On This Date in Willard History

The Willard Hotel’s story began with Henry Augustus Willard, 5th great-grandson of Simon Willard, who transformed a group of buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue into Willard’s Hotel in 1847. What began as one family’s ambitious venture became a landmark woven into the history of Washington, D.C.

Its August connections remind us how that legacy continued long after Henry Willard’s lifetime:

 • In August, 1963, Martin Luther King wrote his famous “I Have A Dream” speech in his Willard Hotel room in the days leading up to the March On Washington.

• Decades later, on August 20, 1986, the hotel reopened to the public as the Willard InterContinental Washington after being closed for more than 18 years and undergoing a major restoration, renewing one of the capital’s most historic gathering places.

For descendants of the Willard family, the hotel is more than an iconic address. It is a lasting reminder that one ancestor’s vision helped create a place where American history was made, remembered, and carried forward.