In May, I was the subject of a short local film about Pets and the Afterlife and how they communicate from the other side, based on my 3 Amazon best-selling books of the same name (Pets and the Afterlife). We filmed at Pet Cemetery in Elkridge, Maryland that was filled with interesting markers and tributes. This is part three about a special cat from an old Washington, DC Hotel that I didn't know existed, so I did some digging. In today's blog, you'll learn a bit about Mose, and what happened to that mystery hotel!
"OUR SWEETHEART MOSE" THE CAT- I came across one memorial that obviously has a story behind it. This plaque had the engraved face of a cat who lived from 1936 to 1948 at the Dodge Hotel in Washington, D.C. I was intrigued to find out where Mose lived his life, and uncovered information about a Washington, DC hotel I never knew existed.
WHERE WAS THE DODGE HOTEL? The hotel doesn't exist by that name anymore in 2021. According to GG Washington.org, "A site at North Capitol and E Streets, NW was chosen, and under the leadership of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the new chair of the YWCA Board, the hotel was constructed."
"The end of the road came for the Dodge Hotel in 1972, when new owners decided to raze it to make room for a more profitable office building. In addition to $1,000 chandeliers, the going-out-of-business sale for the hotel featured a set of hand-carved doors said to have been installed by Robert F. Kennedy when a Kennedy-For-President office was located at the Dodge.
The large 400 North Capitol Plaza office complex, still standing today, was subsequently constructed on the sites of the Dodge Hotel and the Hotel Continental, which had occupied the adjacent lot on North Capitol Street and was also torn down in 1972."
(Image: Old post card, pre-1972, of the Dodge Hotel. Cr: E.L. Crandall)
WHO FOUNDED THE GRACE DODGE HOTEL? GG Washington reported Grace Hoadley Dodge (1856-1914) was born into a wealthy and venerable New York family. She was the granddaughter of William Earle Dodge (1805-1883), co-founder of the Phelps Dodge Mining Corporation, noted advocate for Native American rights, and one of the early supporters of the Young Men’s Christian Association in the US. In 1906 she became the first president of the National Board of Young Women’s Christian Associations, whose budget deficits she would regularly make up with her personal funds. At her death in 1914, she left $500,000 to the board.
WHO APPROVED THE HOTEL? The YWCA had joined with 6 other charitable organizations to form the War Work Council to provide assistance to workers, including housing. Among other projects, the council provided funds to the YWCA for construction of a hotel for women in Washington. The 8-story, 376-room hotel was completed and opened in October 1921.
ENTER MOSE - Since Mose's memorial says he was born in 1936, he would've made his entrance to the hotel 15 years after it opened. The only article I could find noted that Mary Lindlsey was the manager until 1936. So, after she left, Mose the cat made his entrance.
WHO DESIGNED IT? New York architect Duncan Candler (1873-1949), designed the Grace Dodge hotel and it was stately and elegant but restrained in décor. It was finished in tan brick with limestone trim and featured an enormous three-story tall entrance-way with a neoclassical pediment broken by third-story windows.
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