Raleigh Hotel (Washington D.C.)

The Raleigh Hotel
The Raleigh Hotel
	Location within Central Washington, D.C.
General information
Type	Office
Location	Washington, D.C., United States
Coordinates	38°53′43″N77°01′40″W / 38.895304°N 77.027684°W Coordinates: 38°53′43″N77°01′40″W / 38.895304°N 77.027684°W
Completed	1893
Demolished	1964
Height
Roof	160 feet (49 m)
Design and construction
Architect	Leon E. Dessez;; Henry Janeway Hardenbergh

Last updated May 04, 2019

Raleigh Hotel was an historic high-rise office and then hotel building located in Washington, D.C., United States, on 12th Street, N.W., and Pennsylvania Avenue, in the downtown neighborhood.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington or D.C., is the capital of the United States. Founded after the American Revolution as the seat of government of the newly independent country, Washington was named after George Washington, the first President of the United States and a Founding Father. As the seat of the United States federal government and several international organizations, Washington is an important world political capital. The city is also one of the most visited cities in the world, with more than 20 million tourists annually.

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

History

The site, on the northeast corner of 12th Street N.W., and Pennsylvania Avenue, was originally occupied by the Fountain Inn, erected in 1815^[1] after the burning of Washington. This structure was razed and in 1847 the four-story Fuller Hotel opened.^[1] Renamed the Kirkwood House, it was the residence of Vice President Andrew Johnson; he took the oath of office of the President of the United States there in April 1865 after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.^[1]

The Burning of Washington was a British invasion of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, during the Battle of Bladensburg in the War of 1812. On August 24, 1814, after defeating the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg, a British force led by Major General Robert Ross burned down multiple buildings, including the White House, the Capitol building, as well as other facilities of the U.S. government. The attack was in part a retaliation for the recent American destruction of Port Dover in Upper Canada. The Burning of Washington marks the only time since the American Revolutionary War that a foreign power has captured and occupied the United States capital.

The Vice President of the United States is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice president is also an officer in the legislative branch, as President of the Senate. In this capacity, the vice president presides over Senate deliberations, but may not vote except to cast a tie-breaking vote. The vice president also presides over joint sessions of Congress.

Andrew Johnson was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. Johnson assumed the presidency as he was vice president of the United States at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. A Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket, Johnson came to office as the Civil War concluded. He favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union. His plans did not give protection to the former slaves; he came into conflict with the Republican-dominated Congress, culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives. He was acquitted in the Senate by one vote. Johnson's main accomplishment as president is the Alaska purchase.

Kirkwood House was razed in 1875 and replaced with the Shepherd Centennial Building, a seven-story office building in the Second Empire style (it opened in 1876).^[1] The upper floors were rented by the Pension Office from 1876 to 1885, as they apparently had to use multiple private office buildings until their new building, the Pension Bureau building was ready. The ground floor on the Pennsylvania Avenue. side was rented by the Palais Royal department store from 1877 to 1893.

The National Building Museum is located at 401 F Street NW in Washington, D.C., United States. It is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning". It was created by an act of Congress in 1980, and is a private non-profit institution; it is adjacent to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and the Judiciary Square Metro station. The museum hosts various temporary exhibits in galleries around the spacious Great Hall.

The Shepherd Centennial Building was converted into a hotel in 1893 by architect Leon E. Dessez and renamed the Raleigh Hotel.^[2] The Raleigh Hotel was razed in 1911 and rebuilt by architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh as a 13-story Beaux Arts hotel with a rusticated brick, white limestone, and terra cotta exterior.^[2] Congress changed the height limit for buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue NW from 130 feet (40 m) to 160 feet (49 m) in 1910 in order to accommodate the Raleigh Hotel.^[2] In 1936, there was a major interior renovation. Curt Schliffeler managed the hotel from 1936 to 1954. In 1964, the Raleigh was demolished.^[3]

Leon Emil Dessez was an architect in Washington D.C.. He designed public buildings in Washington D.C. and residences in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, including some of the first in Chevy Chase, Maryland, where he was the community's first resident. His work includes the 1893 the conversion of 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, The Shepherd Centennial Building, into the Raleigh Hotel and the Normal School for Colored Girls (1913) designed with Snowden Ashford.

Henry Janeway Hardenbergh was an American architect, best known for his hotels and apartment buildings.

Beaux-Artsarchitecture was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorporated Gothic and Renaissance elements, and used modern materials, such as iron and glass. It was an important style in France until the end of the 19th century. It also had a strong influence on architecture in the United States, because of the many prominent American architects who studied at the Beaux-Arts, including Henry Hobson Richardson, John Galen Howard, Daniel Burnham, and Louis Sullivan.

The site is now known as 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue.

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References

1 2 3 4 Goode, James W. Capital Losses: A Cultural History of Washington's Destroyed Buildings. 2d ed. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 2003, p. 388.
1 2 3 Goode, Capital Losses: A Cultural History of Washington's Destroyed Buildings, 2003, p. 218.
↑ John DeFerrari (2011). Lost Washington. The History Press. pp. 35–39. ISBN 978-1-60949-365-3 . Retrieved 3 September 2013.

External links

"Lost Washington: The Raleigh Hotel", Greater Greater Washington, Kent Boese, July 17, 2009
"The Magnificent Raleigh Hotel", Streets of Washington, John DeFerrari, March 25, 2010

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[Goode-1] 1 2 3 4 Goode, James W. Capital Losses: A Cultural History of Washington's Destroyed Buildings. 2d ed. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 2003, p. 388.

[Goode2-2] 1 2 3 Goode, Capital Losses: A Cultural History of Washington's Destroyed Buildings, 2003, p. 218.

[DeFerrari2011-3] John DeFerrari (2011). Lost Washington. The History Press. pp. 35–39. ISBN 978-1-60949-365-3 . Retrieved 3 September 2013.

Raleigh Hotel (Washington D.C.)

Contents

History

See also

Related Research Articles

References

External links