bathroom was completely tiled in white, with silver-plated fixtures for the sink and shower, an engraved glass shower door, and a Swiss shower. The kitchens, too, were tiled in white, and contained an electric stove and oven, a Frigidaire refrigerator, silver tableware, complete porcelain table setting, and fine table linens.
The second through eighth floors of the Annex contained guest suites. Each suite had five bedrooms, and each bedroom had its own bath. The first floor of the Annex was occupied by the Mayflower Coffee Shop, a vastly expanded version of the highly popular but extremely small café located on the ground floor of the existing hotel. The basement of the Annex occupied by a huge laundry, which served the hotel and annex.