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Photographer: Allen C. Browne
Taken: February 16, 2015
Caption: Samuel Blodget
Additional Description: This c. 1784 portrait of Samuel Blodget by John Trumbull hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

Financier Samuel Blodget convinced the DC commissioners that money could be raised to support public buildings by means of a lottery. Blodget had White House architect James Hoban design and build the Grand Union Public Hotel in 1793 as the $50,000 grand prize in his lottery.

This landmark would have been one of the first hotels in the United States (hitherto, travelers had stayed in taverns or inns), but it was never actually used as a hotel. After much tribulation, the lottery failed when the winner discovered that the hotel he had won was not yet finished. He sued both Blodget and the Commissioners. Blodget went bankrupt, landed in debtor's prison, and died in a Baltimore hospital in April of 1814.
Submitted: April 28, 2017, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Database Locator Identification Number: p381202
File Size: 1.694 Megabytes

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