The Whitelaw Hotel is a historic structure located in the

U Street Corridor The U Street Corridor or Greater U Street, sometimes known as Cardozo/Shaw, is a neighborhood in Washington, D.C., located in Northwest D.C. Centered along U Street, the neighborhood is one of Washington's most popular nightlife and entertainm ...

(a.k.a. Cardozo/Shaw) in

Northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west— ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1993.

History

The Whitelaw was built in 1919 as an upscale apartment hotel during the segregation era. The building was designed by architect Isaiah T. Hatton, who was one of the nation's first African American architects. Hatton designed the hotel using a classical Italian

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of ...

architectural style. Construction costs totaled $158,000. It was named for the mother of its builder, entrepreneur John Whitelaw Lewis who also founded

Industrial Savings Bank Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

. It was completely financed and built by African American entrepreneurs, investors, designers, and craftsmen as a place of meeting and public accommodation for prominent African Americans during segregation. The hotel was listed in Victor Green'
Green Book
a guide for African American travelers. Entertainers, such as

Cab Calloway Cabell "Cab" Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he became a popular vocalist of the Swing music, swing era. His niche ...

, who performed on U Street stayed at the Whitelaw as well as other African Americans who came to Washington for meetings of national black organizations and could not stay in the city's other hotels. Its large public spaces allowed the Whitelaw to become an important social center. The end of legal Segregation in the United States and the rise in drugs in the neighborhood led to the decline of the Whitelaw. It was closed by the city in 1977 and was slated for demolition. Manna, Inc bought the building in 1991 and used historic tax credits to renovate it into low- and moderate-income housing. It re-opened in 1992.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Hotel buildings completed in 1919 Apartment buildings in Washington, D.C. Renaissance Revival architecture in Washington, D.C. Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. African-American history of Washington, D.C. Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Washington, D.C. U Street Corridor, Washington, D.C.