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The New Raleigh: 1912

Washington, D.C., circa 1912. "The New Raleigh." The recently completed Raleigh Hotel at Pennsylvania Avenue and 12th Street N.W., built on the site of the previous Raleigh Hotel. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1912. "The New Raleigh." The recently completed Raleigh Hotel at Pennsylvania Avenue and 12th Street N.W., built on the site of the previous Raleigh Hotel. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

 

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Completed, and then enlarged

The Hotel Raleigh was included in the April 1913 issue of Architectural Review because of an addition designed by Henry J. Hardenbergh (who was probably the original architect). The addition was the two stories and dome above the balustrade, made possible by a change in building ordinance. The article included the floor plans for the basement and office (ground) floor. It was interesting that the kitchen was on this floor and not in the basement. There were also plans for the sixth floor and tenth floor, which was the top floor of the original structure. It was demolished at some point.

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Awnings

They’re gorgeous and I miss them, but I can’t figure out why some windows have them and others don’t.

On this site

In 1865, 12th & Pennsylvania NW saw historic events that might have been even more historic. On April 14, Vice President Andrew Johnson was asleep in the Kirkwood House hotel on this site when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated three and a half blocks away. The next morning, Johnson was sworn in as President on the third floor of the Kirkwood House.

In fact, John Wilkes Booth's plot included killing Johnson, but George Atzerodt, the designated assassin, after hanging around the hotel most of the day went to a nearby bar and got drunk. Had Johnson been killed that night, a constitutional crisis would have ensued. Under a 1792 law, Lafayette Sabine Foster, president pro tempore of the Senate, would have been "acting President" until a special election could be organized. There were few if any guidelines for any of that.

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