The Cairo Hotel: How One Apartment Tower Wrote DC’s Skyline Law
A 35-year-old architect built 164 feet of Moorish-fantasy hotel into a Dupont rowhouse block. Congress hated it so much it made a law.
If Walls Could Talk
What happened inside Washington, DC’s buildings. Hotels where deals got cut, rowhouses where scandals played out, embassies that hosted defections and dinners both.
The Surprising History of Luther Place Memorial Church on Thomas Circle
The congregation built pews dedicated to Generals Grant and Lee, in the same sanctuary, five years after the war ended.
Hotel Harrington: 109 Years on 11th Street
From its 1914 opening to its 2023 closure, Hotel Harrington was DC’s longest-running hotel. Now KHP Capital plans to bring 436 11th St NW back to life.
The Abandoned Iranian Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue
The buildings at 3003 and 3005 Massachusetts Avenue NW have been locked and silent for 46 years. Before the doors closed, they saw legendary parties, student protests, 4,000 bottles of champagne poured down the drain, and hundreds of riot police. This is the full story.
The Tragic History of a Potentially Haunted Home in Adams Morgan
A peek into the tragic history of a purportedly haunted home in Adams Morgan: could the tormented spirits of the Walter family, who suffered immense loss and grief, still be lingering within its walls?
The 1910 Plan to Take Alexandria Back from Virginia
In 1910, Taft, Hannis Taylor, and Washington’s Board of Trade tried to undo the 1846 Alexandria retrocession. Virginia and a lame-duck clock stopped them
Au Pied de Cochon: D.C.’s Iconic Culinary Landmark
Au Pied de Cochon, a 24-hour French bistro at 1335 Wisconsin Avenue NW, hosted one of the Cold War’s strangest KGB defections in 1985.
Willard Hotel: 18 Empty Years and a $73 Million Rescue
The Willard Hotel closed without warning in 1968 and sat empty for 18 years. How a $73 million renovation saved one of Washington’s most historic buildings.
The Architects the Library of Congress Forgot
John Smithmeyer and Paul Pelz won the design competition in 1873. They spent 13 years redesigning it. Then Congress fired them. Here’s what happened next.