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Born to be much more than a hotel.

HILL TOP HOUSE will engage, respect, restore, connect, enjoy and even create history.

HILL TOP HOUSE will be a unique, luxurious place, emotionally and purposefully set in 1888 by its founder, Thomas Lovett, atop a spectacular world-changing landmark, hallowed by blood and tears and bravery and hope… but also stained by treachery and man’s inhumanity to his brother.

HILL TOP HOUSE will be a transformative retreat, iteratively connected to the halls of power of the most important city in the world, and to all that city connects.

The HILL TOP HOUSE redevelopment project will be a sustainably commercial, double-bottom-line enterprise, a public-private partnership and a sacred trust.

SWaN & Legend Venture Partners (“SWaN”) invests in companies that are building engaging brands worthy of consumers’ passions in the fields of retail products and services; technology-enabled commerce and education; food, wellness and hospitality; and sports and entertainment.

Slide to reveal proposed plans.
Slide to reveal proposed plans.

Award-Winning Development Team

An Iconic Property Bridging Three Centuries

1888

First Hill Top House Hotel.

1914

Rebuilt after 1912 fire.

1919

Remains subsequent to 1919 fire.

1920

Rebuilt after 1919 fire.

TODAY

Current state.

PROPOSED

Inspired by 1914 design. Disassembling and reusing remains from 1919.

The Main Hotel Building was burned down, rebuilt, burned down again, partially rebuilt and has fallen into disrepair. The current state of the building and the inadequate foundation require it to be completely rebuilt from the foundation up. The proposed Gensler design is based upon a dog-eared postcard showing the hotel, originally designed by Ernest C. S. Holmboe and Robert C. Lafferty, as rebuilt after its first fire in 1912. We believe this incarnation of the hotel’s Vernacular Shingle Style, as popularized by McKim, Mead & White, represents the grandest period of its physical history in that the second rebuilt structure did not include the full top floor.

Subject to hazardous materials remediation, the exposed portions of the octagonal turret and the southern and eastern walls of the building, which survived the 1919 fire intact, will be disassembled and reused in approximately the same building locations to create the same iconic appearance. Stones from nearby quarries, which match as closely as possible, will also be used in the reconstruction with stone masonry modeled after the original style.

In addition to the main hotel building, some highlights of the campus will include:

  • six renovated historic Armory Houses that will be used as living history hotel suites, the José Andrés Cooking School and an art/photography school;
  • the historical hotel Lodge building which will be rebuilt and repurposed with hotel rooms, as well as entertainment, discovery and learning spaces; and
  • Yorks 8 Islands Outfitters, a functional sports and adventure activities outfitter celebrating Lewis & Clark’s bold Corps of Discovery, but named in memory of William Clark’s slave, York (1770 – c. 1832).
"And yet – up at Hill Top House, or up on Jefferson’s Rock, there are lookouts; There are the long curves of the meeting of the Potomac and the Shenandoah; There is the running water home of living fish and silver of the sun."
"And yet – up at Hill Top House, or up on Jefferson’s Rock, there are lookouts; There are the long curves of the meeting of the Potomac and the Shenandoah; There is the running water home of living fish and silver of the sun."

CARL SANDBURG, 1928

CARL SANDBURG, 1928