Blair House, also known as the Presidential Guest House, is an official residence in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The Presidential Guest House has been called “the most exclusive hotel in the world” because it is primarily used as a state guest house to host dignitaries and other presidential guests. Parts of the historic complex have been used as an official residence since the 1940s.
Located across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, it is a complex of four formerly separate houses: the Blair House, Lee House, Peter Parker House, and 704 Jackson Place. Major interior renovations of these 19th-century residences between the 1950s and 1980s led to their consolidation. Blair House is one of several residences owned by the United States government for use by the President and Vice President of the United States; other such residences include the White House, Camp David, One Observatory Circle, the Presidential Townhouse, and Trowbridge House.
President Harry S. Truman and his family lived in the original Blair House from 1948 to 1952 during the renovation of the White House. Truman survived an assassination attempt there in 1950.
Strictly speaking, Blair House refers to one of the four existing structures that have been consolidated into a single building. The U.S. Department of State typically uses the name Blair House to refer to the entire facility, saying, “Blair House is the building officially known as the President’s guest house.” The General Services Administration refers to the entire facility as the “Presidential Guest House” and uses the name Blair House to refer to the historic portion of the Blair House building.
History
The Blair House was built in 1824; it is the oldest of the four structures that make up the Presidential Guest House. The original brick house was built as a private home for Joseph Lovell, the eighth Surgeon General of the U.S. Army. It was purchased in 1836 by Francis Preston Blair, a newspaper publisher and influential advisor to President Andrew Jackson, and remained in his family for the next century.
Francis Blair’s son Montgomery Blair, who had served as postmaster general in Abraham Lincoln’s administration, succeeded his father as a resident of the Blair House. At a meeting at Blair House on April 18, 1861, Francis Preston Blair Sr. delivered Abraham Lincoln’s offer the previous day to Robert E. Lee to command all Union forces in the approaching American Civil War. Later that year, the local conference decided that Admiral David Farragut would command the assault on New Orleans.
In 1939, the U.S. Department of the Interior erected a landmark at Blair House, becoming the first building to receive federally recognized landmark status; earlier landmarks were monuments and historic sites other than buildings. In 1973, it would be officially recognized as a National Historic Landmark.
Beginning in 1942, the Blair family began leasing the property to the U.S. government for use by dignitaries; the government immediately purchased the property the following December. The move was prompted in part by a request from Eleanor Roosevelt, who found the careless familiarity that Winston Churchill displayed during his visits to the White House repulsive. Churchill once tried to break into Franklin Roosevelt’s private suite at 3 a.m. to wake the president for a conversation.
For most of Harry Truman’s presidency, from 1948 to 1952, Blair House served as the residence of President Harry S. Truman and his family while the interior of the White House was being renovated. On November 1, 1950, Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempted to assassinate President Truman at Blair House. The assassination was thwarted, notably by White House policeman Leslie Coffelt, who killed Torresola but was mortally wounded by him.
In 1859, Francis Preston Blair built a house next to the Blair House for his daughter Elizabeth Blair Lee and son-in-law Samuel Phillips Lee. The property became known as the Lee House.
The Peter Parker House, located at 700 Jackson Place, and the neighboring house at 704 Jackson Place were built in 1860. The Peter Parker House is so named because it was originally the home of physician Peter Parker. The U.S. government acquired both properties between 1969 and 1970, leasing them for offices. The Peter Parker House formerly served as the headquarters of the Civil War Centennial Commission and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and, like the Blair House, is a National Historic Landmark.