f you want a history lesson that comes with room service, check into some of America’s most venerable hotels. While not one of these patriotic properties boasts that George Washington slept here, they are still packed with plenty of all-American lore. 

During the Cold War, for example, The Greenbrier in West Virginia built a secret bunker as an emergency shelter for Congress. When Julia Ward Howe sat down to write the rousing “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” she did so at the Willard in Washington, D.C. And in 1923, President Warren Harding checked out for good—from apparent heart failure—at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel.

In honor of America’s 244th birthday, the editors at Forbes Travel Guide have rounded up a selection of historic U.S. hotels that boast awe-inspiring architecture, celebrity clientele and of course storied pasts.

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