| In 1938, air conditioning was installed in the hotel
replacing the original negative draft system that had been built
into the building from the start. The negative draft system
utilized huge fans located on the roof of the building to draw
air from each of the hotel's hallways. By opening the guest room
window, and by controlling the tilt of the valance above the
guest room door with the adjustment lever, guests were able to
establish a comfortable circulation of outside air into their
rooms during the warm summer months up through the summer of
1937. By 1938, guests of the Hotel Harrington had something no
other hotel guest in Washington, D.C. could boast: AIR
CONDITIONING had arrived and was installed hotel wide. Yes, the
Hotel Harrington was the very first hotel in Washington, D.C. to
make air conditioning available to their guests, and summer
visits were never more pleasant from that time forward. At about this same time, the former, full service fine dining
restaurant was also completely re-worked. In addition to
lowering the ceiling and relocating the entrance off the lobby,
the concept was changed to a cafeteria style dining. The new
restaurant, named the Kitcheteria, opened in the fall of 1941
and was an immediate success. Everyday brought a new variety of
fresh, always from scratch Kitcheteria specialties. Homestyle
cooking was a part of every Kitchiteria meal. Huge sacks of
potatoes were always on hand for the homemade mashed potatoes,
and the baker arrived every morning at 4 AM to bake fresh biscuits,
breads, pies, and other desserts from our own ovens.
During the 48 years the Kitcheteria operated, very few
changes were made to the magic formula, and it is estimated that
something exceeding 15,000,000 meals were served during the
restaurant's memorable run.Unfortunately, times and tastes changed over the years, and
in 1991 the Kitcheteria closed as the daily volume of customers
declined. Today, in its place, is a mixture of the old
and the new. The new restaurant,
Harriet's Family Cafe, offers an
economical buffet for breakfast until 11:00 AM. Traditional
table service follows with lunch from 11 AM to 4:30 PM,
then dinner from 4:30 PM to 9 PM. Although food
services stops at this time, the cafe remains open
until 11:00 PM to allow hotel guests free access to the
Internet connected computers.
In 1928 the hotel opened the Pink Elephant Cocktail
Lounge. This popular gathering place became world famous
during World War II, and continued in operation until
1986. Today it has been replaced by Harry's Pub which
serves sandwiches and lighter fare for lunch and dinner
and late into the night, along with a full selection of
beers, wines, and mixed drinks. A pinball machine, two
dart boards, and numerous televisions are operating all
day long for everyone to enjoy.
No hotel can operate without a captain of the
ship, and in the hotel business that captain is
called the General Manager. Those who occupy
this top spot can sometimes be legends in their
own right, and we may well have had some of our
very own. In the 96 years the Hotel Harrington
has been open for business, we have had a grand
total of just FOUR General Managers; this may
well be an industry record that will never be
broken. The very first General Manager of the
hotel was W. E. Fairfield, who opened the hotel
in 1914 and kept things going through the great
depression years until his retirement in 1934.
Then came Augustus Gumbert, a veteran of the
Spanish American War, with his memorable peg
leg, the result of an injury received during the
war while serving under the command of the
famous and honored navel officer, Admiral George
Dewey.
Mr. Gumpert ran
the Harrington until 1948 when the position of
General Manager was turned over to a long time and
faithful employee of the hotel, Mr. Robert Bryce. Mr.
Bryce had already been with the hotel for 15 some
years by that time, running the successful
restaurant operations while also assisting in other
areas of management, when he took over as the
General Manager of the hotel. Mr. Bryce continued
in this role for 37 additional years, bringing his
total number of years with the Hotel Harrington to
50 plus by the time of his retirement in 1985.
Upon Mr. Bryce's retirement in 1985, the controls
were handed over to our very own Ms. Ann Terry who
is the current General Manager and overseer of all
good things our guests enjoy during their visit to
our hotel and, at 25 years and counting as the
hotel's General Manager, is now the longest serving
of all the current hotel managers in the city of
Washington, D.C..
 We are always in search of more history of our fine hotel. If
you, or someone you know, have been a part of the Hotel
Harrington's wonderful past, we would love to hear from you. We
are in the process of collecting memorabilia and historical
information from the earliest days of the hotel, and we are
planning to include selected samples in this section of our
website. Photographs, stories, promotional items, whatever you
might think would be of interest, might be of valuable interest
to us. Any assistance you might be able to provide to us would
be greatly appreciated. |
On
the left is a picture of our antique mailbox which was installed
in 1918. This working mailbox has a drop chute that runs from
the top floor down, with every floor having a drop slot ........
and a glass panel front allows you to watch your mail, and
the mail from the upper floors, sliding down toward the
ornate holding box on the lobby level.
