Old Post Office (Washington, D.C.)

Old Post Office and Clock Tower
The Old Post Office Building in 2024
Old Post Office (Washington, D.C.) is located in Central Washington, D.C.
Old Post Office (Washington, D.C.)
Old Post Office (Washington, D.C.) is located in the District of Columbia
Old Post Office (Washington, D.C.)
Old Post Office (Washington, D.C.) is located in the United States
Old Post Office (Washington, D.C.)
LocationWashington, D.C., U.S.
Coordinates38°53′39″N 77°1′39″W / 38.89417°N 77.02750°W / 38.89417; -77.02750
Built1892 to 1899
Architect
Architectural style
Part ofPennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site (ID66000865)
NRHP reference No.73002105[1]
Added to NRHPApril 11, 1973

The Old Post Office, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Old Post Office and Clock Tower, is located at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. in Washington, D.C. It is a contributing property to the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site.[1] The building's 315-foot (96-meter) high clock tower houses the "Bells of Congress," and its observation level offers panoramic views of the city and its surroundings. A historic federal office building, it now serves as a hotel.

Construction began in 1892 and was completed in 1899. The building is an example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture, popular in the late 19th-century United States. Its bell tower is the third tallest structure in Washington, D.C., excluding radio towers. It succeeded an earlier 1839 building, the General Post Office, which was built in Classical Revival style on F Street NW. It was used as the city's main General Post Office until 1914 at the beginning of World War I.

The Pennsylvania Avenue landmark functioned primarily as a federal office building. It was nearly torn down during the construction of the surrounding Federal Triangle complex in the 1920s and 1930s, and 1970s. Instead, major renovations to The Old Post Office Building were made in 1976 and 1983. The 1983 renovation added to the office structure, a food court, a retail space, and a roof skylight over the building's central atrium. The building acquired the name of "Old Post Office Pavilion". A glass-walled addition on a former adjacent parking lot was added to the structure in 1991.

In 2013, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) leased the property for 60 years to a consortium headed by "DJT Holdings LLC", a holding company that Donald Trump owns through a revocable trust.[2] Trump developed the property into a luxury hotel, the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C., which opened on September 12, 2016[3][4] and closed on May 11, 2022,[5] after its sale to CGI Merchant Group. It reopened as the Waldorf Astoria Washington DC[6] on June 1, 2022.[7]

  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System – (#73002105)". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^
    1. Meyer, Eugene L. (May 27, 2014). "A Trump Makeover for Washington's Old Post Office". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 6, 2017. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
    2. O'Connell, Jonathan (August 17, 2012). "How the Trumps Landed the Old Post Office Pavilion". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 17, 2016. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
    3. Grant, Peter (February 8, 2016). "Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C., to Open Ahead of Schedule". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on January 19, 2017. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
    4. Roston, Aram; Wagner, Daniel (August 2, 2016). "Trump Gave His Kids A Big Stake In Huge Government Deal, Document Shows". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on November 8, 2016. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
    5. Craig, Susanne; Lipton, Eric (February 3, 2017). "Trust Records Show Trump Is Still Closely Tied To His Empire". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
  3. ^
    1. September 12, 2016 Trump International Hotel Opens in DC; grand-opening ceremonies planned for October. Archived October 2, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Fox 5 DC. Retrieved: October 1, 2016.
    2. Smith, David (September 12, 2016). "Trump not 'welcome here': opening of DC hotel met with protests". The Guardian. Archived from the original on September 30, 2016. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
  4. ^ Rhodan, Maya. "Inside Donald Trump's New Washington, D.C. Hotel". Time. Archived from the original on September 16, 2016. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  5. ^ Lipton, Eric (May 11, 2022). "Trump Completes Sale of Washington Hotel to Investor Group". The New York Times.
  6. ^ "Trump International Hotel Washington D.C. to Be Renamed and Branded as a Waldorf Astoria Hotel".
  7. ^ "Waldorf Astoria on Instagram: 'Welcome to @WaldorfAstoriaWashingtonDC. When will you be arriving? #newopening'".