George Washington's Three Presidential Residences No Longer Exist

Summary: George Washington's three presidential residences no longer exist, due to teardowns in New York in 1856 and 1902 and Philadelphia from 1832 to 1951.

President's House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation, a joint project of the City of Philadelphia and the National Park Service, opened 2010 as an open-air memorial at the site of President's House, George Washington's third presidential residence, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; "President's House Site exhibit, night view," NPS photo by Joseph E.B. Elliott: Public Domain, via NPS (National Park Service) Independence National Historical Park Pennsylvania

Non-White House dweller George Washington's three presidential residences no longer exist, as the two in New York were demolished in the 19th and 20th centuries and the Philadelphia residence was gutted in the 19th century, with final teardown in the 20th century.

George Washington (Feb. 22, 1732-Dec. 14, 1799) served two terms as the first President of the United States (POTUS). His first term had been expected to begin Wednesday, March 4, 1789. Instead, a delay in achieving a quorum for counting the electoral votes necessitated rescheduling the first inauguration to Thursday, April 30, 1789. His second term commenced with his second inauguration, Monday, March 4, 1793.

The first official residence of George Washington as first President of the United States was the Samuel Osgood House, located in the new nation's temporary capital, New York City. President Washington lived in his first presidential residence from Thursday, April 23, 1789, to Tuesday, Feb. 23, 1790.

The Samuel Osgood House was sited on Cherry Street in the current Civic Center neighborhood in New York City's Manhattan borough. On Sunday, April 30, 1899, the Mary Washington Colonial Chapter (MWCC) of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) placed a bronze commemorative plaque on the southeast corner of Dover Street, at Dover's intersection with Cherry Street. The plaque was affixed to the Brooklyn Bridge's Anchorage Tower on the west side of the East River.

Entitled "The First Presidential Mansion," the plaque identifies the Osgood House's address as 1 Cherry Street. Yet, the house actually stood on the north, or left, side of Cherry Street as number 3, according to Henry B. Hoffmann's "President Washington's Cherry Street Residence," published in the July 1939 issue of The New-York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin. A renumbering in 1794 converted the house's street number from 3 to 9 (pages 90-91).

Also, the Samuel Osgood House did not occupy a corner location until 1817. "The residence . . occupied by the President was on Cherry street [sic], just out of Franklin Square. By the removal of some buildings at the juncture of Pearl and Cherry streets, that house had a front on Franklin Square for many years," explained American historian Benson John Lossing (Feb. 12, 1813-June 3, 1891) in Diary of Washington: From the First Day of October, 1789, to the Tenth Day of March, 1790, published in 1858 (Wednesday, Feb. 3, 1790, entry: footnote 41, page 76)

The Samuel Osgood House was also known as the Franklin House, the Franklin-Osgood-Clinton House and the Franklin-Washington-Osgood-Clinton House. American merchant and statesman Samuel Osgood (Feb. 3, 1747-Aug. 12, 1813) became the home's owner upon his Wednesday, May 24, 1786, marriage to his second wife, Maria Bowne Franklin (March 4, 1754-March 7, 1813), widow of the home's 1770 builder, American Quaker merchant Walter Franklin (Dec. 11, 1728-Aug. 6, 1780).

After 10 months of presidential occupancy of the Samuel Osgood House, George Washington relocated to his second presidential residence. In May 1856, approximately 66 and one-fourth years after the president's relocation, the Samuel Osgood House was razed. Its demolition was occasioned by a traffic congestion relief project of widening Pearl Street in tandem with opening the New Bowery (pages 100-101).

"Tablet at No. 1 Cherry Street -- the first presidential mansion of George Washington," November 1953 gelatin silver print photograph by Angelo Antonio "Anthony Angel" Rizzuto (Dec. 19, 1906-1967), Library of Congress Anthony Angel Collection, Washington DC: No known restrictions on publication, via Library of Congress (LOC) Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC)

The second official residence of George Washington during his first presidential term was the Alexander Macomb House, located also in New York City's Manhattan borough. George Washington presidentially occupied the Alexander Macomb House from Tuesday, Feb. 23, to Monday, Aug. 30, 1790.

The Alexander Macomb House was sited at 39-41 Broadway Street in the current Financial District neighborhood in Lower Manhattan. In 1939, the Colonial Chapter (N.Y.) of the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a bronze commemorative plaque, entitled "Site of Second Presidential Mansion," to the left of the entrance of the Harriman Building, a 37-floor, Art Deco-style building constructed at 35-39 Broadway in 1928.

Irish-born American fur trader, land speculator and merchant Alexander Macomb (July 27, 1748-Jan. 19, 1831) had his Broadway Street mansion built in 1787 as "one of a block of three houses" (page 118) according to Stephen Decatur Jr. in The Private Affairs of George Washington, published in 1933. The Macomb House was located north of Bowling Green, which had been created as a public park in 1733.

After six months and one week of presidential occupancy of the Alexander Macomb House, George Washington relocated to his third presidential residence. Probably around 1902, more than 111 years after President Washington's departure, the Alexander Macomb House was demolished. The New York Department of Buildings issued a 1902 demolition permit for 39 Broadway, according to New York City-based construction management and restoration specialist Molly Rockhold's 14-page Architectural Review of 35-39 Broadway/11-15 Trinity Place: The Harriman Building, issued May 2016 (page 4).

"Site of second presidential mansion occupied by General George Washington, February 23 to August 30, 1790," June 1955 gelatin silver print photograph by Angelo Antonio "Anthony Angel" Rizzuto (Dec. 19, 1906-1967), Library of Congress Anthony Angel Collection, Washington DC: No known restrictions on publication, via Library of Congress (LOC) Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC)

The third and last official residence of George Washington spanned his first and second presidential terms. His last presidential residence necessitated his move from New York City's Manhattan borough to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in accordance with the Residence Act (officially: An Act for establishing the temporary and permanent seat of the Government of the United States; ch. 28, 1 Stat. 130). The Residence Act designated Philadelphia as the new nation's temporary capital for the decade, 1790 to 1800, allotted for creating the new national capital along the Potomac River. President Washington signed the Residence Act into law on Friday, July 16, 1790. President Washington lived in his last presidential residence, Philadelphia's President's House, from Saturday, Nov. 27, 1790, to Friday, March 10, 1797.

The President's House was sited at 190 High Street, modernly addressed at 526-30 Market Street, according to independent historian Edward Lawler Jr. in "The Presidents House in Philadelphia: The Rediscovery of a Lost Landmark," published in the January 2002 issue of The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (page 7). The elegant mansion was under construction by December 1767 by Mary Lawrence Masters, wealthy widow of William L. Masters (ca. 1720-Nov. 24, 1760), according to the year's Proprietary Tax Records, with completion in 1768 (page 10). Also known as Masters-Penn House and Robert Morris Mansion, President Washington's future official residence was situated in the Center City East area of Philadelphia's historic Center City district.

Only the side walls and the foundations of the President's House remained after the mansion's gutting in 1832. In 1951, the building's wall remnants were demolished to allow for the creation of Independence Mall, according to Edward Lawler Jr. in "The President's House in Philadelphia: A Brief History," published on the Independence Hall Association's website, ushistory.org.

An interpretive sign for the President's House Site 1790-1800, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, backgrounds the site; diagrams the probable ground floor, with noted location of presidential family's bedrooms above kitchen; and includes official portraits of the site's presidential residents, George Washington (by Ellen Sharples, after James Sharples, ca. 1796-1797) and John Adams (by Charles Willson Peale, 1791-1794), and of Hercules Posey (attributed to Gilbert Stuart, ca. 1780s), Washington's cook, "considered one of the best chefs in America," who escaped from Mount Vernon to freedom on the president's 65th birthday, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 1797; the portrait of Hercules, however, does not depict Hercules and was not painted by Gilbert Stuart, according to ca. 2017 findings of conservators, curators and scholars, reported by restaurant critic and columnist Craig LaBan in the March 1, 2019, issue of The Philadelphia Inquirer; Friday, July 4, 2008, 14:09:15, image: chrisinphilly5448, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

President's House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation, a joint project of the City of Philadelphia and the National Park Service, opened 2010 as an open-air memorial at the site of President's House, George Washington's third presidential residence, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; "President's House Site exhibit, night view," NPS photo by Joseph E.B. Elliott: Public Domain, via NPS (National Park Service) Independence National Historical Park Pennsylvania @ https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery-item.htm?pg=4061522&id=698CA005-155D-451F-678DD12ACDFF474A&gid=68C49029-155D-451F-6769F4B1EFBC87A8

"Tablet at No. 1 Cherry Street -- the first presidential mansion of George Washington," November 1953 gelatin silver print photograph by Angelo Antonio "Anthony Angel" Rizzuto (Dec. 19, 1906-1967), Library of Congress Anthony Angel Collection, Washington DC: No known restrictions on publication, via Library of Congress (LOC) Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) @ https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2020636036/; Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Samuel_Osgood_House_1899_DAR_plaque.jpg

"Site of second presidential mansion occupied by General George Washington, February 23 to August 30, 1790," June 1955 gelatin silver print photograph by Angelo Antonio "Anthony Angel" Rizzuto (Dec. 19, 1906-1967), Library of Congress Anthony Angel Collection, Washington DC: No known restrictions on publication, via Library of Congress (LOC) Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) @ https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2020636179/; Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2nd_Presidential_Mansion_LOC-69900-69924v_cropped.jpg

An interpretive sign for the President's House Site 1790-1800, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, backgrounds the site; diagrams the probable ground floor, with noted location of presidential family's bedrooms above kitchen; and includes official portraits of the site's presidential residents, George Washington (by Ellen Sharples, after James Sharples, ca. 1796-1797) and John Adams (by Charles Willson Peale, 1791-1794), and of Hercules Posey (attributed to Gilbert Stuart, ca. 1780s), Washington's cook, "considered one of the best chefs in America," who escaped from Mount Vernon to freedom on the president's 65th birthday, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 1797; the portrait of Hercules, however, does not depict Hercules and was not painted by Gilbert Stuart, according to ca. 2017 findings of conservators, curators and scholars, reported by restaurant critic and columnist Craig LaBan in the March 1, 2019, issue of The Philadelphia Inquirer; Friday, July 4, 2008, 14:09:15, image: chrisinphilly5448, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisinphilly5448/2637060993/

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