benjamin taylow the son of john taylow, realized that to keep pace with what was going on in other cities in the u.s. and to bring the accommodations and the luxuries and modernization that was going on in the hotel business to washington, he needed to bring somebody into washington to run the hotel. marie: between the years of 1818 and 1847, there were several -- many different managers. eight attached a new name to the -- and each attached a new name to the hotel. in 1847, henry willard became the manager. from that time forward, the willard family played an important and prominent role for the next 100 years. let's talk about henry willard . henry willard came from vermont and was a very energetic businessman. he and his brother joseph were on the steamship niagara that ran from troy, new york to new york city on the hudson steamship line. he made it his practice to provide the best service to anybody on the ship. the fiancee of benjamin taylow met henry on one of those trips to new york. she was impressed with his service to everybody and when her fiance mentioned they needed a manage