Historic White House Gates

Installed in 1819 as one of the finishing touches to the reconstruction of the White House after it was burned during the War of 1812, these gates were commissioned by President James Monroe and fabricated at the New York forge of Paulus Hedl, an Austrian smith and foundryman. James Hoban, the original architect of the White House and builder in charge of the reconstruction, oversaw their installation. Mounted on grand neo-classical stone piers, the gates stood at the northeast entrance to the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue for nearly 120 years. Twenty-eight presidents, from James Monroe to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, used them for ceremonial entry to and exit from the White House. Removed around 1937 during a renovation project, the gates were moved to a private estate on the Potomac River ten miles south of Washington, D.C., where they remained in relative obscurity for more than 50 years. During that time, the estate was acquired by the American Horticultural Society and became the Society's national headquarters. In 2002, White House historian William Seale recognized the distinctive ironwork pattern, and after painstaking research and measurements confirmed that these were the gates James Monroe had ordered for the White House.

Fort Hunt, Virginia · United States