English: Initially built in 1902-1904, this Renaissance Revival-style seven-story hotel, long considered one of the finest hotels in the United States, was designed by Louise Bethune, an early female architect of the firm Bethune, Bethune and Fuchs, and was subsequently expanded under the direction of the original firm in 1906-1912, and then expanded further and renovated under the direction of Esenwein and Johnson in 1916-1917 and 1924-26. The site previously contained several buildings, most notably being the small brick Greek Revival-style Eglise Francaise St. Pierre, or the French Church, which had stood on the site since 1844, and was demolished in 1900. The hotel was previously intended be designed by Henry Ives Cobb, was to be nine stories tall, and was intended to be open for guests during the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, but the investors pulled out before the hotel could be completed, leaving part of the foundation and an excavated plot of dirt for about a year, until a new group of investors took on the project. The initial section of the hotel was just the western half of the present building, which is the end closest to Lafayette Square, for which the hotel was named. The section added between 1906 and 1912 contained hotel rooms with private bathrooms, a feature absent from the original section of the hotel, prompting renovations under the direction of the more experienced firm Esenwein and Johnson, whom had previously been commissioned to add a semi-circular canopy over the main entrance. The addition of bathrooms and replacement of communal bathing facilities with hotel rooms was carried out in a manner coordinated and organized to ensure that hotel operations could continue without interruption. A ballroom was added to the south side of the hotel’s 1912 addition under the direction of Esenwein and Johnson in 1916-1917, which extended the hotel to an adjacent alleyway, and the firm designed another addition that was built on the south side of the original building in 1924, adding additional hotel service space, guest rooms, and a billiard room that later became a bar, which stood seven stories high above the street, but was only two stories tall to the east, so as to not block the hotel’s south-facing light courts. Further renovations were carried out to the hotel from 1924-1926. A notable event occurred in 1919, when an organization known as Quota International, an international women’s service organization was founded at the hotel. Quota International operated until 2020, when declining membership led to the dissolution of the organization. The building’s elevators were replaced in 1928-1929, with the new shafts filling in the south ends of the easternmost and westernmost light wells, the lobby was renovated in the Art Moderne style in 1942, and the hotel’s main dining room was renovated in 1946. In 1952, all the guest room windows were replaced, in 1953, a 318-foot-tall antenna was installed atop the roof of the 1912 eastern wing of the building to house telecommunications equipment, and in 1956, the iron canopies over the entrances were removed, and replaced with new, more modern canopies. The hotel was sold by the original proprietors, the Yates family, to the Carter hotel chain in 1962, and in 1970, the interior was renovated with the installation of drop ceilings in the common areas, before the hotel was sold, again, in 1978. The hotel features a tripartite composition of the facade with a rectangular footprint, minus a chamfered corner at the most prominent end of the building facing Lafayette Square. The building features two interior light courts in the 1904 wing and 1912 wing, which allow access to light and air from the rooms on the north side of the building. Most of the building’s windows are one-over-one double-hung windows, varying in size, with smaller windows on the original building originally being on the exterior of bathrooms, with fixed windows at the base and in the oriel at the primary corner of the building. The hotel features a terra cotta-clad first floor with a stone base, featuring arched bays with cartouches above the centers on the 1904 and 1912 buildings, with tripartite windows with transoms in most bays and recessed entry doors with arched transoms in one bay along Clinton Street, and one bay along Washington Street, with the bay at the chamfered corner of the building being unique and featuring decorative trim, a cartouche above the transom, and being the only bay that is rectangular in shape. The terra cotta cladding extends the sill line of the second story windows, where a band of decorative patterned belt coursing runs along the top of the cladding, with the terra cotta continuing for an additional course on most of the second floor, except at the corner window bays, where the terra cotta cladding extends to the roof as continuous decorative trim around the windows, including at the original northeast corner of the building prior to the 1912 addition, which is now in the middle of the north facade. The terra cotta cladding also continues all the way to the roof at the chamfered corner of the building, covering the entire face of this portion of the building. The second floor features red brick cladding, larger windows than the floors above, with decorative terra cotta trim around the windows, decorative cast iron railings at the base of the larger windows, pediments containing decorative reliefs with cartouches above most of larger windows, except those at the corners, a band of terra cotta belt coursing running continuously above the top of the second story windows, and a terra cotta balcony at the chamfered corner of the building, which features decorative carved patterns on the face of the balcony and the brackets below, a cast iron railing, and a door to the balcony with sidelights and a tripartite transom, with a decorative terra cotta surround. Between the third and sixth floors, the building is simpler, with most of the facade being clad in red brick with windows featuring keystones and sills, with the windows at the corners of the building featuring more extensive and ornate trim surrounds, quoins at the corners of the building, terra cotta juliet balconies with cast iron railings at the central window bays of the facades, and, at the chamfered corner of the building, a four-story oriel window with rounded edges, an arched top, and cartouches arranged around the top of the oriel window on the sixth floor. The seventh floor features a band of terra cotta belt coursing at the sill line of the windows, with alternating courses of terra cotta and red brick, terra cotta trim surrounding the larger windows, cartouches flanking the central window bays, and reliefs between the paired windows at the corners of the building. The top of the building features a parapet with a cornice featuring brackets and dentils, and a band of trim at the top, with an antenna and a sign with the words “Hotel Lafayette” at the east and west ends of the building, respectively. The 1916-1917 ballroom addition has a simpler version of the design of the earlier sections of the hotel, with quoins at the edges of the main facade, a large window flanked by terra cotta quoins with a pediment featuring brackets with wreaths and a cartouche above, and a base with a service dock, pilasters, and stone cladding. The 1924 addition, similar to the 1916-1917 addition, features red brick and terra cotta trim, with quoins on the second floor and seventh floor, a terra cotta base with a storefront, terra cotta sills and decorative lintels, and a cornice with dentils and cartouches at the top. The sides of the building are clad in red brick, and largely devoid of detail, and the building is capped with a low-slope roof...