Editing Watergate complex (section)

===Watergate East===
The Watergate East apartment building is probably the second-best known of the five buildings in the development. It became the most sought-after living location in the city when it opened in 1966.<ref name="MacPhersonStatus" />

Problems with the building's construction became apparent shortly after its occupancy. The roof was leaking by 1968.<ref name="Blackmail">{{cite news |last=Bernstein |first=Carl |title='Blackmail' Charged at Watergate |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=October 31, 1968}}</ref> In October 1968, ''[[The Washington Post]]'' published reports that SGI refused to fix the leaks unless residents dropped their opposition to the construction of the complex's fifth building.<ref name="Blackmail" /> By 1970, problems at Watergate East led the press to dub the building the "Potomac Titanic",<ref name="Titanic" /> and its residents filed suit against the developer in 1971 to correct the structure's problems.<ref name="InPlace">{{cite news |title=Problems of Watergate, 'In' Place of the Capital, Anger Residents |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 12, 1972}}</ref> Another lawsuit, filed in February 1970, sought exclusive access to the underground parking garage the cooperative claimed as its own, and demanded that the developer stop selling spaces in the residents' parking area.<ref name="InPlace" /> SGI filed a $4 million counterclaim alleging "malicious embarrassment" and five years later paid residents $600,000 to settle the cases.<ref name="Livingston" />

The Watergate East was also the site of a major protest in 1970. In the weeks before the jury verdict in the Chicago, Illinois, trial of the [[Chicago Seven]], political activists began planning and then advertising that a protest would occur at the home of [[United States Attorney General]] John N. Mitchell (who lived in the Watergate East).<ref name="Bar">"Police Bar March on Mitchell Home." ''The New York Times.'' February 20, 1970.</ref> As expected, the verdict was handed down on February 18, 1970 (all the defendants were found not guilty of conspiracy but five were found guilty of incitement to riot<ref>{{cite book |last=Schultz |first=John |title=The Chicago Conspiracy Trial |edition=Revised |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |year=2009 |location=Chicago |url = http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?isbn=9780226741147 |isbn=978-0-226-74114-7}}</ref>). That night, more than 200 people rallied at D.C.'s [[All Souls Church, Unitarian (Washington, D.C.)|All Souls Unitarian Church]] to prepare for the mass protest demonstration the next day.<ref>{{cite news |last=Valentine |first=Paul |title='Chicago 8' Supporters Prepare Protests Here |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=February 19, 1970}}</ref> On February 19, several hundred protestors gathered in front of the Watergate East and attempted to enter the building.<ref name="Bar" /><ref name="Arrested">{{cite news |title=145 Arrested In March on Watergate |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=February 20, 1970}}</ref> Several hundred police, bused in to prevent the demonstration, engaged in street fighting with protestors, forced them to retreat, and eventually launched several tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd.<ref name="Bar" /> More than 145 protesters were arrested.<ref name="Arrested" /> Although a second protest was expected the following day, it never emerged and police spent the day drinking coffee and eating cookies and pastries baked at the Watergate East's pastry shop.<ref name="Livingston" /><ref>{{cite news |last=MacPherson |first=Myra |title=Security 'Wonderful' For Watergate Area |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=February 20, 1970}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Colen |first=B.D. |title=Watergate Residents Happy |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=February 21, 1970}}</ref>

The Watergate East tenants' cooperative refinanced its mortgage some time after 2000, and bought the land beneath its building.<ref name="Wheeler" />