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The Willard InterContinental Washington is a historic luxury Beaux-Arts〔 hotel located at 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. Among its facilities are numerous luxurious guest rooms, several restaurants, the famed Round Robin Bar, the Peacock Alley series of luxury shops, and voluminous function rooms.〔 It is two blocks east of the White House, and two blocks west of the Metro Center station of the Washington Metro. ==History== The first structures to be built at 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW were six small houses constructed by Colonel John Tayloe III in 1816.〔Moeller and Weeks, ''AIA Guide to the Architecture of Washington, D.C.,'' 2006, p. 133.〕 Tayloe leased the six buildings to Joshua Tennison, who named them Tennison's Hotel.〔〔Hogarth, ''Walking Tours of Old Washington and Alexandria,'' 1985, p. 28.〕 The structures served as a hotel for the next three decades, the leaseholder and name changing several times: Williamson's Mansion Hotel, Fullers American House, and the City Hotel.〔 By 1847, the structures were in disrepair and Tayloe's son, Benjamin Ogle Tayloe, was desperate to find a tenant who would maintain the structures and run them profitably.〔Willard, "Henry August Willard: His Life and Times," ''Records of the Columbia Historical Society,'' 1917, p. 244-245.〕 The Willard Hotel was formally founded by Henry Willard when he leased the six buildings in 1847, combined them into a single structure, and enlarged it into a four-story hotel he renamed the Willard Hotel.〔〔〔Burlingame, ''With Lincoln in the White House,'' 2006, p. 197.〕 Willard purchased the hotel property from Benjamin Tayloe in 1864, but a dispute over the purchase price and the form of payment (paper currency or gold coin) led to a major equity lawsuit which ended up in the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court split the difference in ''Willard v. Tayloe.'' 75 U.S. 557 (1869): The purchase price would remain the same, but Willard must pay in gold coin (which had not depreciated in value the way paper currency had). The present 12-story structure, designed by famed hotel architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, opened in 1901.〔〔Moeller and Weeks, ''AIA Guide to the Architecture of Washington, D.C.,'' 2006, p. 134.〕 It suffered a major fire in 1922 which caused $250,000 ($}} as of ), in damages.〔"Notables Routed By Top Floor Fire In Willard Hotel," ''New York Times,'' April 24, 1922.〕 Among those who had to be evacuated from the hotel were Vice President Calvin Coolidge, several U.S. senators, composer John Philip Sousa, motion picture producer Adolph Zukor, newspaper publisher Harry Chandler, and numerous other media, corporate, and political leaders who were present for the annual Gridiron Dinner.〔 For many years the Willard was the only hotel from which one could easily visit all of downtown Washington, and consequently it has housed many dignitaries during its history. The Willard family sold its share of the hotel in 1946, and due to mismanagement and the severe decline of the area, the hotel closed in 1968. The building sat vacant for years, and numerous plans were floated for its demolition. It eventually fell into a semi-public receivership and was sold to the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation. They held a competition to rehabilitate the property and ultimately awarded it to the Oliver Carr Company and Golding Associates.〔Barbara Gamarekian, "(The Willard is Restored as a Jewel of Pennsylvania Avenue )", ''New York Times'', 1986-09-04〕 The two partners then brought in the InterContinental Hotels Group to be a part owner and operator of the hotel. The Willard was subsequently restored to its turn-of-the-century elegance and an office-building contingent was added. The hotel was thus re-opened amid great celebration on August 20, 1986, which was attended by several U.S. Supreme Court justices and U.S. senators. In the late 1990s, the hotel once again underwent significant restoration. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Willard InterContinental Washington」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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