It Happened on Connecticut Avenue

Fairfax Hotel

Al Gore grew up in Suite 809 of the Fairfax Hotel just off Connecticut Avenue on Massachusetts Avenue. His dad, of course, was a Senator, and they lived right above Senator McClellan, who often complained about Al dribbling his basketball in the apartment. One of Al's friends, Sam Williams, recalled tossing water balloons onto limousines from the rooftop with him.

Gorbachev greeting crowds on Connecticut Avenue near L Street

On Dec. 27, 1987, Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev shocked everyone by having his limousine driver stop the car on Connecticut Avenue near L Street to shake hands with regular American citizens. He was on his way to his final meeting with President Reagan at the White House, in a limousine with George Bush the elder who reportedly said, “It's too bad you can't stop and talk to the people.” Gorbachev told the driver "Stop!" and the rest is history. A year later he did the same thing in New York, hopping out of the limo to greet strangers in Times Square and by Bloomingdale's department store.

St. Matthew's Cathedral

Located just off Connecticut Avenue on Rhode Island Avenue, St. Matthew's Cathedral is where a service was held for John F. Kennedy's funeral. Outside the cathedral, Kennedy's son, John Jr. saluted the casket as it passed, creating an unforgettable scene for onlookers and people later viewing the photograph.

Patterson House

President Coolidge made Patterson House at 15 Dupont Circle, the temporary White House for a while in 1927 when the White House was undergoing repairs. After his historic trans-Atlantic flight, Charles Lindbergh stayed in a suite here as a guest of the Coolidges. Today it is home of the Washington Club and can be found at the intersection of P Street and Dupont Circle on the east side of the circle.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Crystal Heights

In 1940, Frank Lloyd Wright drew up plans to build one of his most ambitious projects at the present site of the Washington Hilton. He called it Crystal Heights... a giant complex of apartments, hotel rooms, shopping, and parking with 21 futuristic-looking square glass towers. Wright said "Versailles won't look like much compared to this when it is finished." At a press conference announcing plans for Crystal Heights, Wright said that one of the benefits of World War II would be the bombing of Washington by the German air force so that the city could be rebuilt with decent architecture. Washington authorities rejected the plans in part because it was not "classical."

Wright said that the trouble with Washington was that its architectural decisions were made "by a bunch of Beaux-Arts graduates and goddamn fairies."

Washington Hilton

In March 1981 John Hinckley Jr. shot President Reagan at the Washington Hilton, seriously wounding him. You may recall that he did this to impress actress Jodi Foster, who was then a student at Yale. Reagan was rushed to George Washington University Hospital where Reagan said to the surgeon Joseph Giordano, "I hope you are a Republican." Dr. Giordano replied, "Mr. President, today we are all Republicans," but in actuality Reagan's surgeon who saved his life was a liberal Democrat. The Academy Awards ceremony which had been scheduled for that evening was aired the next day. Reagan's Press Secretary, James Brady, was seriously wounded in the head by Hinckley, and he was disabled by his injuries. He and his wife Sarah have been strong advocates for gun control since this attack. Hinckley has been held in St. Elizabeth's Hospital - a psychiatric hospital in southeast DC - to this day.

Kennedy-Warren

One of D.C.'s most famous Art Deco buildings, the Kennedy-Warren at 3133 Connecticut Avenue in Woodley Park opened in 1931. Some of its well-known former residents are Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson, H.R. Haldeman, P.J. O'Rourke . . . and the wives of 29 prominent generals and admirals stationed overseas during World War II. It has a ballroom and a piano bar.

Smokey Bear

Smokey Bear was rescued from a fire in NM. His mother was apparently killed in the fire, so he was nursed back to health and brought to the National Zoo in 1950, where he lived until he died in 1976. He became a mascot for forest fire prevention, and was the most popular attraction at the National Zoo for years. At first he was actually called "Hot Foot Teddy" but he was later renamed Smokey Bear after the fictitious bear in the Ad Council's "Only you can prevent forest fires" posters, which had been around since 1944. He came to be more popularly called "Smokey THE Bear" after a song in the 1950's inserted "the" between Smokey and Bear - "Smokey the Bear."

Wardman Park Marriott

The Wardman Park Marriott is rich in history. The oldest portion of the hotel, Wardman Tower, dates to 1928, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and has been home to three U.S. presidents. The first televised broadcast of "Meet the Press" took place in the Wardman Tower in 1947, and the program continued to originate there for decades.

The 1,338 room Marriott Wardman Park Hotel is the largest hotel in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and the 8th largest hotel in the United States. It has been the home to numerous nationally known figures including: Presidents Hoover, Eisenhower & Johnson; Marlene Dietrich, Gore Vidal, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.; Senators Charles Robb, Barry Goldwater & Robert Dole; Vice Presidents Charles Curtis, Henry Wallace, and Spiro Agnew; Chief Justices Frederick Vinson & Earl Warren; and Perle "Call Me Madam" Mesta.

4701 Connecticut Avenue

Located in Forest Hills, 4701 Connecticut Avenue (now known as Truman House) was the residence of Harry Truman between 1941-1945 and was where he lived when he learned of the death of Franklin Roosevelt. 4701 was reportedly Bess Truman's favorite residence of the Truman's D.C. residences.

Yenching Palace

Yenching Palace opened in 1955, serving Henry Kissinger, Mick Jagger, George Balanchine, Ann Landers, Art Garfunkel, I.M. Pei, Bob Woodward, and Carl Bernstein, according to its guest book. It is the secret location where President John F. Kennedy's negotiators met with representatives of the Soviet Union in 1962 to prevent a war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Also at Yenching Palace, Richard Nixon's Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, discussed better relations with the Chinese, after ceremonies commemorating China's donation of pandas to the National Zoo, not far down the street. After that, Yenching Palace became a popular restaurant among the diplomatic community. Kissinger dined there regularly. It closed on June 10, 2007.

Chevy Chase Lounge

For years, Meg Greenfield met with George Will and Charles Krauthammer for lunch on Saturdays with a guest, usually someone of influence, at the Chevy Chase Lounge, part of the Parthenon restaurant, for food and conversation.

Avalon Theater

Opened in 1923 as the Chevy Chase Theater, the name changed to the Avalon in 1929. It closed down in 2001 but local volunteers organized the Avalon Theater Project, raised money and managed to renovate and reopen it in 2003.

Anchorage Building

Located at Connecticut Avenue & Q Street right by the Q Street exit from the Dupont Circle subway station, this building has been home (temporarily) to Robert Kennedy, Tallulah Bankhead, Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, and even Lucky Lindy, Charles Lindbergh.

The Mayflower Hotel

The Renaissance Mayflower Hotel is located at 1127 Connecticut Avenue between L and M Streets and is known locally as simply, The Mayflower. Immediately after its opening in 1925, the Mayflower Hotel was known as the "Grande Dame of Washington, D.C.," boasting more gold than any other building in the country except for the Library of Congress. Just four blocks from the White House, this grand, historic hotel remains not only a place to make history but to absorb it; throughout the last 80 years the hotel has hosted events that have changed the course of human affairs.

The hotel has hosted every U.S. Presidential inaugural ball since Calvin Coolidge. FDR used the Mayflower as a retreat to work on his 1933 inaugural address in which he first used the phrase "We have nothing to fear but fear itself," Harry Truman resided here for the first 90 days of his presidential term and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover lunched at the Mayflower nearly every day he was in town for 20 years. A long list of celebrities and international royalty have also made the Mayflower their DC home. Monica Lewinsky gave her deposition during Bill Clinton's impeachment proceedings in a $5,000 per night suite at the Mayflower. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover ate lunch at the hotel every day for 20 years, and President Harry Truman lived at the Mayflower during the first 90 days of his presidential term. Harry S. Truman announced his intention to run for the presidency in 1948 at a Jackson Day dinner at the Mayflower ("I want to say that during the next four years there will be a Democrat in the White House and you are looking at him.")