The Willard Hotel was formally founded by Henry Willard when he leased six buildings in 1847, combined them into a single structure, and enlarged it into a four-story hotel renamed the Willard Hotel.
The present 12-story structure, designed by famed hotel architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, opened in 1901. It suffered a major fire in 1922 which caused $250,000 (which would be $3.5m in 2014) money.
The Willard family sold its share of the hotel in 1946, and due to mismanagement and the severe decline of the area, the hotel closed in 1968. The building sat vacant for years, and numerous plans were floated for its demolition. It eventually fell into a semi-public receivership and was sold to the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation. They held a competition to rehabilitate the property and ultimately awarded it to the Oliver Carr Company and Golding Associates. The two partners then brought in the InterContinental Hotels Group to be a part owner and operator of the hotel. The Willard was subsequently restored to its turn-of-the-century elegance. The hotel was re-opened on August 20, 1986. In the late 1990s, the hotel once again underwent significant restoration.
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