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The President’s House: House Timeline
| Before | For hundreds of years before 1630, Algonquian peoples resided here. |
| 1682 | The city of Philadelphia founded. |
| 1767 | House built by Mary Lawrence Masters, a rich the widow of a former mayor and slaveholder. |
| 1772 | House is a wedding present to daughter Polly and slave owning Lieutenant Governor Richard Penn. |
| 1777 | Headquarters of General Sir William Howe, a slave owner and leader of British forces, during the British occupation of Philadelphia. |
| 1778 | Headquarters of slave owning Major General Benedict Arnold whose betrayal of the Revolution begins here. |
| 1782 | Financier and slaveholder Robert Morris rebuilds and expands the reconstructed residence after major fire. |
| 1790 | Philadelphia becomes the nation’s capital. Additions to house are built for George Washington’s official duties, his extended family, and enslaved, indentured and free household servants. |
| 1797 | Newly elected President John Adams and his wife Abigail move in. |
| 1800 | House converted into Francis’s Union Hotel, then becomes shops and a boarding house after government departs for Washington D.C. |
| 1832 | House demolished and three stores are created within the gutted space, leaving only the side walls and foundation of the former house. |
| 1935 | Stores demolished with no acknowledgment of the site’s historic significance. |
| 1945-67 | Creation of Independence Mall State Park. |
| 1948 | Establishment of Independence National Historic Park |
| 1951 | Last remaining walls unknowingly demolished to create Independence Mall. |
| 1954 | Public restroom for Independence Mall built on the site. |
| 1973 | Independence National Historical Park takes over management. President’s House site identified. |
| 2002 | Announcement of plans for the construction of the Liberty Bell Center, which would partially cover the space identified as housing for enslaved and free household servants, leads to a public outcry—initiated by historians, members of the African American community, the Independence Hall Association and others—to commemorate the house and its residents. |
| 2003 | Liberty Bell Center opens. |
| 2007 | Archaeology reveals partial foundations of the house and back buildings. |
| 2010 | President’s House exhibits open. |
Contact(s):
- Mark McDonald, (215) 686-6210
- Jane Cowley, (215) 597-0060
- Cara Schneider, (215) 599-0789
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The IHA is a nonprofit organization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded in 1942.
On the Internet since July 4, 1995.
