Willard Hotel Photos From 1904

Here is a great series of photos taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston showing the New Willard shortly after it opened. Henry Janeway Hardenbergh designed the Beaux-Arts building, which went up in phases between 1901 and 1904 so the old hotel could keep operating while the new one rose around it.

Johnston’s photos turned out to be more important than anyone could have known. No blueprints or architectural drawings of the Willard’s interiors survived the hotel’s long decline, so when artisans restored the building in the 1980s, they used her photographs as the primary reference. The hotel reopened in August 1986.

registration desk at the New Willard
Registration desk at the New Willard, c. 1904
dining room at the New Willard
Dining room at the New Willard, c. 1904
New Willard's lobby
The New Willard’s lobby, c. 1904
Interior of the New Willard Hotel, c. 1904
Interior of the New Willard, c. 1904
Interior of the New Willard Hotel, c. 1904
Interior of the New Willard, c. 1904
Interior of the New Willard Hotel, c. 1904
Interior of the New Willard, c. 1904

Source: Library of Congress