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The St. Regis Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., District of Columbia, United States · St. Regis · High Luxury
Harry Wardman opened Mihran Mesrobian's Beaux-Arts Carlton Hotel on 1 October 1926 two blocks north of the White House; Calvin Coolidge attended the debut. Sheraton took it in 1953, a 1987-88 gut renovation cut keys from 250 to 200, and Starwood renamed it The St. Regis Washington, D.C. on 6 April 1999, the first St. Regis outside New York. It contributes to the Sixteenth Street Historic District on the National Register.
- 182 rooms
- Opened 1926
- Neighborhood: Downtown
- Rooms from 350 sq ft (33 m²)
- Architect: Mihran Mesrobian
About The St. Regis Washington, D.C.
- Opened 1 October 1926 as the Carlton Hotel, designed by Mihran Mesrobian for developer Harry Wardman.
- Cordell Hull lived at the Carlton during World War II; Sheraton bought it with the Wardman Park on 27 May 1953.
- A $16 million 1987-88 renovation gutted and enlarged rooms, cutting inventory from about 250 to 200 keys.
- Starwood redesignated it The St. Regis Washington, D.C. on 6 April 1999, the brand's first hotel outside New York.
- Qatar's ARTIC bought the National Register property from Westbrook in July 2015, including an adjacent 22,000-square-foot building.
History
The building at the corner of 16th and K Streets NW was commissioned in the early 1920s by John Hay Whitney and built as the Carlton Hotel, opening in 1926 on one of Washington's most strategic addresses: two blocks north of the White House, equidistant from the State Department and the Executive Office Building, and firmly positioned on the corridor that has served as the spine of Washington's power establishment since Pierre L'Enfant laid out the city in 1791. The original site was federal farmland in L'Enfant's plan, later developed as the city's commercial and institutional core moved north from the Capitol.
The Carlton opened under the patronage of President Calvin Coolidge, who attended the hotel's inaugural events and established the tradition of presidential patronage that has continued without interruption ever since. Every president since Coolidge has visited the property. Ronald Reagan, who had a particular affection for the hotel, kept his personal barber stationed there for years, arriving for haircuts with the discretion that Washington power has always preferred. The hotel's proximity to the White House made it the natural choice for the overflow of official Washington: visiting heads of state, cabinet members conducting sensitive conversations over dinner, foreign ambassadors seeking neutral ground.
The building's Beaux Arts interior — soaring coffered ceilings, marble columns, and gold-leaf detailing in the public rooms — echoes the architecture of the St. Regis New York, a kinship that became official when Starwood Hotels renovated the property and rechristened it The St. Regis Washington, D.C. in 1999, making it the first property outside New York to carry the St. Regis name. Alain Ducasse oversaw the restaurant program at the 1999 relaunch, briefly making the Carlton's dining room one of the most discussed in the capital.
The St. Regis butler tradition operates here as it does at every St. Regis in the world, with the nightly Astor sabrage — the ceremonious opening of a champagne bottle with a saber — performed at the St. Regis Bar, which serves Caroline's Bloody Mary as the hotel's signature take on the cocktail whose American origin traces to the King Cole Bar in New York. The restored Alhambra dining room, beneath the hotel's original coffered ceiling, continues the tradition of grand European-Mediterranean cuisine that the Carlton established nearly a century ago. The hotel's 182 rooms occupy a building that has witnessed more of Washington's history — formal and informal, public and deeply private — than almost any other structure in the city outside the White House itself.
The Beaux-Arts and Neo-Renaissance building, designed by Mihran Mesrobian for developer Harry Wardman and opened in 1926, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; every American president since Calvin Coolidge, who cut the ceremonial ribbon, has visited.
The setting
The St. Regis Washington, D.C. occupies 923 16th Street NW, two blocks north of the White House on the Sixteenth Street Historic District — the direct northern axis from the President's Mansion in L'Enfant's 1791 plan. The Beaux-Arts and Neo-Renaissance building, designed by Mihran Mesrobian for developer Harry Wardman and opened in 1926, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; every American president since Calvin Coolidge, who cut the ceremonial ribbon, has visited. The White House is a six-minute walk, the National Mall nineteen minutes on foot, and Farragut North Metro provides swift connections from this supremely composed address.
Restaurants and bars
- Alhambra — Restaurant · Mediterranean
- St. Regis Bar — Bar
Amenities
- St. Regis Butler Service for all suites
- Daily champagne sabering ceremony at 6pm
- Afternoon Tea
- 2,508 sq ft Astor Ballroom
- 11,388 sq ft total event space
- 24-hour fitness center
- Pet-friendly
Awards
- AAA Four Diamond (2026)
- Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star (2026)
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