Harry Wardman

He later moved to Philadelphia, where he worked at the Wanamaker's department store and met his wife, Mary Hudson.

Wardman built many of the city's rowhouses, especially in the neighborhoods of Columbia Heights, Bloomingdale, Eckington and Fort Stevens Ridge.

Some of his design ideas were copied by the dozens of other developers — Lewis Brueninger, Harry Kite, Francis Blundon, David Dunigan, and others — who built massive rows of townhouses in the District.

Wardman's success at rowhouses allowed him to move up to building luxury apartment buildings, mostly designed by architect Albert H. Beers and Frank Russell White, and located along 16th Street, NW, Connecticut Avenue, Columbia Heights, and elsewhere.

The hotel was successful, meeting the strong demand of an influx of government workers after World War I.

In 1926 he built The Carlton Hotel, designed by Armenian-American architect Mihran Mesrobian and today known as The St. Regis Washington, D.C.

In 1928, Wardman built the Hay-Adams Hotel, also designed by Mesrobian and located across from Lafayette Park.