Booth's Home Away From Home in the Nation's Capital

[Laurie Verge]

I just provided a little history lesson to my Surratt House volunteers in their newsletter for April - not the Surratt Courier, which goes to all members. I thought it might be of some interest to the forum readers:

How many of you know the answer to this? When John Wilkes Booth was in Washington, what was his home away from home? If you said the National Hotel, you are correct.
This venerable old building stood at the corner of 6th Street and the Avenue (now home to the Newseum) from 1827 to 1931. It was founded by John Gadsby, the well-known proprietor of Gadsby’s Tavern in Alexandria, Virginia. Gadsby moved his business first to a hotel and tavern at 19th and I in NW. Because the place was too small and out of the way, he purchased a row of federal townhouses on the northeast corner of Pennsylvania Avenue at 6th Street, NW and combined them to form what he called the National Hotel. Citizens, however, persisted in calling it Gadsby’s Hotel. It continued to grow in increments – mainly as an accretion of smaller buildings than a single structure. With various expansions in width and height, it reached its greatest size in 1857.
In 1930, the Washington Post remarked that “Apart from the Capitol and the White House, there is no building in this city so historic as this. For more than half a century the history of the Nation was made there.” Presidents such as Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and Abraham Lincoln stayed there when it was fashionable through most of the 19th century. A post-Inaugural banquet for Lincoln was held there as were many fashionable feasts during that century. It was well-known for its Maryland terrapin dinners and rare old wines.
Henry Clay lived there for many years and died in his room (#116) in 1852. The room appears to have been maintained as a memorial to Clay for quite some time afterwards. According to the Washington Post in 1886, “There is an old-fashioned fireplace in the room with a soapstone top, and pillars surmounted by brass ornaments, and the old-fashioned andirons and fender are as they were the morning he [Clay] died. The same paper is on the wall, and on the cracked window panes are written the names of a score of people who probably have long since died, as the dates opposite their names are away back in the ‘40s and ‘50s.
During the Civil War, the War Department’s official news censor had his office at the National since it was close to the telegraph office. Despite his presence, the National remained a bastion for Southern sympathizers. Booth stayed in Room 228 while plotting Lincoln’s assassination.
In the early-1900s, the hotel had a hard time competing with the new and grander establishments such as the Raleigh and the Willard, both located further west on Pennsylvania Avenue. Later came the Hotel Washington and the Mayflower. It also never fully recovered from a disastrous fire in 1921, in which two people died.
The hotel was sold to the D.C. government in 1929, with plans to develop the site as a municipal building. The hotel finally closed its doors in 1931, and shortly thereafter, the D.C. National Guard began using it as an armory. The building was finally razed in 1942, and replaced with the D.C. Employment Security Building in 1961. That stood until about 2000, when the land was cleared to make way for the Newseum.

P.S. There has long been a story that Charles Dickens stayed at the National Hotel while visiting Washington in 1842. ‘Taint true. Dickens stayed at Fuller’s Hotel at 14th Street and Pennsylvania, NW, which later became part of Willard’s.

SOURCE: http://www.streetsofwashington.com.

[LincolnMan]

Great history on the National, Laurie. It sounds like it was quite a place. As we know, Mr. Booth had good taste.

[GARY POPOLO]

Great job Laurie. As always you have interesting information to pass on. We are lucky to have you on this forum to keep us both informed and expanding our knowledge. Thank you.

[L Verge]

Old teachers never die...