The President's House Site

Presidents Washington and Adams lived on this site in the 1790s when Philadelphia served as the nation's temporary capital. Both presidents worked to preserve the freedoms won by the American Revolution while accepting that nearly 700,000 people of African descent remained enslaved in the new nation. At his Virginia plantation, George Washington oversaw more than 300 enslaved people, nine of whom served in his Philadelphia household. John and Abigail Adams never owned enslaved laborers. Hired servants, including free and possibly enslaved African Americans, performed daily tasks in the Adams household. The house that once stood on this site was torn down in 1832. In 2007, archeologists exposed foundation walls outlining the location of the kitchen and adjoining basement passage where enslaved and free servants toiled for the Washington family. Nearby remnants of a bow window revealed an addition to the State Dining Room. The enslaved men, women, and children who lived here remind us of the paradox of liberty and slavery in our nation's history.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · United States