Blair House
Blair House is a guest
house for state visitors to
Washington, D.C. (
capital of the
United States).
The building is located at 1651-1653
Pennsylvania Avenue,
Northwest, adjacent to
Lafayette Park. The house was originally built in
1824 as a residence for
Joseph Lovell, first
Surgeon General of the United States. In 1836 it was acquired by
Francis Preston Blair, a
newspaper publisher and influential advisor to President
Andrew Jackson. It would remain in his family for the following century.
During much of the presidency of
Harry Truman, it acted as the residence of the
President of the United States, while the interior of the
White House, which had been found to have serious structural faults, was completely gutted and rebuilt. On
November 1,
1950 Puerto Rican nationalists
Griselio Torresola and
Oscar Collazo attempted to assassinate Truman in the Blair House.
During the 1980s, the Blair House underwent significant restorations, with a new wing added to the rear.
*
Blair House Official Website*
National Park Service:
Blair House*
WETA ExploreDC.com:
Blair House
