William Tunnicliff's Washington City Hotel and the Old Brick Capitol

In May of 1799, William Tunnicliff announced that his large and commodious new hotel near the Capitol, the Washington City Hotel (often referred to as just “Tunnicliff’s”), was complete and ready for guests. This building stood on lots on First Street and what was then the 100 block of A Street, NE, now the site of the Supreme Court.  

The three-story Washington City Hotel was built of red brick, with the front on A Street ornamented with molded free stone from the same quarries that supplied the material used for the White House and the older parts of the Capitol.  It also had extensive stabling in the rear to accommodate coaches and teams arriving daily from Baltimore. 

Mathew Brady photo of the old Brick Capitol serving at a school prior to the Civil War. Tunnicliff's Washington City Hotel is to the left of the Brick Capitol, annexed as a wing to the building. National Archives.

During a visit to Washington in the summer of 1800 and before the unfinished White House was inhabitable…