A worried Henry had written to Joseph in 1852, Should I be fortunate enough to get [the president-elect] at my house, I can do good business and meet all my engagements. I hope well but I occasionally have the blues.6 Of the New Englanders who ran most of the countrys better hotels at that time, Henry was special, meeting his guests as they alighted at the hotel from the stage, reminisced Ben Perley Poore, a veteran Washington journalist. The grand hotel has had many famous guests, such as Abraham Lincoln, Charles Dickens, Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, General John J. Pershing, and Harry Houdini. I smelled some smoke in the lobby but in those care-free days everybody smoked including my father, a three pack-day smoker. You are mixed up here with office seekers, wire pullers, inventors, artists, poets, editors, Army correspondents, attaches of foreign journals, long-winded talkers, clerks, diplomatists, mail contractors, railway directorsuntil your identity is lost among them.22 One wag joked that there were so many VIPs at Willards that a gentleman passing by threw his stick at a dog. Lisa tells me you more than fit that criteria. The article evidently got worse detailing all of the gruesome injuries. with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington.21 Now, at the Willard, he had still not secured the acceptance of several key cabinet members and, in an early test of his brinkmanship, would not even have William Sewards agreement to be his secretary of state as the inaugural parade left the hotel for the Capitol. Before that, many chose to live at the Willard, including the vice presidents to William Howard Taft, Wilson, Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge. . When he replied, The vice president, the fire marshal then challenged, What are you the vice president of? Coolidge got a kick out of the story and loved to tell it. Lowest price guarantee. The hotel is well known for its posh, upscale .everything past and present, from itsgrand lobby, to itshuge rooms, spa andrestaurants, and of course there is the expectedhefty price tag the cost of beinghigh-society. We have done it in the past and will do so in the future, he said. Quoted in Richard Wallace Carr and Marie Pinsk Carr. Old Ebbitt Grill is a historic bar and restaurant located at 675 15th Street NW in Washington, D.C., in the United States.It is Washington's oldest bar and restaurant, and is owned by Clyde's Restaurant Group.It first opened as an unnamed restaurant in the Ebbitt House Hotel.
