President's House in Philadelphia was the third U.S. presidential mansion, following the first two in New York City. President George Washington occupied the Philadelphia house from November 27, 1790 to March 10, 1797. President John Adams occupied it from March 21, 1797 to May 30, 1800, and moved into the unfinished White House in November 1800.
The Philadelphia house was located on the south side of what is now Market Street, one block north of Independence Hall (then known as the Pennsylvania State House). It had been built by widow Mary Masters around 1767, and became a wedding present to her daughter Mary and Acting-Governor of Pennsylvania Richard Penn, when they married in 1772.
During the 1777–1778 British occupation of Philadelphia, the house was the headquarters of General Sir William Howe. Following the June 1778 British evacuation of the city, American General Benedict Arnold made the house his headquarters. Robert Morris, a Founding Father and a financier of the Revolutionary War, purchased the house following a January 1780 fire, and restored and expanded it. Morris and Washington were both delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention at Independence Hall, and Washington was Morris's houseguest for its four-month length, May to September 1787.
In 1790, Philadelphia became the temporary national capital for a ten-year period while what is now Washington, D.C. was under construction. Morris gave up the Philadelphia house for President Washington's use, who insisted on paying rent. Morris also owned the house next door, to which he and his family moved.
In 1951, confusion over the exact location of the Philadelphia President's House led to its surviving walls being unknowingly demolished for what is now Independence Mall. Advocacy by historians and African American groups resulted in the 2010 commemoration of the site as a memorial to the nine slaves in Washington's household and the history of slavery in the United States. In 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to promote a more positive view of the nation's history, resulting in the January 2026 removal of all exhibits at the site, and sparking a lawsuit that saw some of the displays restored for the duration of the case. In July 2026, the Trump administration installed their own pre-approved exhibits at 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, including George Washington, at the house. 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 September-1777-to-June-1778 British occupation of Philadelphia, the house was occupied by General Sir William Howe, who used it as the British Army's American headquarters. Following the British evacuation of the city, it housed the American military governor, Benedict Arnold. Arnold began a secret and treasonous correspondence with the British while living in the house. 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.
Robert Morris, a financier of the Revolutionary War and a Founding Father, purchased the house following a January 1780 fire, and restored and expanded it. Transfer of the deed was delayed because of the Revolutionary War. Morris refurbished and expanded the house, and lived there while Superintendent of Finance.
George Washington was elected presiding officer for the May-to-September 1787 U.S. Constitutional Convention, which met at Independence Hall. Washington was Morris's houseguest during the four-month convention. Philadelphia served as the temporary national capital from 1790 to 1800, while Washington, D.C. was under construction. Then U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania Robert Morris gave up the house for use by President Washington, who insisted on paying rent. Morris also owned the house next door, to which he and his family moved.
In November 1790, Washington brought eight enslaved Africans from Mount Vernon to work in his presidential household: Moll, Oney Judge, Christoper Sheels, Austin, Giles, Paris, Hercules Posey, and Posey's son Richmond. A ninth enslaved African from Mount Vernon, "Postilion" Joe, joined the presidential household following Austin's death on December 20, 1794 in Maryland.
President Washington occupied the Philadelphia President's House from November 1790 to March 1797, and Washington's successor, President John 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 Peacefield 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 1800 presidential election, was inaugurated on March 4, 1801, and became the first U.S. president to occupy the White House for his entire presidential term. In the 1804 presidential election, Jefferson was reelected, and resided at the White House during his entire two terms, which lasted from 1801 to 1809.
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,Philadelphia Deed Book AM-25, p. 202, April 12, 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.
In 1861, merchant John Wanamaker opened his first clothing store, Oak Hall, at 536 Market Street. He expanded into the stores at 532 and 534 Market, and eventually built up their height to six stories.The Golden Book of the Wanamaker Stores (Philadelphia, 1911). 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,Edward Lawler, Jr., "The President's House Revisited", The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, October 2005, pp. 371–410. and replaced by a memorial site in 2010 after archeology studies. Advocacy by historians and African American groups resulted in the 2010 commemoration of the site. In 2026, the signs mentioning slavery were removed under the direction of the Executive Order titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History" during the second Trump administration (see ).
President Washington in Philadelphia
The nation's first president, George Washington, along with First Lady Martha Washington and two of her grandchildren, "Wash" Custis and Nelly Custis, lived in President's House in Philadelphia. He had an initial household staff of about 24, eight of whom were enslaved Africans, plus an office staff of four or five, who also lived and worked there. The house was too small for the 30-plus occupants, so the President made additions: "...a large two-story bow to be added to south side of the main house making the rooms at the rear thirty-four feet in length, a long one-story servants' hall to be built on the east side of the kitchen ell, the bathtubs to be removed from the bath house's second floor and the bathingroom turned into the President's private office, additional servant rooms to be constructed, and an expansion of the stables."
Major actions as president Oversaw the establishment of the federal judiciary Oversaw the establishment, location and planning of the future District of Columbia. Quashed the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania.
Use of slave labor In 1790, President Washington brought eight enslaved Africans to Philadelphia from his plantation at Mount Vernon: Moll, Christopher Sheels, Hercules and his son Richmond, Oney Judge and her half-brother Austin, Giles, and Paris.
Pennsylvania had begun a gradual abolition of slavery in 1780, freezing the number of slaves in the state and granting freedom only to their future children. The law did not free anyone at once; its gradual abolition was to be accomplished over decades as the enslaved aged and died off. The law allowed slaveholders from other states to hold personal slaves in Pennsylvania for six months, but empowered those same enslaved to legally petition for their freedom if held beyond that period.
Washington recognized that slavery was unpopular in Philadelphia, but argued (privately) that he remained a resident of Virginia and subject to its laws on slavery. He gradually replaced most of the President's House enslaved servants with German indentured servants, and rotated the others in and out of the state to prevent them from establishing an uninterrupted six-month residency. He was also careful that he himself never spent six continuous months in Pennsylvania. Joe (Richardson) was the only slave added to the presidential household. He was brought up from Virginia in 1795, following Austin's December 20, 1794, death in Maryland.
Oney Judge
Oney Judge was the personal slave of Martha Washington, and was about 17 when she was brought to the President's House in 1790. More is known about her than any of the other enslaved because she gave two interviews to abolitionist newspapers in the 1840s. She escaped to freedom from the President's House in May 1796, and was hidden by Philadelphia's free-black community.Oney Judge from George Washington's Mount Vernon The President's House steward placed runaway advertisements in Philadelphia newspapers offering a reward for her recapture. She was smuggled aboard a ship to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where Judge hoped she was safe, but she was recognized on the street by a friend of the Washingtons. Through intermediaries, Washington attempted to convince her to return, but Judge refused unless she was guaranteed her freedom upon their deaths.Stephan Salisbury, "A Slave's Defiance: The story of rebellious Oney Judge is finally being told, along with those of other slaves who lived with George and Martha Washington in Philadelphia," The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 1, 2008. Martha Washington's nephew, Burwell Bassett, traveled to Portsmouth in 1798. He lodged with Senator John Langdon and revealed his plan to abduct Judge. Langdon sent word for Judge to go into hiding, and Bassett was forced to return without her.
Hercules