IT MAY NO LONGER be “Washington’s Finest Hotel,” but that hardly matters. Its ground floor is still home to Cartier, and after dark the glow of its cream-colored façade still lends a quiet elegance to the block of Connecticut Avenue above L Street. The Mayflower is, without question, the grande dame of the city’s grand hotels. Had it not
Shortly before midday on June 1, 1933, a crisp and pleasant Thursday in Washington, a crowd began to gather around the timeworn steps of a narrow, stone-faced building near the intersection of E Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Soon, an auctioneer’s bell began clanging, and hundreds of restless spectators bumped elbows as they jostled for better vantage points.