Editing Presidents House

'''President's House''' was the official residence of the President of the United States during Philadelphia's decade as the national capital (1790-1800). Located at 6th and Market Streets, the house served as the executive mansion for George Washington and John Adams, hosting cabinet meetings, diplomatic receptions, and the official social functions of the early republic. The original structure was demolished in 1832, but the site has gained renewed significance in recent years due to archaeological discoveries revealing the slave quarters where Washington's enslaved household servants lived and worked. The President's House site, now an open-air exhibit adjacent to the [[Liberty Bell]] Center, confronts visitors with the contradictions of the American founding: the same blocks where the Declaration of Independence was signed also witnessed the nation's first president deliberately evading Pennsylvania's gradual emancipation law to keep human beings in bondage. The site represents one of the most important recent additions to Independence National Historical Park's interpretation of early American history.<ref name="lawler">{{cite journal |last=Lawler |first=Edward Jr. |title=The President's House in Philadelphia: The Rediscovery of a Lost Landmark |journal=Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography |volume=126 |issue=1 |year=2002 |pages=5-95}}</ref>

== The Robert Morris House ==

The building that became the President's House was constructed in the 1760s for Mary Lawrence Masters and subsequently acquired by financier Robert Morris, one of the wealthiest men in America and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Morris made the house available to the new federal government when Philadelphia became the temporary capital in 1790, and President Washington moved in that November. The house was substantial for its era: three stories tall with over 30 rooms, including formal reception spaces, family quarters, offices, and service areas. It stood on Market Street between 5th and 6th Streets, just one block from Independence Hall and the other federal buildings, making it convenient for the business of government.<ref name="chernow">{{cite book |last=Chernow |first=Ron |title=Washington: A Life |year=2010 |publisher=Penguin Press |location=New York}}</ref>

Washington modified the house to suit his needs, adding a large bow window to one of the reception rooms and constructing additional service buildings in the rear. The household was elaborate, befitting Washington's conception of the presidency as requiring dignity and ceremony to command respect. In addition to family members and secretaries, the household included free servants, indentured servants, and approximately nine enslaved African Americans brought from Mount Vernon. The enslaved workers included Oney Judge, a lady's maid to Martha Washington, and Hercules, the celebrated cook whose culinary skills were famous throughout Philadelphia. The presence of enslaved people in the President's House would later become the most significant aspect of the site's history.<ref name="dunbar">{{cite book |last=Dunbar |first=Erica Armstrong |title=Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge |year=2017 |publisher=37 Ink |location=New York}}</ref>

== Slavery and Evasion ==

Pennsylvania's Gradual Abolition Act of 1780 provided that enslaved people brought into the state by residents of other states would become free after six months' continuous residence. Washington, determined to retain his enslaved workers, developed a system of rotating them back to Virginia before the six-month period elapsed, thus preventing them from claiming freedom under Pennsylvania law. Attorney General Edmund Randolph advised Washington on the legal requirements, and the president's secretary Tobias Lear managed the logistics of these rotations. Washington explicitly acknowledged that the purpose was to evade the Pennsylvania law, writing that the moves should be conducted discreetly to avoid public attention.<ref name="wiencek">{{cite book |last=Wiencek |first=Henry |title=An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America |year=2003 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |location=New York}}</ref>

Two of Washington's enslaved workers escaped to freedom during the Philadelphia years. Oney Judge fled in May 1796, apparently with assistance from Philadelphia's free Black community. Despite Washington's efforts to recapture her, Judge made her way to New Hampshire, where she lived the rest of her life in freedom, giving interviews in old age that provide crucial testimony about the experience of enslaved people in the President's House. Hercules escaped in early 1797, shortly before Washington's term ended. His whereabouts thereafter are unknown, though various accounts place him in New York City. The escapes demonstrated that enslaved people actively sought freedom when opportunity presented, despite the power and resources their enslavers could deploy against them.<ref name="dunbar"/>

== After the Presidency ==

The President's House served as John Adams's residence from 1797 to 1800, though Adams—whose Massachusetts background made him uncomfortable with slavery—did not bring enslaved workers to Philadelphia. When the federal government relocated to Washington, D.C., in 1800, the house reverted to private use. It was subsequently modified, subdivided, and eventually demolished in 1832 to make way for commercial development. By the late 19th century, the precise location of the President's House had been forgotten, and the site became occupied by a public restroom facility that served visitors to Independence Hall. The history of slavery at the site was completely obscured.<ref name="lawler"/>

The rediscovery of the President's House site began in 2002 when historian Edward Lawler Jr. published research definitively locating the house and documenting its history, including the presence of enslaved workers. The timing coincided with planning for the new Liberty Bell Center, which was being constructed adjacent to the site. Activists, led by members of Philadelphia's African American community, demanded that the National Park Service acknowledge and interpret the history of slavery at the President's House rather than allowing it to be paved over for the new facility. The controversy generated national attention and forced a reconsideration of how Independence National Historical Park presented the founding era.<ref name="nash">{{cite book |last=Nash |first=Gary B. |title=The Liberty Bell |year=2010 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven}}</ref>

== The President's House Site Today ==

The President's House site opened in 2010 as an open-air exhibit that interprets both the presidential history and the lives of the enslaved people who lived and worked there. Archaeological excavations uncovered foundations of the house and its service buildings, including the underground passage where enslaved workers moved between the kitchen and the main house. The exhibit uses text panels, video presentations, and archaeological remains to tell a more complete story of the early presidency than had previously been presented at Independence National Historical Park. The site directly confronts the contradiction between the ideals proclaimed in the nearby [[Declaration of Independence]] and the reality of slavery in the founding generation.<ref name="nps">{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/historyculture/places-presidentshouse.htm |title=President's House Site |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=December 29, 2025}}</ref>

The President's House site is accessible 24 hours a day and is free to visit. Its location between the [[Liberty Bell]] Center and Independence Hall means that most visitors to the park pass by, creating opportunities for engagement with history that might otherwise be overlooked. The site has been praised for its honest confrontation with the legacy of slavery and criticized by some who feel it diminishes the accomplishments of the founders. These debates reflect broader national conversations about how to remember a past that includes both inspiring ideals and profound injustice. The President's House site represents one answer: tell the whole story, honoring both the victims and the principles that their victimizers helped establish.<ref name="nps"/>

== See Also ==
* [[Philadelphia as National Capital]]
* [[Independence Hall]]
* [[Liberty Bell]]
* [[Congress Hall]]
* [[Old City]]

== References ==
<references />

{{#seo:
|title=President's House Philadelphia - Washington, Adams, and Slavery at the Executive Mansion
|description=The President's House in Philadelphia served as the executive mansion 1790-1800. Learn about Washington's residence and the enslaved people who lived and worked there.
|keywords=President's House Philadelphia, George Washington residence, presidential mansion Philadelphia, slavery Independence Mall, Oney Judge, Hercules enslaved cook, executive mansion 1790s
|type=Article
}}

[[Category:History]]
[[Category:Revolutionary Era]]
[[Category:Government]]
[[Category:Landmarks]]
[[Category:Old City]]