4 min readFew addresses in Washington carry more history than Blair House. When King Charles and Queen Camilla arrive in Washington D.C. for their state visit to the United States this week, they will be staying at Blair House. Also known as the President’s Guest House, it’s previously been described as the “world’s most exclusive hotel” thanks to the number of high-profile world leaders and foreign dignitaries who have stayed there in the past, including Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip during their state visit to the U.S. in 2007.
Below, a brief history of Blair House.
The founding of Blair House
The original Blair House was built around 1824 by Dr. Joseph Lovell, the eighth Surgeon General of the United States. In 1836, Francis Preston Blair, who ran the Washington Globe newspaper, published from 1830 to 1845, bought the property for $6,500 at the time. Blair became something of a political institution himself, serving as an informal counselor to multiple presidents—most notably Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, and William H. Taft—from his home across the street from the White House.
This 2005 photo shows a view down Pennsylvania Avenue. Blair House, with its butter yellow façade, can be seen in the middle, sitting directly across the street from the White House.
The house witnessed a number of significant historical moments over the following century. It was at Blair House where Robert E. Lee turned down President Abraham Lincoln’s request to lead the Union Army. According to TIME, it was also where General William Tecumseh Sherman married the daughter of Senator Thomas Ewing of Ohio, who had adopted Sherman when he was nine years old after his father’s death.
In 1939, Blair House became the first building to receive a federally recognized landmark designation, preceding the formal National Historic Landmark designation it received in 1973.
Queen Elizabeth, with Blair House seen in the top left corner behind her, as she greets schoolchildren in D.C. in 2007.
The Federal-style townhouse celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2024. Today, the Blair House complex consists of four interconnected townhouses totaling 70,000 square feet, with 15 guest rooms, three formal dining rooms, two conference rooms, a kitchen, a beauty salon, an exercise room, and an in-house laundry facility.
How Blair House became an official guest house
A 1964 photo of a guest bedroom inside Blair House.
A butler sets the table inside Blair House in an undated photo.
The official account from the White House Historical Association holds that Blair House became the official presidential guest house because the White House grew overcrowded as the United States mobilized for World War II. The State Department began renting the property in 1942, and by the end of that year the government purchased it for $150,000.
But there may have been a more immediate catalyst: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill stayed at the White House during his first wartime visit in December 1941 and then again January 1942, and displayed what The Churchill Project describes as a casual familiarity that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt found an imposition. On one occasion, Churchill attempted to enter President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s private apartments at 3 a.m. to wake the president for a conversation. The episode is believed to have contributed to the decision to establish a dedicated guest house. Churchill, for his part, continued staying at the White House in 1943 and beyond.
Past guests at Blair House
Japan’s Empress Michiko and Emperor Akihito wave to bystanders as they arrive at Blair House in 1994.
The guest list at Blair House over the decades reads as a roll call of 20th and 21st century history. Notable visitors over the decades have included Queen Elizabeth, French President Charles de Gaulle, Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, among many, many others.
A 1950 infographic outlining the scene of the assassination attempt on President Truman.
President Harry Truman and his family lived actually there during a major White House renovation from 1948 to 1952. During that time, on November 1, 1950, Puerto Rican nationalists attempted to assassinate Truman at Blair House. Per Politico, Truman was “taking a midafternoon nap in his second-floor quarters when the shooting began. He went to a window and saw [one of the assailants] below on the front steps. A White House guard saw the president standing by the window and shouted to him to get down. The president obeyed. Unfazed by the foiled assassination attempt, Truman kept his scheduled appointments that day. ‘A president,’ Truman later said, ‘has to expect these things.’”
Then-newly inaugurated President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter seen departing Blair House to attend the inaugural parade in 1977.
Presidents-elect typically stay at Blair House before the inauguration, usually for a few days. In 2009, there was a kerfuffle over a request from President-elect Barack Obama to move into Blair House two weeks early. It was initially declined due to a prior commitment to foreign dignitaries, including former Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Some commentators suggested the Obamas had been snubbed by the outgoing Bush administration, a characterization both sides rejected. Most reports at the time overlooked the reason for the early arrival: the Obamas wanted their daughters Malia and Sasha to be able to make their first day of classes at Sidwell Friends School on January 4, well ahead of inauguration day on January 20. The Obama family did move into Blair House the week before the inauguration.
Happy Rockefeller, widow of former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, signs the condolence book for President Gerald Ford at Blair House in 2007. Behind her are former President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter, along with former President Bill Clinton.
During presidential state funerals, the former president’s family traditionally resides at Blair House for the duration of the observances, receiving condolences from current and former officials. Most recently, the families of President George H.W. Bush in 2018 and President Jimmy Carter in 2025 both stayed there.
Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at .
