The Watergate Hotel puts everything, including the kitchen sink, up for sale in Washington

By JANINE COOPER
Observer Staff
OCT. 4, 2007

Francessa Cox browses through the bright white Lenox dinner plates and the sparkling wine glasses in a room at the Watergate Hotel. After finding a few items, like coffee cups and silverware, Cox is ready to move to another room to search for more hidden treasures.

“I’d love to have a couple of pieces from a place like this because its got history behind it,” said Cox.

Cox is among the thousands of people that are expected to attend the liquidation sale in D.C.’s Watergate Hotel. The hotel became famous in 1972, after the attempted burglary of the Democratic National Committee Headquarters, which later led to the resignation of former president Richard Nixon.

Photos by Janine Cooper. View slideshow at full size (opens in a new window)

Sandra Riley said she came to the sale to find some good bargains. She was disappointed to find that there were no items with the actual Watergate logo but that didn’t stop her from buying end tables and dishes.

“Just to have something from this hotel is special,” said Riley, while her husband “tickled the ivories” on the hotel’s $5850 Baby Grand piano.

Everything in the hotel is for sale, from the television sets to the mattresses on the beds. People bought coffee pots that started for as little as $10, to chandeliers that cost over $425.

There are irons for $8, phones for $5, and for $35 a person can even get a toilet from one of the hotel rooms. Perhaps one of the largest items up for sale is the actual hotel bar that can be purchased for $6500.

Don Hayes, president of National Content Liquidators, said the total worth of all the items in the Watergate is over $700,000. He said that it has been busy every day and he expects it to stay that way until the end of the sale.

Anxious buyers lined up were made to wait, as workers only allowed a certain number of people in at a time for the sale. Once the doors opened, customers went through the hotel, picking up anything that caught their eye.

Lynn Morgan couldn’t resist the sale after hearing about it on the radio.

“Well, I think there’s the lure of getting stuff cheap and then probably just because the name is so familiar. There’s a curiosity factor,” said Morgan.

For people like Francessa Cox, the Watergate is a historical place and she enjoys purchasing items from the hotel.

“I just do it for fun and I just love it. It’s fun to just go shop around.”

The Watergate Hotel’s liquidation sale will continue through the entire month of October, or until everything is sold.