This classic hotel takes its name from earlier residents of its site: John Hay, private assistant to President Abraham Lincoln and later Secretary of State, and Henry Adams, an acclaimed author and descendant of U.S. Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

In 1884, Hay and Adams bought adjoining lots at 16th and H Streets and renowned architect Henry Hobson Richardson, already well known for designing elaborate Romanesque homes, took charge of creating what would become Washington's leading salon. The far-ranging discussions of politics, literature, science and art attracted the era's  leading artists, writers and politicians, including Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, Henry James and sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

Hay died in 1905.  When Clara died in 1914, ownership of his house passed to daughter Alice Wadsworth and her husband, Sen. James Wadsworth. After Adams's 1918 death, the Wadsworths bought the Adams house, which they leased to the Brazilian Embassy.

Premier Washington developer Harry Wardman bought and razed both homes in 1927. In their place, he constructed a 138-room Italian Renaissance-style apartment-hotel designed by architect Mirhan Mesrobian, costing $900,000. It featured a dazzling array of architectural elements, including Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders, walnut wainscoting and intricate ceiling treatments with Tudor, Elizabethan and Italian motifs. Wood paneling from the Hay residence found a new home in the grand public space now known as the John Hay Room.

The Hay-Adams House opened in 1928 and quickly attracted prominent Washingtonians and elite travelers, including Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Sinclair Lewis and Ethel Barrymore. Guests were drawn to the hotel by its unparalleled views of the White House, Lafayette Square and St. John's Church, as well as such amenities as large suites, kitchens, steam heat, an elevator, circulating ice water, marble baths and, as of 1930, Washington's first air-conditioned dining room. The Hay-Adams has maintained its reputation in the ensuing decades.

The Hay-Adams is currently under the management of The Hay-Adams Management Company  LLC.