The Barclay Hotel was located at 237 S. 18th St. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Rittenhouse Square.

In 1980, the hotel was the site of the FBI's Abscam sting operation, which exposed corruption in government.

In April 1992, owner Barclay Hotel Associates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The property was subsequently purchased by Princeton, New Jersey developer Peter Marks for $4.3 million in October 1994.

[2] In the 1994 novel The Fermata by Nicholson Baker, the narrator first discovers his ability to "freeze time" while staying at the Barclay Hotel as a child.