D.C.’s longest-operating hotel – Hotel Harrington – is shutting its doors today. While it wasn’t known for its luxurious rooms or plush towels, its bargain rates and stellar location have kept it in business for over 100 years.
The Harrington was built in 1914 a few blocks from the White House as a modest hotel for tourists. It’s expanded several times since and now houses Harry’s Bar and Ollie’s Trolley on its bottom floor. The Washington Post calls the complex an “unbuttoned oasis in an otherwise buttoned-up downtown.”
Unlike its grand Beaux-Arts neighbor the Raleigh, the Harrington was designed to be efficient and economic. This design was an innovative take at a time when grand hotels only catered to the wealthy.
Harrington Hotel today. (Joseph/Flickr)
Despite the hotel being astonishingly average, it has undeniably achieved a certain notoriety among D.C. hotels, and not just for its age.
In 2020, hundreds of Proud Boys turned it into a de facto home base for election-denying Trump supporters. It was such a magnet for right-wing protesters that it decided to shut down before the Jan. 6 riot.
Harrington’s did not give a reason for its permanent closure, but Harry’s and Ollie’s Trolley are going with it. Any hopes for what the space will be used for next?
