Destruction

At 15th and H Streets in Washington, tall hats and striped trousers, glittering foreign orders and the brightest sparkle of cosmopolitan femininity, used to pass under a broad canopy and up red plush steps to the socially top-loftiest functions in the Capital. It was the Shoreham Hotel, a landmark. Vice Presidents lived at the Shoreham. Presidents waiting for the White House to be evacuated or renovated, stopped at the Shoreham. Diplomats dined and champagne bottles popped, even after Prohibition, at the Shoreham. . . . Last week it was announced that rough workmen would attack the Shoreham's ugly but distinguished copings, pull it down to make way for an office building. Washington's proudest hotels these days are the New Willard, the Wardman Park.

And in another part of the city, at decaying Lafayette Square, other laborers fell upon the red brick house that John Hay built to be near his friend Henry Adams, in a golden day of cultured U. S. statesmanship. The Hay and Adams houses (twins) were sold last summer to make way for "Carlton Chambers" apartment (TIME, Sept, 6).