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", It ranked a four-star hotel.

History

Construction, sale, and renaming

thumb|Front entrance to Mayflower Hotel

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 $6.2 million ($ in dollars). 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 $6.75 million ($ in dollars), 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 $8 million ($ in dollars),

Ground for the new hotel was broken in July 1922. Structural engineer F. E. Gillen designed the foundation, and oversaw its construction. 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. 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 sat on of land, and had roughly of interior space. each with its own shower bath. Guest suites had a sitting room, dining room, bath, and up to seven bedrooms. The lobby received light from a coffered skylight. Four great bronze torchères, hand-wrought and trimmed with gold, dominated the lobby (and were claimed by the hotel to be "priceless"). 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 (made of marble) 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 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. "Walls, floors, stairs, pilasters and wainscoting in the lobby and the major function rooms [were] clad in a wide array of American and imported marbles, and ceilings and walls throughout the first floor and mezzanine [were] 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 (also known as Merope Married a Mortal) by Randolph Rogers. Two smaller pieces by Rogers, Nydia, the Blind Girl of Pompeii and Boy and Dog, were also on display. Construction began in October 1925, and within six weeks the deep foundation had been dug.

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. 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 Great Depression had a significant impact on the Mayflower Hotel. It lost money (as much as $760,000 over two years), and in 1929 its affairs were placed in the hands of a special committee established by American Bond & Mortgage. The hotel continued to lose money, and on May 22, 1931, holders of the hotel's original bonds secured a ruling that the hotel was bankrupt. American Bond was declared bankrupt the same day. The receivers later alleged that the hotel had lost more than $2 million since it opened, and that American Bond had issued a large amount of bonds with the hotel as security (worsening the hotel's financial status). A second bankruptcy was declared by the court on July 28, 1931. Fraud charges were later levied against officials of American Bond & Mortgage. American Bond finally admitted the hotel was bankrupt in October 1931.

Holders of the second bonds (issued with the hotel as security), however, feared that they would receive nothing if the Mayflower were foreclosed. They petitioned a court to remove the receivers and to appoint new trustees who would sell the hotel. The court agreed, and the sale began to move forward in 1933. Concerned about the sale, Senators Hamilton Fish Kean and Robert Rice Reynolds began an investigation into the bankruptcy and sale. In 1933, Kean and Reynolds won congressional approval in June 1934 for the Corporate Bankruptcy Act, which allowed the Mayflower Hotel itself to declare bankruptcy and refinance itself. With the receivers having made the hotel profitable once more, the hotel reorganized its finances in a court-approval bankruptcy proceeding on December 20, 1934.

Early in World War II, the skylight in the Palm Court was covered over with a mural painting. The skylight was later flocked with pieces of velvet. Some of the Mayflower's stockholders challenged the sale, arguing the price was too low. A court dismissed the suit in May 1947. Over the next decade, Hilton Hotels spent about $1 million refurbishing the guest rooms and public spaces. Hilton Hotels purchased the Statler Hotels chain in 1954, and as a result owned multiple large hotels in many major cities, as in Washington, where they now owned the Mayflower and the Statler Hotel. Soon after, the federal government filed an antitrust action against Hilton. To resolve the suit, Hilton agreed to sell the Mayflower Hotel, the Roosevelt Hotel in New York and the Hotel Jefferson in St. Louis.

Hotel Corporation of America

Hilton Hotels sold the Mayflower to the Hotel Corporation of America (HCA) on April 1, 1956, for $12.8 million. The hotel's occupancy rates were lower than average, however. In 1963, for example, the Mayflower lost $450,000. HCA privately expressed interest in selling the property.

May-Wash Associates

On October 28, 1965, the locally owned May-Wash Associates offered to buy the Mayflower for $14 million. HCA's board of directors approved the deal on November 11, 1965. HCA continued to manage the hotel for the new owners.

The Mayflower Hotel underwent a $2.5 million refurbishment of its common rooms in 1966 and 1967. The renovation got rid of the Presidential Restaurant and renamed it Le Chatelaine. HCA was renamed Sonesta Hotels in 1970.

May-Wash Associates considered closing the Mayflower Hotel in 1971 after it lost $485,000 the previous year. Lead May-Wash investor William Cohen said that if Congress weakened the restrictions of the Height of Buildings Act of 1910, the company would tear down the Mayflower and erect a 20-story office and retail skyscraper with of office space and of retail space. If the Height Act remained in force, Cohen said the hotel's first two floors would be transformed into a shopping mall accommodating 40 to 50 small businesses. Western International said it would invest $500,000 immediately to upgrade guest rooms (which included color television sets for the first time). Western International said the previously announced $2.5 million refurbishment would go to additional guest room renovations, and improvements to dining spaces, banqueting facilities, and ballrooms. The Rib Room lost its name (which had been trademarked by HCA, the previous manager), the facade was cleaned, and the air conditioning repaired and upgraded.

Beginning in April 1973, the Mayflower Hotel served as the temporary Embassy of China in Washington, D.C., for a time while their new embassy building at 2300 Connecticut Avenue NW was being renovated following the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China.

With the Mayflower making a profit, May-Wash Associates undertook at $2.5 million general refurbishment of the 800 guest rooms about 1977. The hotel then announced a $25 million overhaul and expansion in January 1979. The main western wing of the hotel, facing Connecticut Avenue, was to have the public rooms on the lower two levels turned into retail space, while the 448 guest rooms above would be gutted and transformed into office space. The eastern wing, in the rear, would remain a hotel. May-Wash hired architect Vlastimil Koubek to design two new floors to add to the top of the eastern wing, bringing it to the same height as the western wing. The resulting hotel would have 407 guest rooms, larger than those before, a mix of newly built rooms and remodeled existing rooms. The hotel also planned to add a health club (with racquetball court, sauna, and swimming pool) and café to the 17th Street side of the hotel. Meeting and private dining room space would be added to the structure; all plumbing and mechanical systems would be upgraded; and central air conditioning would replace the window units now in operation.

Western International Hotels, which managed the property, was renamed Westin Hotels & Resorts in January 1981. In October 1981, May-Wash Associates announced that Stouffer Corporation, a division of Nestlé, was taking a minority interest in the Mayflower Hotel, and would assume management of the property on December 1, 1981, under a 20-year agreement. Stouffer said the hotel would be its American "flagship", and the hotel was renamed the Stouffer Mayflower Hotel.

While renovation of the eastern tower proceeded, plans for the western tower drastically changed. The Mayflower abandoned its plan to convert the tower into office space, and instead upgraded the hotel rooms in the eastern tower. In some cases, rooms were merged to create luxury suites. The change in renovation plans left the Mayflower with just 727 rooms, but added of meeting room space and a new restaurant.

Even as the first renovations were ending, the Mayflower Hotel embarked on another major set of refurbishments and upgrades. This project, which began in 1981 and lasted three years, cost $65 million. The hotel remained open as the project moved forward in phases. In 1981, two floors were finally added to the eastern wing of the structure. The meeting rooms on the hotel's second floor and the Board Room were refurbished, and offices on the mezzanine were removed and the space restored to public use. The following year, 200 suites received major makeovers, including the installation of baths clad in Italian marble. The Presidential Restaurant was divided into two new banqueting halls, the East Room and the State Room, and the Grand Ballroom and the Chinese Room were renovated. The restoration of the lobby and upgrading of the hotel's restaurants occurred in 1983. Artisans and technicians helped to restore the bas-relief plaster moldings and brass fixtures, clean and restore the hotel's many crystal chandeliers, and apply new gold leaf to areas where the gilt had been damaged or removed. The renovations left the hotel with 721 guest rooms (about half rebuilt and restored) and two restaurants.

The renovation uncovered many historic decorative elements which had been covered up over time. The skylight in the Presidential Room (formerly the Palm Court) was uncovered. The murals were dated by art experts to 1957, The murals, long and high, depicted Italian formal gardens. They were hidden behind a false wall when the restaurant was turned into meeting room space in early 1978.

Stouffer, New World and Marriott Hotels

After managing the hotel for ten years, Stouffer bought it outright from May-Wash in 1991 for just over $100 million. In April 1993, Stouffer Hotels was sold by Nestlé to New World Development Company of Hong Kong. Nestlé also gave New World the right to use the Stouffer brand name for 3 years, from 1993 to May 1996. New World already owned the Renaissance Hotels chain, and merged the Stouffer-branded Hotels into it. The Mayflower was renamed the Stouffer Renaissance Mayflower Hotel. In early 1996, the Stouffer branding was retired, and the hotel became the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel. Marriott International bought Renaissance Hotels from New World in February 1997.

Investment groups

Marriott sold The Mayflower to Walton Street Capital in 2005, in a package with seven other Marriott hotels, for a total of $578 million. Walton Street resold the Mayflower to Rockwood Capital in 2007 for $260 million, financed with a $200 million securitized loan.

The hotel, appraised at $285 million in 2008, fell in value to $160 million by 2010. With Rockwood's loan over-leveraged, they refinanced the hotel in 2015, with a $160 million loan from Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance Inc. and other lenders. Also in 2015, Rockwood sold off 71 of the hotel's rooms to Marriott for $32 million, for use by the company's Marriott Vacation Club Destinations time-share division.

In July 2021, Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance Inc., having already provided Rockwood financing for the 2015 refinancing, bought out Rockwood's share of the hotel, for $86 million. The main entrance to this space was at the corner where the two diagonal walls of the hotel met at the corner of Connecticut Avenue and DeSales Street. In March 1948, the retail area was taken over by the hotel and expanded into a much larger bar and dining space named the Town and Country Lounge.

The lobby mezzanine was closed off to create office space in 1962. underwent a six-month, $5 million renovation (their first since the 1981–1984 refurbishment). Almost none of the other original decorations of the room have been changed since its 1925 creation, however.

Walls were added between the piers in 1934, and the Palm Court was internally partitioned in 1947. In 1950, arches were constructed between the piers of the north wall and the pilasters of the south wall in an attempt to connect the walls visually. In 1957, the Palm Court was radically renovated. Its Victorian ironwork was removed and a Neoclassical style decorating scheme implemented. The wainscoting was high, and of white Alabama marble. A baseboard of verd antique and a gray marble dado rail completed the wainscot, and a gilt plaster acanthus crown molding decorated the ceiling. Arches in the north wall gave access to meeting rooms. The arches leading to the Grand Ballroom, Chinese Room, and the original Presidential Room were topped with sculpted architraves of white Alabama marble, while the other arches were each topped by a gilt plaster crest. Beveled mirrors stood between the pilasters. The floor was of white Vermont marble and verd antique marble, with a border of verd antique.

At some point in time, the windows in the east wall were filled in, and mirrors inserted in the new, false casements. Designed by Robert F. Beresford, one of the hotel's original architects, the rear of the room's stage was clad in glowing sapphire-blue glass brick. The overhead arches were clad in aluminum, most of the decoration in the room removed, and the remaining surfaces painted bright blue. Carpet with a brick-like pattern in blue covered the floor.

In about 1950, the Sapphire Room was redecorated in the Colonial Revival style, a popular at the time, and renamed the Williamsburg Room. It was open by at least October 1950. The alcoves were removed and replaced with a raised terrace on the north, east, and south sides of the room. A railing with an oak handrail and turned-wood balusters enclosed the gallery, and a shallow concave stage was added to the west wall. Pilasters, paneled in warm-colored wood, were added to the walls. A wainscot and dado rail of wood covered the lower part of the walls. A highly intricate plaster architrave and broken pediment surmounted the entrances to the terrace.

Mayflower Coffee Shop

The Mayflower Coffee Shop originally occupied a small space south and slightly west of the main desk and front office on the west side of the hotel. This space was quite small, but was vastly expanded in April 1925 with the completion of the Annex. A soda fountain and candy shop occupied the old coffee shop space, while the coffee shop expanded into a much larger space south of the lobby/front desk area. The Carvery closed in 2004.

Notable events

The Mayflower Hotel hosted the Inaugural Ball of President Calvin Coolidge just two weeks after its opening. It hosted an Inaugural Ball every four years until it hosted its final ball in January 1981. It has not hosted an Inaugural Ball since. President-elect Herbert Hoover established his presidential planning team offices in the hotel in January 1928, and his Vice President, Charles Curtis, lived there in one of the hotel's residential guest rooms during his four years in office. President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt spent March 2 and 3 in Suites 776 and 781 at the Mayflower Hotel before his inauguration on March 4. United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and former Governor of North Carolina Oliver Max Gardner and his wife, Fay Webb-Gardner, lived at the hotel from 1946 to 1947.

Two events of significance during World War II happened at the Mayflower. In June 1942, George John Dasch and seven other spies from Nazi Germany entered the United States after being transported to American shores via a submarine. Their goal, named Operation Pastorius, was to engage in sabotage against key infrastructure. But after encountering a United States Coast Guard patrol moments after landing, Dasch decided the plan was useless. On June 19, 1942, he checked into Room 351 at the Mayflower Hotel and promptly betrayed his comrades. Eighteen months later, a committee of the American Legion met in Room 570 at the Mayflower Hotel from December 15 to 31, 1943, to draft legislation to assist returning military members reintegrate into society. Their proposed legislation, the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944—known informally as the G.I. Bill—was put into final draft from by Harry W. Colmery on Mayflower Hotel stationery.

Twice, the Mayflower has been the site where a U.S. presidential campaign was launched, and twice it hosted events which proved to be turning points in a presidential nomination. In March 1931, Franklin D. Roosevelt was vying with Al Smith for the Democratic presidential nomination of 1932. John J. Raskob, chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), opposed Roosevelt's candidacy. Knowing that Roosevelt had privately committed to repealing Prohibition but had not done so publicly (leaving him "damp"), Raskob attempted to force the DNC, then meeting at the Mayflower Hotel, to adopt a "wet" (or repeal) plank in the party platform. Instead of drawing Roosevelt out, the maneuver deeply offended Southern "dry" (anti-repeal) Democrats—who abandoned Smith and threw their support to the allegedly more moderate Roosevelt, and helped him secure the nomination. In 1948, President Harry S. Truman told a cheering audience of Young Democrats of America at a dinner at the Mayflower on May 14 that he intended to seek re-election in 1948. Former Peace Corps and Office of Economic Opportunity director Sargent Shriver announced his run for President of the United States at the Mayflower on September 20, 1975. Shriver withdrew from the race after a very poor showing, but a more successful campaign began there in 2008. Senator Barack Obama had locked down the 2008 Democratic nomination for President on June 3, 2008. Hillary Clinton conceded the nomination to Obama on June 7, and introduced Obama to about 300 of her leading contributors at a meeting at the Mayflower on June 26, 2008.

J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), lunched nearly every day at the Mayflower Hotel's Rib Room with Clyde Tolson, associate director of the FBI, from 1952 until Hoover's death in 1972. Hoover had the same lunch every day: chicken soup followed by a salad of iceberg lettuce, grapefruit, and cottage cheese. Buttered white toast was served on the side. (He brought his own diet salad dressing.) Hoover was so well known at the Rib Room that he sometimes ducked out through the kitchen to avoid reporters.

During the Senate Watergate hearings in June 1973, presidential aide John Dean was on the witness "hot seat" for five days. Throughout this highly charged and historic event the accuracy of Dean's testimony, and his personal veracity were called into question by the president's defenders and others. History has mostly judged Dean to have demonstrated a formidable, almost photographic memory. However, Dean's sworn testimony that he met with Nixon's personal attorney Herbert Kalmbach at the Mayflower Hotel Coffee shop, in furtherance of making illegal hush-money payments to the Watergate burglars was proven to be false. Dean's inaccurate testimony was a brief setback to his case, as the meeting between Dean and Kalmbach occurred at the Statler Hilton Hotel, not the Mayflower Hotel. As it turned out, and coincidentally, the coffee shop at the Statler Hilton hotel was named the Mayflower Coffee Shop and as of July 1972, the Mayflower Hotel did not operate a coffee shop. At times, John Dean was adamant that the meeting took place at the Mayflower Hotel, although he placed the hotel on 16th Street (the location of the Statler Hilton) and also stated that he would continually confuse the Statler Hilton Hotel with the Mayflower Hotel despite having lived and worked in the Washington D.C.area for about ten years.

The Mayflower has been in the news several times in relation to political sex scandals. Judith Exner, who claimed to be President John F. Kennedy mistress, said she stayed in the hotel while in D.C. to secretly meet with the president for sexual trysts. The Mayflower was also the location where Lewinsky was photographed with President Clinton at a campaign event not long before the 1996 election; this photograph later became an iconic component of the media coverage of the scandal. On March 10, 2008, The New York Times reported that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer patronized a high class prostitution service called Emperors Club VIP while staying at the Mayflower on February 13. Spitzer allegedly had sex for over two hours with a $1,000-an-hour call girl in room 871 while registered under the alias George Fox.

Rating

The AAA gave the hotel four diamonds out of five in 1992. The hotel has maintained that rating every year, and received four diamonds again for 2016. Forbes Travel Guide (formerly known as Mobil Guide) declined to give the hotel either five or four stars in 2016, and did not put the hotel on its "recommended" list.

References

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Bibliography

External links

The Mayflower official website
The Mayflower official chain website
Marriott Vacation Club Pulse at The Mayflower official website
The Mayflower Hotel – Historic Hotels of America, National Trust for Historic Preservation
Three Stories From the Mayflower Hotel in D.C. - Ghosts of DC blog