“You adopt the universal habit of the place and call for a mint-julep, a whiskey-skin, a gin-cocktail...for the conviviality of Washington sets in at an early hour,” wrote Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1862
In the 1920s this was known as the 12th Street Y, home to Langston Hughes. Zora Neale Hurston met Hughes while he was living here in DC. They would later become close friends and collaborators.
