Symbol of scandal, the iconic Watergate Hotel now restored to its historic grandeur

WASHINGTON (ABC7) — This summer will be 45 years since Richard Nixon became the first American president to resign, and the saga began with a break-in at the Watergate Hotel.

The building is a familiar part of the D.C. landscape. And thanks to a risk-taking new owner, this infamous hotel has gone from rundown back to an icon.

With sweeping rooftop views, the owner of the newly renovated Watergate Hotel, Jacques Cohen can see the entire capital city that was defined by his hotel. A hotel that was empty, moldy, and rat infested just five years ago.

"When we purchased the property, it was a shipwreck in the middle of one of the most powerful residential complexes in the country,” says Cohen, the founder of Euro Capital Properties. “Nobody knew what to do with it."

A shipwreck along the Potomac that was a flagship in architectural design when it was built in 1962, the first rounded shape property of that scale in the country.

But Cohen says the critics back then were harsh.

He recalls that one said, “The Watergate complex architecture was as appropriate as a stripper dancing at your grandmother's funeral."

But the real scandal would begin in 1972 in room 214, now known as the Scandal Room, where the break in next door at the Democratic National Convention headquarters was orchestrated.

It's now full of memorabilia like binoculars, a typewriter, tapes, and framed headlines. You'll find quirky nods to the scandal like a pencil that says, "I stole this from the Watergate Hotel." And your room key says, "No need to break in."

The scandal ended up happening here because this was the place to be. This was where the power was coming. The power was in the complex.

Washington Post contributor Sally Quinn was in the middle of all of that power and drama.

“Now everything has ‘-gate’ at the end, any scandal has ‘-gate’ at the end,” she says.

Quinn was a reporter and married to Ben Bradlee, the editor of the Washington Post as it broke the Watergate story.

Asked what her primary emotion is when she walks in the building, Quinn says, “I miss Ben, that's my primary emotion, it was so much a part of our lives.”

Quinn is happy the symbolic structure has new life.

“The word Watergate means something in this country,” she says. “It means something about the morality of this country and the road we were heading down before Nixon resigned.”

Cohen put $200 million into the Watergate renovation, with museum quality touches like giant metal columns made in Italy, and a striking whisky bar. They collaborated with designers from the shows Mad Men and Scandal.

“For me it was more than just another business deal, it was really doing something that would make history and really make a strong statement that would stay for generations,” Cohen says.

“Having this hotel here is just symbolic and people want to come here because it's a story, but it's a story that everyone should be reminded of all the time,” Quinn says.