The President's House in Philadelphia was the third U.S. Presidential Mansion. George Washington occupied it from November 27, 1790, to March 10, 1797, and John Adams occupied it from March 21, 1797, to May 30, 1800.
The house was located one block north of the Pennsylvania Statehouse, now known as Independence Hall, and was built by widow Mary Masters about 1767. During the 1777–1778 British occupation of Philadelphia, it was headquarters for General Sir William Howe and the British Army. The British abandoned the city in June 1778, and the house became headquarters for Military Governor Benedict Arnold.
Philadelphia served as the national capital from 1790 to 1800 while Washington, D.C. was under construction. During this time, the house was owned by Revolutionary War financier and Founding Father Robert Morris, who gave the house to George Washington. Washington brought nine enslaved Africans from Mount Vernon to work in his presidential household.
The house also served as the executive mansion for the second U.S. president, John Adams, who later moved to the not-yet-completed White House in Washington, D.C., on November 1, 1800.
In 1951, confusion over the exact location of the Philadelphia President's House led to its surviving walls being unknowingly demolished. Advocacy by historians and African American groups resulted in the 2010 commemoration of the site.
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, Polly, who married Richard Penn, the lieutenant-governor of the colony and a grandson of William Penn. Richard Penn entertained delegates to the First Continental Congress at the house, including George Washington. Penn was entrusted to deliver Congress' Olive Branch Petition to King George III in a last-ditch effort to avoid war between Great Britain and the colonies. Penn, his wife, and in-laws departed for England in July 1775.
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 Arnold began a secret correspondence with the British that resulted in his treason. The next resident was John Holker, a purchasing agent for the French, who were American allies in the war. During Holker's residency the house suffered a fire. Financier Robert Morris purchased the house from Richard Penn in 1781, although transfer of the deed was delayed because of the war.
Morris refurbished and expanded the house, and lived there while Superintendent of Finance. Washington lodged with Morris during the 1787 Constitutional Convention. In 1790, Morris gave up the house for his friend to use as the Executive Mansion, and moved to the house next door.
President Washington occupied the Philadelphia President's House from November 1790 to March 1797, and President Adams occupied it from March 1797 to May 30, 1800. Adams then visited Washington, D.C., to oversee the transfer of the federal government and returned to his home in Quincy, Massachusetts for the summer. He moved into the not yet completed White House on November 1, 1800, the first U.S. president to live there, and occupied it for just over four months. Thomas Jefferson won the Presidential election of 1800 and was inaugurated on March 4, 1801.
Post-presidential
Following President Adams's 1800 departure, the house was converted into Francis's Union Hotel. Hardware merchant Nathaniel Burt purchased the property in 1832, and gutted the house, inserting three narrow stores between its exterior walls. He and his descendants owned these stores for just over a century.
Merchant John Wanamaker opened his first clothing store, "Oak Hall," at 536 Market Street in 1861. He expanded into the stores at 532 and 534 Market, and eventually built up their height to six stories. The party wall between 530 and 532 Market was the four-story west wall of the President's House, and would have been incorporated into the expanded "Oak Hall." "Oak Hall" was demolished in 1936, leaving two stories of the party wall intact. The four-story east wall of the President's House was the party wall shared between 524 and 526 Market Street. This survived intact until 1951.
What was left of the Burt stores, along with the house's surviving walls, were demolished in 1951 for the creation of Independence Mall. A public toilet was built upon the house's footprint in 1954, later demolished, and replaced by a memorial site in 2010 after archeology studies.