John Brown

The stepson of Jesse Brown, the well known and popular proprietor of the Indian Queen Hotel for the 26 years. Jesse Brown, a native of Havre de Grace, Maryland, arrived in Washington in 1820 did the hotel on this corner gain national prominence. Having managed a hotel in Hagerstown, Maryland, Brown had gained additional experience by 1817 when he took over the City Hotel (Gadsby's Tavern) in Alexandria. Brown remodeled and enlarged the old Davis Hotel on the northwest corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 6th Street, NW, in 1820, raising it to four stories and extending a wing through the rear of the block to C Street. He reopened it in 1821 as the Indian Queen Hotel (not to be confused with hotels of the same name in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Wilmington, Delaware). Travelers could easily identify the hostelry by a long swinging sign of Pocahontas in bright colors above the entrance.