The Washington Hilton, located on the former site of the
Oak Lawn estate, was designed by architect
William B. Tabler and developed by
Uris Buildings Corporation. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on June 25, 1962 and the hotel officially opened three years later, on March 25, 1965. Numerous large events have been regularly hosted at the Hilton Washington, including the annual dinners of the
White House Correspondents' Association and the
Radio and Television Correspondents' Association, Washington Mardi Gras, as well as the
National Prayer Breakfast. During the 1960s and 1970s, the hotel hosted a number of big musical acts for concerts in their large ballroom, including
The Doors and
Jimi Hendrix. In 1972 it was home to the first
International Conference on Computer Communicationsm, which demonstrated new
ARPANET technology. The hotel was the site of the
assassination attempt on
President Ronald Reagan by
John Hinckley Jr. on March 30, 1981. The attempt occurred at the hotel's T Street NW exit. As a result, the hotel is sometimes colloquially called the
Hinckley Hilton by locals. The hotel was renamed the
Hilton Washington in 1998. It was purchased in June 2007 by an investment firm involving former professional
basketball star
Magic Johnson and
Lowe Enterprises. From 2009 to 2010 it underwent a $150 million renovation. When that was completed, the hotel returned to its original name.
On April 25, 2026, President
Donald Trump was evacuated from the
White House Correspondents' Dinner after gunshots were heard in the ballroom. ==References==