The Ritz it wasn’t, but for nearly fifty years the Ambassador had something no other Washington hotel could offer: an almost Olympic-size indoor swimming pool. It attracted the likes of Jack Kennedy, who sometimes swam there in his Senate days, and Florence Chadwick, who trained there for her record-breaking swims across the English Channel.
The seven apartment buildings along the 1400 block of R Street, N.W., are 75 years old now, but for those in the know, they’re still good for a laugh or two. Beginning at 1416 R Street and heading westward to 1440, the four-story brick buildings are named Walton, Arden, Ripley, Dudley, Marcella, Ashton, and Newlon.