At the Landmark It Once Saved, CarrAmerica Marks America's 250th Birthday

The Willard Center - restored 40 years ago after standing vacant for over a decade - hangs a birthday banner for the nation on Pennsylvania Avenue, steps from the White House

WASHINGTON, July 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- On one of the most storied blocks in America, a banner reading "Happy Birthday USA" now hangs above the entrance to The Willard Center at 1455 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, marking the United States' 250th anniversary in the same building where Abraham Lincoln lived before his inauguration and where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. put the final touches on his "I Have a Dream" speech.

The installation, unveiled by CarrAmerica, arrives during the nation's Semiquincentennial year - 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence - and coincides with a quieter, more personal anniversary: 2026 marks 40 years since the historic Willard building reopened its doors in 1986, rescued from a decade of vacancy and threatened demolition by the Oliver T. Carr Company, the Washington real estate firm that later became CarrAmerica.

The Willard's place in American history runs deep. President-elect Lincoln took up residence there for ten days before his 1861 inauguration. That same year, the building hosted the Peace Convention, a last attempt by 131 delegates to avert the Civil War. In 1963, Dr. King stayed at the hotel while finalizing the speech he would deliver hours later at the Lincoln Memorial - a room now designated in his honor. By 1968, following the riots that swept Washington after Dr. King's assassination, the Willard had closed its doors, sitting boarded up and empty for more than a decade.

It was Oliver T. Carr Jr. who, in the early 1980s, took on the building's restoration - a project many in Washington real estate considered too risky. After years of financing and construction challenges, the Willard reopened in August 1986. Today, that history remains a defining chapter for CarrAmerica - a living reminder of the company's decades-long roots in Washington, D.C. real estate, and of one of the city's most storied addresses.

"This banner is a small gesture, but it points to something much bigger. Forty years ago, this building was empty and slated for demolition. Today it's one of the most historic working addresses in Washington, and we're proud that our company still calls it home during the year our country turns 250." -  Wish Carr, CEO of CarrAmerica

The banner will remain in place through the Independence Day holiday, with CarrAmerica planning additional programming tied to the Willard's history and the ongoing DC250 Semiquincentennial celebrations throughout the remainder of 2026.

ABOUT CARRAMERICA
Since 1966, the Oliver Carr Company - now CarrAmerica - has developed more than 11 million square feet of office, retail, residential, and hotel properties across Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia, including the restoration of the historic Willard Center on Pennsylvania Avenue. CarrAmerica continues to develop mixed-use properties nationally across the United States.

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SOURCE CarrAmerica