Arlington Hotel (Washington, D.C.)

The Arlington Hotel was a hotel in Washington, D.C. which stood from 1868 to 1912. It was considered the most opulent hotel in the District of Columbia during the post-Civil War era.^[1] It was built in 1868 and expanded in 1889. It was the Washington residence of many Senators and Congressmen, including three-term speaker Thomas Brackett Reed. Reed died in the Arlington Hotel in December 1902 of Bright's disease.^[2]

The Arlington Hotel was also a resting place for international notables such as Albert I of Belgium, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia and Pedro II of Brazil as well as industrialists and financial magnates Andrew Carnegie and J. P. Morgan.^[1]

In 1899, The Successful American magazine recognized the Arlington Hotel as "one of the foremost hotels of the country" and that the hotel had "sheltered every preeminent American for years and has been the temporary home of every potentate..." visiting Washington, D.C. in the era.^[3]

The Hotel was demolished in 1912 in order to build a larger hotel. However, financing fell through for the new building and the land was sold to the U.S. government in 1918, which built what became the offices of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.

References

1. Carrier, Thomas J. (1999). Washington D.C.: A Historical Walking Tour. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 77–. ISBN 9780738500492. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
2. Grant, James (2012-05-15). Mr. Speaker!: The Life and Times of Thomas B. Reed - The Man Who Broke the Filibuster. Simon & Schuster. p. 373. ISBN 9781416544944. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
3. The Successful American. Press Biographical Company. 1899. pp. 90–.

38°54′3.25″N 77°2′5.36″W / 38.9009028°N 77.0348222°WCoordinates: 38°54′3.25″N 77°2′5.36″W / 38.9009028°N 77.0348222°W