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Our Retail Shops
White House Visitor Center Flagship Store 1450 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, D.C. 20006. (Adjacent to the White House between 14th and 15th Streets, NW.) Reach Us by Phone: 202-208-7031 Shop hours: Monday-Sunday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., closed on Christmas Day and New Year's Day
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African Americans in Lafayette Square, 1795-1965
The phrase "The Half Had Not Been Told Me" is taken from a Biblical reference Frederick Douglass used to describe the beauty of the new Freedman's Savings Bank and Trust building, once located on Lafayette Square. Douglass compared the experience of seeing the building for the first time to the way the Queen of Sheba, an African queen, felt upon
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Our Locations
The White House Historical Association Offices740 Jackson Place, NW, Washington, D.C. 20006For mailing please use: P.O. Box 27624 Washington, D.C. 20038
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White House Visitor Center
In July 2012, the National Park Service’s White House Visitor Center began undergoing a $12.6 million revitalization through a public-private partnership with the White House Historical Association. The Association's donation of $12.5 million for the project and operating endowment helped make this extraordinary public resource possible. David M. Rubenstein's gift of $5 million to the Association for the White House Visitor Center ensures ce
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Scholarship
The Historic Decatur House
When Commodore Stephen Decatur, Jr., and his wife, Susan, moved to the new federal city in 1816, they purchased land on the northwest corner of the President’s Park (today's Lafayette Square) with the prize money Decatur was awarded for his naval conquests in the War of 1812. The Decaturs commissioned Benjamin Henry Latrobe, America’s first professional architect and engineer, to desi
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Scholarship
Washington, D.C.'s "Contraband" Camps
On April 16, 1862, Congress passed the Compensated Emancipation Act, ending slavery in the District of Columbia and delivering long-awaited freedom to more than 3,000 men, women, and children.1 America’s capital city became a beacon of liberty for enslaved individuals in bordering slave states like Maryland and Virginia, many of whom ran away and crossed into the District to pursue their own li
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Native American Delegations, Diplomacy, and Protests at the White House
Thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, the formation of the United States, and construction of the White House, Native peoples such as the Piscataway and Nacostines lived and prospered in the region of what is now Washington, D.C. As more colonists descended upon the area, they seized lands from Native Americans—including the land between the Potomac Ri
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Scholarship
Building the President's House with Enslaved Labor
In several ways, James Hoban’s life resembles the classic immigrant success story. Born to a modest family in County Kilkenny, Ireland, Hoban studied at the Dublin Society School of Architectural Drawing before seeking greater opportunities abroad. He arrived in the new United States by 1785 and was settled in Charleston, South Carolina, by 1787, where he and his business partner Pierce Pu
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Scholarship
Canadian Visits to the White House
“Geography has made us neighbors,” President John F. Kennedy told the Canadian Parliament in May 1961, “History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies.”After Canada became a nation in 1867, ties between it and the United States grew closer. In 1927, the two countries received ambassadors. On December 6, Canadian Governor General Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess
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Lafayette Square
The 18th century uses of Lafayette Square included a family graveyard, an apple orchard, a racetrack, and a market. The federal government eventually purchased the land as part of the White House grounds and workers, including numerous enslaved African Americans, camped there during its construction. To create a grand avenue in front of the White House, President Thomas Jefferson ordered
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Good Neighbors: FDR, Major Gist, and Blair House
From its beginnings in the mid-nineteenth and into the early twentieth century, the historic preservation movement in the United States drew its leadership from private citizens, not government officials.1 An archival collection kept at Blair House, The President’s Guest House, records the pioneering alliance of Major Gist Blair, the last family descendant to live there, and President Franklin D. Ro
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Press Release
Hugh S. Sidey Scholarship Award Recipient Announced
The White House Historical Association, in partnership with Iowa State University’s Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, have awarded Cleo Westin with the Hugh S. Sidey Scholarship in Journalism. Westin will receive a $5,000 stipend to visit Washington, D.C., attend the annual White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner and be matched with mentors from the White House Press Corps. West
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