Blair & Lee Houses

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  • Address
    1653 Pennsylvania Ave NW, White House Area
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  • Transport
    underground rail: Farragut West

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The 1824 Blair House has been the official presidential guesthouse since 1942, when Eleanor Roosevelt got sick of tripping over dignitaries in her White House. A plaque on the front fence commemorates the bodyguard killed here while protecting President Truman from a 1950 assassination attempt by Puerto Rican pro-independence terrorists.

The neighboring 1858 Lee House was built by the famous general's family. Here scion Robert E Lee declined command of the Union Army when the Civil War erupted.