Old Ebbitt Grill is a historic bar and restaurant located at 675 15th Street NW in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It is Washington's oldest bar and restaurant,Determining which establishment is the oldest bar in Washington, D.C., is complex. Old Ebbitt Grill is the oldest continuously operating bar in the city. However, it has changed owners and locations several times, which may invite the claim that it is not "continuously operated". The bar and restaurant in the Willard InterContinental Washington also lays claim to being the oldest bar and restaurant in the city. However, the original building was torn down and a new one erected on the same lot in 1901, and the hotel was closed from 1968 to 1986. As of 2010, the oldest bar in the city without an ownership change or interruption in service due to location change was Billy Martin's Tavern, which opened in 1933. See: Kelly, John. "D.C.'s Oldest Bar, Oldest Hotel? That's a Tricky Question," The Washington Post, June 20, 2010. and is owned by Clyde's Restaurant Group. It first opened as an unnamed restaurant in the Ebbitt House Hotel. The Hotel distinguished itself as the first hotel in Washington to remain open all summer instead of closing when Congress adjourned.
In 1827, the Hotel was razed and rebuilt in the same location. Ebbitt House Hotel was razed in 1925 to make way for the National Press Building, built in 1926. The restaurant was incorporated by Anders Lofstrand, Sr., as a stand-alone business. It moved into new quarters at 1427 F Street NW. After Lofstrand's death in 1955, the restaurant was purchased by Peter Bechas in 1961. The restaurant was sold at a tax sale in June 1970, and was purchased by Clyde's Restaurant Group. The 1427 F Street NW location was demolished in 1983 during redevelopment, and Old Ebbitt Grill moved into its current quarters at 675 15th Street NW.
For many years as part of Ebbitt House, the bar/restaurant had no stand-alone name or identity. In November 1910, it began using the name "New Ebbitt Café" . In 1926, after the restaurant became incorporated as a stand-alone business, it was known as both "Ebbitt's Grill" and "Old Ebbitt Grill". Over time, only the "Old Ebbitt Grill" name was used. It retained that name after its ownership changes in 1961 and 1970.
Since 1970, because of its popularity Old Ebbitt Grill has been frequented by numerous politicians, some known for scandals and maneuvering. It has also been the site of parties hosted by famous actors and singers. For many years, it has been the restaurant with one of the highest amount of sales in the United States. In 1995, Old Ebbitt Grill created a popular annual event known as the Oyster Riot.
Ebbitt House: 1856 to 1925 First Ebbitt House The building which later was owned by William E. Ebbitt was located on the southeast corner of F Street NW and 14th Street NW in the city of Washington, D.C. In June 1798, William Crawford obtained title to four parcels of land on the southeast corner of 14th and F streets.Larner, p. 101.At the time, the District of Columbia was not divided into quadrants, and the streets had yet to be described as northwest, southeast, etc. The four parcels lay west-to-east along 14th Street. In 1800, Crawford built two four-story Federal-style houses on the two easternmost parcels of this property.Goode, p. 210. The garden of the houses extended west onto the two empty lots on the corner, and down the hill in the rear almost to Pennsylvania Avenue.Henry, p. 90.
In 1833, Bushrod W. Reed relocated to the District of Columbia from Westmoreland County, Virginia, purchased the two easternmost lots from Crawford, and between 1833 and 1836 built a double-wide, four-story, Federal-style building on the corner next to the Crawford homes.Larner, p. 100.Brown, George Rothwell. "Ebbitt Hotel, Gone, Had Its Beginning in Boarding House." The Washington Post. April 8, 1926. Crawford's daughter, Sarah, married Richard Forrest, one of the first eight clerks appointed in 1801 by Thomas Jefferson in the United States Department of State. William Crawford installed Richard and Sarah Forrest in his houses, and they inherited them upon his death. Richard Forrest died in 1828, and Sarah died in 1832.Barnes, p. 89. Although it is unclear what happened to the property after Sarah Crawford's death, some time prior to 1856 it was purchased by William J. Smith.Larner, p. 101-102. Smith joined the two houses into a single unit, and named them "Frenchman's Hotel" because he employed a French immigrant as the manager of the facility.Eskew, p. 156.
In 1856, William E. Ebbitt purchased Frenchman's Hotel from Smith, turned it into a boarding house, and renamed it Ebbitt House. During this time, the boarding house also took in guests from the Willard Hotel.Eskew, p. 170.There was a family connection between Ebbitt House and the Willard Hotel. Richard Forrest's eldest son, Julius, married Sophia Ogle, daughter of Benjamin Ogle. Benjamin Ogle was the maternal grandfather of Benjamin Ogle Tayloe, the man who owned the Willard Hotel. See: Watson, p. 1; Barnes, p. 89. On September 1, 1863, Ebbitt sold the boarding house to his son-in-law, Albert H. Craney.Larner, p. 102. Exactly a year later, Craney sold the property to Caleb C. Willard, brother of Willard Hotel owner Henry A. Willard. Willard converted the boarding house into a hotel. The same year, Willard purchased Bushrod Reed's property as well. He joined the Ebbitt and Reed properties into a single unit enclosing a wide alley between the two and built bathrooms with oval windows in the space above.
A three-story house on 14th Street adjacent to Ebbitt House was occupied by the Reed family as well, although by 1864 it had been purchased by Willard, who raised the roof.Larner, p. 102-103. At that time it was not yet part of the hotel; Willard leased the building to the New York Times for use as office space. Two single-story buildings south of the Reed home were also built and owned by Reed. By 1865, they were used as offices by The Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Evening Post, and other newspapers. Next to the one-story buildings was Farnham House. It was originally owned and built by David Burnes, whose plantation had covered much of the downtown area that would be developed as Washington, D.C. Burnes gave Farnham House to his daughter Marcia, who in turn sold it to William H. Dorsey in 1802. On May 16, 1818, Dorsey sold the house to William Blanchard. Blanchard's daughter, Jane Farnham, inherited the property on June 10, 1850, after his death. By 1865, it housed the D.C. offices of the New York Herald. Given the numerous newspapers with offices along 14th Street between E and F Streets, the area was nicknamed "Newspaper Row," a name it would hold into the 1930s.Peck, p. 25-26; Evelyn, Dickson, and Ackerman, p. 74. Farnham sold her house at auction to Caleb Willard on October 4, 1866, for $74,000.Larner, p. 102-103.
For many years prior to the construction of the Ebbitt House stables in 1872, a large house known as Bull's Head stood at the rear of the hotel. The house marked the northeast corner of Murder Bay. Bull's Head housed prostitutes and contained a large, lower-class gambling den."Story of Murder Bay." The Washington Post. July 8, 1888.Savage, p. 100-101; Gutheim and Lee, p. 73; Lowry, p. 61-65; Evelyn, Dickson, and Ackerman, p. 63-64.
Second Ebbitt House In 1872, Willard razed Ebbitt House, doubled its size, and built a six-story, Second Empire-style hotel with a mansard roof."Keeping Hotel To-Day." The Washington Post. March 6, 1892. The hotel had 300 rooms, canopied windows, and an elevator.Townsend, p. 576. The dining room was two stories high, with floor to ceiling windows, white marble floor, white painted walls, and a fresco on the ceiling.Porteus, p. 41. The dining room was in the rear of the hotel, on the site of what used to be Farnham House, which in photographs from the period shows as the last three windows on 14th Street.Larner, p. 103. The massive chandeliers led the dining room to be called "the Crystal Room." The paneled bar was reached by passing through the lobby and down a flight of stairs into the basement.Otero, p. 289.
In the late 1800s, this hotel was considered one of the most fashionable in the city; its lodgings and restaurant were patronized by politicians and high-ranking military officers. Major General Winfield Scott Hancock, Commanding General of the United States Army William Tecumseh Sherman, and Rear Admiral Samuel Rhoads Franklin all lived there for a time.Franklin, p. 292-293. It is well-documented that President Ulysses S. Grant and President Andrew Johnson both dined in the restaurant frequently,Zon, p. 5. as did abolitionist clergyman Henry Ward Beecher.Barrows, p. 454.
From 1877 to 1890, future president William McKinley and his wife lived there, during his entire congressional career.Hodgson, p. 279. He dined almost nightly with his wife in the restaurant.Corning, p. 138. His close friend, Representative and later President James A. Garfield, visited McKinley often in the hotel.Phillips, p. 26. McKinley departed from the hotel for his presidential inaugural.
Presidents Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, and Warren G. Harding all drank in the bar there. Chief Justice of the United States Salmon P. Chase lived there while working in the capital and died there in October 1886."The Removal of Chief Justice Chase's Body." The Washington Post. October 13, 1886. Rear Admiral John Lee Davis also lived and died there."Admiral Davis Dead." The Washington Post. March 13, 1889. William Howard Taft lived there from 1890 to 1892 when he was United States Solicitor General.