President's House (Philadelphia) - History

History

The three-and-a-half-story brick mansion on the south side of Market Street was built in 1767 by widow Mary Lawrence Masters. In 1772, she gave it as a wedding gift to her elder daughter, who married Richard Penn, the lieutenant-governor of the Colony and a grandson of William Penn. The Penns and the Masterses moved to England during the early days of the American Revolutionary War.

During the British occupation of Philadelphia, September 1777 to June 1778, the house was headquarters for General Sir William Howe. Following the British evacuation, it housed the American military governor, Benedict Arnold, and it was here that he began his treason. After Arnold left Philadelphia, the next resident was John Holker. Holker was a purchasing agent for the French, who were American allies at the time. Under his care the house suffered a fire, and was sold to a man whom Holker knew well, Robert Morris.

In 1781, it was purchased, refurbished, and expanded by Robert Morris, who lived here while Superintendent of Finance. Washington lodged here with Morris during the 1787 Constitutional Convention. In 1790, Morris gave up the house for his friend to use as the Executive Mansion, moving to the house next door. President Washington occupied it from November 1790 to March 1797, and President Adams from March 1797 to May 1800. Adams oversaw the transfer of the federal government to the District of Columbia, and first occupied The White House on November 1, 1800.

The main house was demolished in 1832, although the four-story east and west walls survived as party walls shared with the adjoining buildings. These, along with surviving sections of the backbuildings, were demolished in the 1950s during the creation of Independence Mall. A public toilet was built on the site.

In late 2000, during excavation for the new Liberty Bell Center, foundations of the President's House were uncovered. Intense interest arose in the project, especially after it was revealed that the center's planned main entrance would be just feet from the site of Washington's slave quarters. Although initially reluctant, Independence National Historical Park finally expanded its interpretation at the center to include more about slavery, including material about the nine enslaved African Americans—Moll, Christopher Sheels, Hercules, his son Richmond, Oney Judge, her brother Austin, Giles, Paris, and Joe—who had worked at the President's House. This shift in focus resulted in less interpretive effort going into the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government, and the development of that unique institution goes largely unexplained.

It undertook a public archaeology project in 2007 that uncovered foundations of the backbuildings, the President's office, and the massive Bow Window designed by Washington as a ceremonial space. It commissioned a memorial at the site, which opened in 2010 to mark the site of the President's House, as well as to acknowledge the slaves and their place in Philadelphia and United States history, with material about the black community in the city.