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27

There were some other hotels, however, that figured in the action. One was [[underlined]] Wardman Park [[/underlined]], which was a famous old place in a park and residential area a mile or so from downtown. I believe Frank and I may have stayed there once or twice when the Carlton was full and I lived there for two months or so in the fall. It was a big, sprawling, red-brick,something like an oversize Southern Seminary and set in big grounds with much grass and trees. Also it was a residential kind of a place where small apartments could be rented. Vice President Wallace lived there. Ed Harley and Vic Rennix, of whom you will soon read more, had an apartment there. It had all the necessary facilities for eating, drinking and making merry. There was a dimly-lighted bar as well as a dancing-and-drinking pavilion called the Metronome Room which stayed open until the early hours of the morning. During the last half of 1942, I became involved in several affairs at the Wardman that are discussed at length in my diary and each one of which might be used as the central incident of a short story. Another very famous hotel was the [[underlined]] Willard [[/underlined]], which was downtown, old and well-regarded. Occasionally I'd stop in at the Willard late in the afternoon en route to the station to catch the train home and have a couple of Scotches to pass a little time. The cocktail lounge was a good place to watch a fairly high-grade slice of Washington pass in review as well as imbibe and sometimes I'd run into a friend en route to Erie also. This was the place I discovered that Frank Pritchard, our ace AC traction-motor designer, enjoyed a drink; in fact, he enjoyed a drink so much that he became an alcoholic eventually as I remember the tragic story. Across the garden from the Carlton was the [[underlined]] Lafayette [[/underlined]], an aging hotel where we'd stay sometimes when the Carlton was full. I recall two things particularly about the Lafayette: there was an ancient odor of mildew there which hit you when you entered the lobby, and their mushroom omelettes were absolutely superb, so much so that sometimes I'd drop in there for breakfast just to get one instead of dining in the elegant Carlton main dining room. When we moved from the Railroad Retirement Bldg. to the apartment house at 22nd & Virginia on August 4th, the Dodge Hotel became too distant for lunching but we found some substitutes. One was the [[underlined]] Allies Inn [[/underlined]], a beautifully-appointed cafeteria, replete with greenery inside and out, and serving excellent food. In fact, it was somewhat on the way from the Carlton to the office, so we began stopping there for breakfast en route to work. At Tempo E and Railroad Retirement, we'd shunned the House cafeteria although it was nearby because it was, surprisingly, a ratty old dump with no appeal. However, Harold Ickes' [[underlined]] Interior Dept. [[/underlined]] was near 22nd & Virginia and we discovered that its cafeteria was a beauty so we also patronized it occasionally. At these government-operated cafeterias the food was often excellent and the prices were decidedly lower than those in comparable commercially-run establishments.