Daniel Heyward built the Heyward-Washington House you see here in 1772, and his son Thomas Heyward Jr., one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, later lived in it. Thomas Heyward Jr. was a patriot, a lawyer, and a rice planter who owned hundreds of enslaved people — a combination that captured the contradictions of the American founding with particular clarity. He signed a document declaring that all men were created equal while managing an economy entirely dependent on the legal ownership of human beings.
In 1791, the house was rented to the city to provide accommodation for President George Washington during his Southern Tour. Washington stayed here for a week, touring the city, attending balls and dinners, and meeting with local leaders. He was careful to observe local customs and to avoid any statements that might be taken as criticism of the slavery that surrounded him.
The house is now operated by the Charleston Museum and is considered the oldest house museum in Charleston, dating its collection from 1772. The kitchen building behind the main house contains exhibits on the enslaved people who maintained the household — whose labor made it possible for Washington to dine, sleep, and move through the city as he did. Their names are recovered in part; their full stories are not.