The President’s House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation

The open-air installation was designed to give visitors a sense of the house where the first two presidents of the United States, George Washington and John Adams, served their terms of office. The commemorative site pays homage to nine documented enslaved persons of African descent who were part of the Washington household and addresses the topic of slavery in the early history of the United States.

Included are brick foundation walls that are representative of the original architecture of the house; five motion-activated video screens with stories depicting the lives of the enslaved; illustrated glass panels and porcelain text panels; a glass vitrine overlooking structural remains uncovered during a 2007 archeological dig; bronze footprints symbolizing the road to freedom; a wooden and glass memorial space for solemn reflection, etched with tribal names and the places of origin of the millions of Africans who were brought to America; and a granite wall etched with the names of the nine documented enslaved individuals: Austin, Christopher, Giles, Hercules, Joe, Moll, Oney Judge, Paris, and Richmond.

Update (2026)

On January 22, 2026, at the direction of the Trump administration, the National Park Service removed all interpretive panels from The President’s House site. This action follows an executive order signed in March 2025 that directed the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service to review and remove content at federal sites nationwide deemed to “inappropriately disparage” Americans.

In the months prior, dozens of Philadelphia organizations, including the Association for Public Art, signed a coalition letter organized by the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia opposing the removal or revision of exhibits at Independence National Historical Park. Read the letter here.