Hotel Harrington
The Hotel Harrington is Washington DC's longest, continuously running hotel, and as of this writing, remains family owned. The hotel was built in 1914, and underwent physical expansions in 1918 and 1925. Notably, the Harrington was DC's first air conditioned hotel.
I passed by the hotel daily on my way to work, and the view from the street of its rather plain, brown brick facade intrigued me. There was a visual austerity to it that I found attractive, especially given it's location in Washington's trendy Penn Quarter neighborhood.
Eventually, I became sufficiently curious enough that I contacted the Managing Director, Ann Terry. Although inquiring about its history, I was eventually granted permission to photograph inside the hotel. I was very graciously given access to photograph in as many unoccupied rooms as I wanted. In addition, I was allowed to talk to and photograph the dedicated and loyal staff, many having worked at the Harrington for decades.
Although very clean, the rooms were sparsely decorated. The double hung windows, typical in each room, allowed only limited light to enter, and in many cases faced the brick wall of another building. The scene, evocative of a 1940's film noir movie set, stirred in me feelings of nostalgia, and of stories untold.
I was reminded of so-called single room occupancies, or SRO's, that were once common in towns and cities, especially during the last century. Typically for men only, such places provided lodging for someone who was perhaps down on their luck in some way, or maybe just back from the war and needing to readjust. Such transitional housing offered affordability, a clean place to sleep, and a little time to be alone and figure things out.
