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Ewell House
Though the people who enslaved African Americans on Lafayette Square were rich, powerful, and prominent, their slaves fought back against being held in bondage. One way they did so was by running away. On April 30, 1819 Thomas Ewell, a former naval surgeon and prominent physician who built a house about where 734 and 736 Jackson Place are located today, placed an ad in
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Freedman's Savings & Trust Co.
Three million dollars belonging to 61,000 African Americans. That's how much accumulated wealth vanished when the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company failed in June 1874. Earlier that year, Frederick Douglass had become the bank's President just after it moved its headquarters to a prominent location on the southeast corner of Lafayette Square, where the Treasury Annex now stands. The bank was failing
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Housekeeper Elizabeth Jaffray Makes Some Changes
Historian William Seale identifies a "strange hierarchy" that had developed among the White House domestic staff by the first decade of the 20th century. At mealtime, the "top-ranking men," black and white, were seated together in a pantry, where they dined upon the President's leftover food. Maids ate in the servants' dining room with the footmen. This group was also
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The White House and Lincoln's Assassination
Abraham Lincoln had never been more William Tecumseh Sherman’s thrust through the cheerful and carefree in the White House than on his last day alive. Richmond, the Confederate capital, had recently fallen, and it was only five days since Washingtonians had celebrated the deliriously exciting news of Robert E. Lee’s surrender to the Union victor, Ulysses S. Grant. The
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President Nixon Speaks with Astronauts
On July 20, 1969, President Richard M. Nixon spoke from the White House by radiotelephone with Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin as they walked on the surface of the moon. Nixon called the conversation "the most historic telephone call ever made."
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Benjamin Brown French in the Lincoln Period
Benjamin Brown French first arrived in Washington City in December 1833 and went to work for the House of Representatives. A native of Chester, New Hampshire, he had read law, run a newspaper, served briefly in the state militia where he acquired his familiar title “Major,” and as a Jacksonian Democrat served a term in the lower house of the New Hamp
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Presidential Funerals
Before the death of William Henry Harrison in 1841, there was no established form for official mourning and funerals of presidents who died in office. However, it was clear that the death of a president called for a formal ceremony with symbolism suitable to the dignity of the state. The White House was heavily draped in black. The funeral ceremony was
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The Hoovers' Musical Firsts
The roster of prominent artists who performed for President Herbert Hoover at the end of the 1920s and into the early 1930s includes Grace Moore, Rosa Ponselle, Jascha Heifetz, Vladimir Horowitz, and many others. In 1931, President and Mrs. Hoover were the first to invite an artist to play for a head of state. With the performance of the Hampton and
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Zachary Taylor Funeral
After attending the ground breaking ceremony for the Washington Monument on a hot July 4, 1850, Taylor returned to the White House and gorged himself on a large bowl of ripe cherries with cold milk. He also drank many glasses of ice water that day. He was beset with stomach cramps that night and became seriously ill. He was later diagnosed with
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The West Wing: 1900-1924
1902: A White House "restoration" was undertaken. Under Theodore Roosevelt, the 19th-century conservatories were razed, and a new "temporary" executive office building, later called the West Wing, was erected. President Theodore Roosevelt worked in his new rectangular office for the first time on November 5. The first cabinet meeting was held in the new wing on November 6.
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The West Wing: 1925-1949
1929: Herbert Hoover was the first president to have a telephone installed on his desk on March 27. A fire on Christmas Eve 1929 gutted the executive office building and a reconstruction began immediately.
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