Sites on the West side of Lafayette Park

Blair House

1651 Pennsylvania Avenue

Once the home of Francis Preston Blair, a Jacksonian Democrat who served on President Andrew Jackson's ill-fated "kitchen cabinet", the Blair House complex is now run by the federal government as guest quarters and a ceremonial site for foreign VIPs Blair House was purchased by the federal government in 1942 for $175,000.

There is a story that the government bought the house at the suggestion of Eleanor Roosevelt. She found White House guest Winston Churchill wandering about in the middle of the night, searching for the President so that they could continue an earlier meeting. Mrs. Roosevelt sent him back to his room. She then decided that having visitors sleep outside the White House might give the president a better chance to rest.

President Truman lived at Blair House from 1948 until 1951 with his wife Bess and daughter Margaret. The White House had been undergoing its most extensive remodeling since it was rebuilt after the British burned it in 1814. During this period, two Puerto Rican nationalists, Oscar Collazo and Grizelio Torresola, tried unsuccessfully to assassinate Truman. One secret service agent, Leslie Coffelt, managed to kill Torresola. However, Coffelt himself ended up getting shot and killed. Collazo was badly wounded in the attempt. He was convicted and sentenced to death. However, his sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment, by the same president he had tried to murder. A plaque by the door to Blair House commemorates the sacrifice made by Coffelt.

It was also at Blair House that the command of the Union Army was offered to General Robert E. Lee, at the request of Abraham Lincoln. Lee sadly rejected the offer and instead, became the commander of the Confederate Army.

Renwick Gallery

Northeast corner of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW

The Renwich Gallery was created in 1859 by James Renwick Jr, architect of the Smithsonian "Castle", for banker-millionaire William W. Corcoran. It was the city's first art gallery, modeled after the Louvre in Paris. Construction began in 1859, but before the building had gotten far, it was taken over by the Army, who used it as a clothing department during the Civil War. After the war, the building was finally finished and the Corcoran collection was installed. When the collection grew too big, it moved to new quarters, also designed by Renwick, in another gallery on 17th Street. The building was sold to the government, and would have been destroyed if it weren't for President Kennedy who recommended it for inclusion in the Lafayette Park restoration he supported. In 1971 it re-opened as the Renwick Gallery, which exhibits American artwork and crafts.

Ewell House

722 Jackson Place NW

This site was long known as Ewell House for its occupant, Dr. Thomas Ewell, who lived here in 1820-24. Later occupants include Vice President Schuyler Colfax, New Jersey Senator Samuel Southard, New Hampshire Senator Levi Woodbury (also Secretary of the Treasury for Presidents Jackson and Van Buren). Daniel Sickles, New York congressman and general, also lived here 1858-64. In 1859 he murdered Philip Barton Key, son of Francis Scott Key, who was having an affair with his wife.

Other residents were Elihu Root, Secretary of War under President Theodore Roosevelt, and publisher William Randolph Hearst. The building was razed in 1930 and replaced by the Brookings Institution. That building was razed in 1963 when the Kennedy administration decided to restore the historic character of the square.

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Sites on the North side of Lafayette Park

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The Old Executive Office Building