U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and his family will move into the Hay-Adams hotel across the street to the White House this weekend, his aides said Thursday.
It is partly because Obama's daughters, Sasha and Malia, will have to attend their new school in Washington next week, the Obama transition team said in a statement.
The Obamas had hoped to move into the Blair House close to the hotel. U.S. president-elects traditionally occupy the house for five days before moving into the White House.
But the Bush administration said the Blair House, used as a guest house for visiting dignitaries, already had events scheduled there and guests who could not be displaced.
The Obamas will move into the Blair House on Jan. 15 and then move to the White House on Jan. 20 after Obama is inaugurated.
But before Jan. 15, they will have to stay in the Hay-Adams Hotel.
The hotel takes its name from past residents of the site, and one of them had close ties with Obama's favorite president, Abraham Lincoln.
John Hay, a private assistant to Lincoln and later secretary of state, and Henry Adams, an author and descendent of presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, both lived on the site the hotel now occupies.
In 1884, Hay and Adams bought adjoining lots at the corner of 16th and H Streets, and their homes became Washington's leading salons.
The hotel sits across Lafayette Square from the White House. It has 145 guest units, including 21 suites.
(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2009)