At 1651 Pennsylvania Avenue, Blair-Lee House serves as the official state guesthouse of the United States, a modest white mansion. When a foreign head of state comes to Washington, this is where they sleep.
The house was built in 1824 and purchased by Francis Preston Blair, a newspaper publisher and advisor to President Andrew Jackson. The Blair family were powerful political operators — Francis's son, Montgomery Blair, served as Lincoln's Postmaster General. The government purchased the house in 1942 when the White House was undergoing renovations and Franklin Roosevelt needed alternative accommodations.
President Truman lived here for nearly four years — from 1948 to 1952 — while the White House was completely gutted and rebuilt with steel framing. The original structure had been found to be structurally unsound, its inner walls crumbling, one leg of Margaret Truman's piano reportedly crashing through the floor.
On November 1, 1950, two Puerto Rican nationalists attempted to storm Blair House to assassinate President Truman. In the gunfight on the sidewalk before you, one White House policeman, Leslie Coffelt, was killed, as was one of the attackers. The other was wounded and captured. Truman reportedly came to the window to see what the noise was about.
The plaque on the sidewalk honors Officer Coffelt. Truman attended his funeral.
The house has hosted Churchill, de Gaulle, the Queen of England, and nearly every head of state in the world. It sits across a quiet street from the most powerful building on earth.