Designing the President's House Project

Abridged and slightly altered from the RFQ (see below for pdf of full original document)

From 1790 to 1800, when Philadelphia was our new nation's capital city, Presidents George Washington and John Adams lived and worked in a mansion — the President's House — that stood a block north of Independence Hall. In that house, our first two presidents literally invented what it meant to be the Chief Executive of the United States.

The profoundly disturbing documented truth is that in this house, there also lived and worked at least nine enslaved Africans — kept by George Washington (not Adams) — in the same era when the founders of our country were declaring that "all men are created equal." In this house, George Washington signed the notorious Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.

The story of the President's House is thus one of achievement and infamy — of the birth of a free nation and indefensible slavery existing side-by-side. It is a story of remarkable bravery, highlighted by the escape to freedom by Washington's chef, Hercules, and Washington's wife's personal servant, Oney Judge. As a nation, we have a compelling obligation to illuminate the history of this house and its inhabitants in all its fullness. What better place to do this than on the threshold of the Liberty Bell?