Then and Now: The Dunbar Hotel

Then (left): The Dunbar Hotel on 15th Street between U and V. Pictured here ca. 1950, it was originally completed in 1902 as the Portner Flats. The Portner family sold the apartment building in 1945, and it reopened as the Dunbar Hotel, Washington’s leading elite black hotel. The Dunbar declined after the City’s other hotels integrated, and the building was razed in 1974. Image from the Smithsonian Institution.

Now (right): The Campbell Heights apartment complex for senior citizens was built on the site in 1978. The complex comprises a seven-story high-rise and low-rise garden apartments.