The Notorious And Scandalous Watergate Hotel Gets A Fab Facelift

Life Magazine did a who's who feature, dropping names of those who lived in the Watergate, and this was before the infamous break-in during the Nixon administration. Regulars and residents included Betsy and Alfred Bloomingdale and Leonore and Walter Annenberg. Mrs. Reagan was a regular at the Watergate Hotel's Restaurant Jean Louis, and the Reagans celebrated Christmas Eve with USIA Director Charlie Wick and his wife Jane in their Watergate apartment.

"No need to break in."

Euro Capital Properties senior vice president Rakel Cohen explains that the Watergate Hotel has a legendary past and hopes to write new chapters in the future.

"It was a playground for powerful people, for artists, for movie stars. It was a glamorous environment."

And the Watergate Hotel customer service phone number? It will end in the digits 1972. The Watergate Hotel is looking at a time once again when people will come to see and be seen.

"In Washington, the art scene is here. The food scene is here. The fashion scene is getting here, but the hotel scene took a chop. There isn't a lifestyle hotel here that's also luxurious."

Although Cohen says she wants the new Watergate Hotel to feel more Camelot that Nixonian, there will be one exception to that theme. In the powder rooms, tapes of the Nixon era recordings will be played now and then to the amusement of lobby and lounge guests.

The neutral colors, lush leathers, and combined modern and retro feel will greet guests to the 10-acre property that is now open for reservations.

[Photo by Chip Somodevilia/Getty Images]