Blair House, Washington, DC
Posted by: 
hykesj
N 38° 53.923 W 077° 02.312
18S E 323220 N 4307511
Blair House, just across the street from the White House in Washington, DC, serves as the President’s guest house for visiting heads of state and their delegations.
Waymark Code: WMX635
Location: District of Columbia, United States
Date Posted: 12/02/2017
Views: 5
Prior to World War II, foreign heads of state visiting the national capital might spend a night or two at the White House and then move to their embassy building or a local hotel. During the early 1940s, due to increased diplomatic activities, additional space was needed for visiting dignitaries. It wasn’t unusual for the State Department to rent the old Blair House which had recently become vacated and was located near the White House for such purposes. President Manuel Prado of Peru was the first visiting head of state to stay there.
A frequent visitor to Washington during this time was Winston Churchill along with his entourage. Churchill, who was a bit of a “night owl,” often kept President Roosevelt up late, talking and drinking brandy. According to anecdote, one night Eleanor Roosevelt found Churchill wandering the hallways around 3:00 AM in his pajamas with a cigar in his hand looking to wake the President for additional conversation. She managed to convince Churchill that whatever the matter was, it could wait till morning. It wasn’t long afterwards that Blair House was acquired by the U.S. government to serve as the President’s official guest house.
The house was built in 1824 by Dr. Joseph Lovell, surgeon general of the U.S. Army. After Lovell’s death, the house was purchased by Francis Preston Blair who had moved to Washington to become editor of the Washington Globe newspaper. One of Francis P. Blair’s sons, Montgomery Blair, also lived in the house for a while during the middle of the nineteenth century. Montgomery Blair served as President Abraham Lincoln’s Postmaster General and has been featured on a U.S. postage stamp. The house remained in the Blair family right up until the time it was purchased by the State Department in 1942.
Appearances can be deceiving and you would never guess from the image on the stamp that Blair House actually contains 120 rooms! This is due to the fact that several adjacent houses have been connected internally to form one large interconnecting building while maintaining the appearance of separate structures on the exterior. In addition to serving as a guest house, Blair House is also used for official meetings as well as foreign-policy related receptions and dinners.
According to their official website, the “Blair House staff extends the finest of American hospitality to its guests, ensuring their experience is cordial, comfortable…and appropriately conveys the honor to which they are entitled.” This seems a far cry from the days when the house was owned by Montgomery Blair who, at least in the opinion of journalist Noah Brooks, was “a good Postmaster General, [but] the meanest man in the whole government.”
Stamp Issuing Country: United States
Date of Issue: 4-May-1998
Denomination: 15 cents
Color: multicolored
Stamp Type: Single Stamp
Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]
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