Hay... Joe!
Jane Memmler
Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th President of the USA in Washington DC on Wednesday, and if you’re attending, there’s only one place to stay... says
Sitting opposite The White House in Washington DC is the city’s classiest hotel. The Hay-adams, overlooking Lafayette Square, is the closest you’ll get to actually being in the White House.
Built as two homes in 1884, it’s named after previous residents – John Hay (secretary to Abraham Lincoln and ambassador to the UK) and Henry Adams (historian and direct descendant of President John Quincy Adams).
It soon became a magnet for the literary set, attracting the likes of Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain.
In 1927, developer Harry Wardman flattened them to build this elegant Italian Renaissance-style hotel.
In 2009, one of its most famous guests was Barack Obama who, along with his family, checked in for 10 days before moving into the White House and where his daughters, Malia and Sasha, loved making ice cream in the hotel’s kitchen.
Politicians and bigwigs come here to plot and schmooze within its elegant old-school restaurant, The Lafayette. They dine on exceptional food in the light-filled space on tables covered with starched white linen under glistening chandeliers, before retiring to the Off The Record bar for a nightcap such as a Trumpy Sour.
It has the air of an upscale private country house with discreet service.
Rooms overlooking the White House are the ones to book. Fling open the windows and boom, you’re in the direct line of sight of the snipers clad in black on the White House roof.
St John’s Church, otherwise known as the Church of the Presidents, is on the
TOP JOB Joe Biden
opposite corner and if you’re lucky you may see the President’s official helicopter, Marine One, descending onto the White House lawn.
The hotel has 20 suites and 145 rooms epitomising presidential elegance.
Calming creams, sage greens and sherbet-lemon tones feature. Wallpapered walls, beautifully dressed beds with 400-thread linens, and black and white prints complete the smart feel.
Washington DC is an incredibly compact city with most attractions within walking distance of the Hay-adams. The excellent Smithsonian Museum complex is home to the National Air and Space Museum, featuring Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 suit.
At the National Museum of American History, Dorothy’s ruby slippers and Kermit the frog sit alongside the sobering Greensboro lunch counter which sparked a national protest about racial inequality.
You’ll find some of the world’s most iconic monuments along National Mall.
The Korean War Veterans Memorial has 19 stone soldiers wading in rice paddies, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial – resembling the Pantheon with marble steps – is instantly recognisable, and the Dr Martin Luther King Memorial is a granite sculpture of the man himself.
The World War II Memorial honours the 16 million who served overseas, and the neoclassical Lincoln Memorial with a 19ft statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln has witnessed some of America’s most defining moments. Not least, Dr Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream speech”.
Rooms from $399. hayadams.com
CLASSY Hay-adams and suite
Fling open the windows and you’re in the direct line of the snipers