The Mayflower Hotel

The Mayflower Hotel opened in Washington, D.C., in 1925, designed by the architect Frank Mills Andrews together with the firm of Warren and Wetmore, the latter also known for New York's Grand Central Terminal, in the Beaux-Arts style then favored for the capital's grandest hotels. Its main lobby stretches an entire long block between two streets, lined with marble columns, gilded ceiling ornament and crystal chandeliers, and the hotel opened in time to host the inaugural ball of President Calvin Coolidge shortly after its completion. The hotel has hosted the inaugural ball of nearly every American president since its opening, along with a long list of foreign dignitaries and heads of state visiting the capital, cementing its reputation as one of Washington's principal venues for high-profile political and diplomatic events. Franklin D. Roosevelt stayed at the hotel in the weeks before his 1933 inauguration and reportedly worked on his inaugural address there. The hotel remains in operation today, its Beaux-Arts public rooms largely preserved, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.