The "New" Willard

George R. Lawrence
Ninth Annual Banquet, Architectural League of America, April 24, 1907
Gelatin silver print
Copyright deposit, 1907
Prints & Photographs Division (240)
Digital ID#s ppmsca-11569

Henry Janeway Hardenbergh (1847-1918)
Willard Hotel, "F" Street elevation
Photographic print on mylar, ca. 1901
Gift of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, 1991
Prints & Photographs Division (241)
Digital ID#s ppmsca-11570

The "new" Willard, which opened its new doors in 1901, was the work of Henry Hardenbergh, leading hotel architect of the period. His work included New York's old Waldorf-Astoria and the Plaza Hotel. Selected by Joseph Willard, Jr., nephew of one of the original owners, Hadenbergh remade the hotel in the Beaux-Arts style. The "new" Willard resumed its place as a social hub of Washington, hosting presidents, national and foreign luminaries, and sumptuous banquets, like the one pictured above for the Architectural League of America in 1907. Hardenbergh's architectural drawings were adopted and adapted for the renovation and additions made to the Willard in the 1980s.