You Can Bank on This New Washington, D.C. Hotel
Riggs Washington D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Stately style, $$
Money and politics: strange bedfellows or co-dependent besties? Both, of course. Which could also sum up the relationship between New York City and Washington, D.C. Although New York may hog the spotlight as the financial center of the United States, the capital city has its own claim to a hometown bank: Riggs National. Riggs, as it came to be known, began its life as a brokerage house in 1836 and, during the centuries of mergers and expansion and deals that followed, maintained the accounts of the political elite (23 presidents from Lincoln and Grant to Eisenhower and Nixon, and feminist icons Clara Barton and Susan B. Anthony) and gave the U.S. government the funds to fight the Mexican-American War and the gold to buy, oh, Alaska. In the early 21st century, money launderings scandals brought that illustrious to a pretty ignoble close, as the bank was absorbed into PNC Financial Services.
But the noble Riggs National Bank headquarters has been revived as a much more welcoming and egalitarian institution: Riggs Washington D.C. Hotel. The first U.S. project by Lore Group, the hospitality company behind Pulitzer Amsterdam and Sea Containers London, is beautiful and whimsical, an appropriate new life for the 1891 Romanesque Revival building with a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. (So nice we named it one of the World's Best New Hotels for 2020.) Lore preserved original design elements like coffered ceilings, brass detailing, and Corinthian columns and sourced heirlooms like old Riggs bank checks on eBay. The Guest rooms wink at the bank's history, with the mini bar and safe nestled in what looks like a vintage safes, and its political side, with four suites inspired by First Ladies. Café Riggs on the ground floor is styled like a grand European brasserie; the basement is home to the the gym and the cocktail lounge Silver Lyan, which also has a secret room in the old bank vault. If the mood is transparent rather than clandestine (the scene goes both ways in D.C.), then cocktails with a view on the sofas at the expansive Rooftop at Riggs should fit the bill nicely.
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