Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 244: Hotel History: Wormley Hotel

Stanley Turkel | February 16, 2021

by Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: Wormley Hotel (150 rooms) James Wormley, a pioneering Black nineteenth-century businessman opened the first integrated hotel in Washington, D.C..  He was also known for his business acumen and lobbying efforts to secure adequate funding for the first Washington, D.C. public schools for black Americans. Wormley was born to Pere Leigh and Mary Wormley. Both parents had lived as free people and servants with a wealthy Virginia family prior to moving to Washington, D.C. in 1814. On January 16, 1819, while living in a small, two-room, brick building located on E Street, near Fourteenth Street, nort...