The Willard Hotel was formally founded by Henry Willard when he leased the six building rooming houses in 1847, combined them into a single structure, and enlarged it into a four-story hotel he renamed the Willard Hotel. The present 12-story structure, designed by famed hotel architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, opened in 1901. It suffered a major fire in 1922 which caused $250,000 ($3,522,366 as of 2015), in damages.