Riggs Washington DC - Lore Group

The Walter E. Washington Convention Center, an extraordinary 2.3 million-square-foot conventions and meetings facility, is equipped to handle events of all sizes, from small groups and break-out meetings to events for 500 to 42,000 attendees. One of the most energy-efficient buildings for its size, the Convention Center includes a range of mixed-use exhibit spaces, 198,000 square feet of flexible meeting space with a total of 77 break-out rooms and the largest ballroom in the region. Whatever the size of the event, the service of the Convention Center staff is unparalleled.

Union Station DC is a superbly restored, historic, mixed-use, intermodal transportation and shopping center located just blocks from the U.S. capitol Building. Union Station DC is one of the most iconic destinations in Washington, D.C. Union Station DC is equipped with 3 levels of shopping and dining, a 4-level parking garage, one of the most breathtaking historical spaces in the country.

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is, along with Washington Dulles International Airport, part of a two-airport system that provides domestic and international air service for the Washington DC metropolitan and surrounding regions. Both Airports have been managed by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) since 1987 when they were transferred by Congress to the Authority under a long-term lease authorized by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Act of 1986, Title VI of Public Law 99-50.

Ford’s Theatre celebrates the legacy of President Abraham Lincoln and explores the American experience through theatre and education. During the Civil War, Ford’s Theatre was one of Washington’s top entertainment venues, giving Washingtonians a much-needed break from the realities of war. President Lincoln, who loved theatre, opera and Shakespeare, visited Ford’s Theatre on at least 10 formal occasions. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln and his wife decided to visit the theatre to see the comedy Our American Cousin. John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, snuck into the President’s Box and shot Lincoln with a single-shot Deringer pistol. Booth fled into the night, and Lincoln died the next morning in the Petersen House, a boarding house located just across the street from the theatre.

Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) is located in Chantilly, Virginia, on 12,000 acres of land in the suburbs of downtown Washington, DC. The Main Terminal opened in 1962 and was designed by architect Eero Saarinen. Dulles is a major hub for domestic and international air travel with a mixture of legacy and low fare carriers that provide air service throughout the world. Flights operate from midfield concourses A, B, C and D and from Z-gates connected to the Main Terminal. The Airport has invested in its infrastructure through a major capital program, which included two parking garages, a new airport traffic control tower, expanded B-gates, a new fourth runway, an AeroTrain people mover system and an expanded International Arrivals Building. The airport is connected to the region’s highway system via an Authority-operated, 16-mile Airport Access Highway dedicated to airport users. A 23-mile expansion of the region's Metrorail system that includes a station at Dulles is under construction. Dulles has significant capacity for future growth. With minor expansion, the current facilities could accommodate 45 million annual passengers (22.5 million enplanements). With all future facilities in the master plan constructed, the airport could accommodate 70 million annual passengers (35 million enplanements) operating out of 250 airline gates. The current four-runway configuration has a capacity of up to 600,000 aircraft operations per year. With a future fifth runway constructed, the airfield capacity could increase to 1 million aircraft operations per year.

The Warner's special place in the history of Washington began in the 1920s when dozens of grand theaters and movie houses lit up downtown. Built first for vaudeville and silent movies, the Theatre was opened as the Earle Theatre in 1924. It was complemented by a rooftop garden that attracted thousands of visitors per night. The basement was also famous, first as a restaurant and ballroom, and in the 1930s as the Neptune Room. The Earle featured its own precision dance troupe-much like the still-famous Rockettes-called the Roxyettes. They kept the traditions of vaudeville alive at the Earle until 1945, performing before and after feature films and with guest performers such as Red Skelton and Jerry Lewis. The Earle switched to a movies-only policy in 1945 and in 1947, owner Harry Warner, one of the Hollywood's Warner Brothers, visited Washington and told his tour guide Julian Brylawski (one of the original builders) that since he owned the theatre, his name should be on the marquee. Thus the Earle Theatre became the Warner Theatre. Adapting to new entertainment trends in the 1950s, the auditorium was redesigned for Cinerama movies. The screen stayed lit into the 1960s featuring such memorable runs as Ben Hur, Dr. Zhivago, and Hello, Dolly! As with much of downtown Washington in the early 1970s, the Theatre fell into disrepair and disrepute, even functioning briefly as a pornographic movie theater. By the mid-1970s, the Theatre blossomed anew, mainly as a destination for concerts. The Rolling Stones performed a surprise small-venue show here in 1978. In 1989 the wonderful mix of 1980s concerts in the genres of soul, jazz, punk, world music, heavy metal, and funk, as well as many touring and local plays finally took its toll on the 65-year-old building. The Theatre closed for three years to undergo extensive renovations and enhancements under the eye of real estate developer The Kaempfer Company. The "new" Warner-opened in 1992 with a gala featuring Frank Sinatra (in his final D.C. appearance) and Shirley MacLaine-became once again a destination, not only for revitalized downtown Washington, but also for national and international recording artists and the finest in theatrical, dance, and television presentations.

WI Marshall Airport is located just 9 miles south of downtown Baltimore and 32 miles northeast of Washington, D.C. It is the busiest airport in the region, serving over 25 million passengers. The airport is named after Thurgood Marshall, a Baltimore native who became the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States.

For almost 200 years, Washington’s historic National Theatre has occupied a prominent position on Pennsylvania Avenue – “America’s Main Street.” Located a stone’s throw from the White House and bordering the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site, The National Theatre is the historic cultural center for the performing arts in our nation’s capital and the oldest enterprise on Pennsylvania Avenue continuously operating in its original designated capacity.