The first-ever picket for gay rights in Washington, DC took place outside the White House in April 1965. One of the first protests of its kind in United States history, this moment stands alongside better-known protests and uprisings like Stonewall in New York as one of the origins of the American LGB rights movement. What would you picket for? Text what would be on your protest sign to someone you’d want to join your picket line.
Participants in the first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights marched across E Street in front of the South Lawn of the White House on October 14, 1979. The 1979 march is seen as the birth of a national movement for LGB rights that helped small, local organizations unite, know that they were not alone, and bring their issues to a national stage showcasing their collective power.
You are standing at the location of the second display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in Washington, DC. In October of 1988, 8,288 panels covering almost the entire grass field were placed to commemorate some of the many lives lost during the AIDS epidemic. During the display, one AIDS activist, Duane Puryear, made his own memorial panel for himself. The AIDS quilt is community arts and memorialization project organized by the NAMES Project Foundation.
In 1992, protestors came to the White House to scatter the ashes of their loved ones who passed away from AIDS onto the White House Lawn. Acting out of grief, anger and love, these protesters demanded that President George H. W. Bush and the United States government take action to end the AIDS epidemic.
Bernard Baruch (1870-1965), a financial advisor from New York City, made his fortune on Wall Street. His greatest satisfaction, however, was his service to his country as an economic advisor during World War I and World War II and as a confidante to six presidents. The story is told that Mr. Baruch disliked being driven to the White House to confer. He preferred to sit on a bench and wait for a signal light from the White House indicating that the president was ready to meet.
The memorial to the Boy Scouts of America stands on the site of the first Boy Scout Jamboree in 1937. It is one of the few memorials in Washington, D.C. commemorating a living cause. The funds to build this memorial were raised by Scout units throughout the United States, and each donor signed one of several scrolls that were placed in the pedestal of the statue.
Built in 1828, these sandstone guardians silently watched over the U.S. Capitol grounds until 1874. In 1889, this gatehouse and its twin, located on Seventeenth Street and Constitution Avenue, were reconstructed in their present locations. These houses have weathered several floods, water, and the effects of acid rain. On the southeast side are markers indicating the high-water marks during floods.
Built in 1828, these sandstone guardians silently watched over the U.S. Capitol grounds until 1874. In 1889, this gatehouse and its twin, located on Seventeenth Street and Constitution Avenue, were reconstructed in their present locations. These houses have weathered several floods, water, and the effects of acid rain. On the southeast side are markers indicating the high-water marks during floods.InscriptionsBulfinch Gate HouseErected about 1828Under Direction of Charles Bul
This fountain memorializes Archibald Butt and Francis Millet, two men who died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic in April 1912. This memorial, planned by their friends and approved by Congress, honors the two of them together, inseparable in memory as in life.
Designed by Architect of the Capital, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the Commodore Stephen Decatur House was the home of the famous naval captain from 1818 until Decatur’s death in 1820. The elegant Federal-style mansion is located in Lafayette Square and has hosted many prominent politicians and foreign envoys during its two century lifetime.
The First Division Monument sits on a plaza in President's Park, west of the White House and south of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB) at the corner of 17th Street and State Place, NW. The monument was conceived by the Society of the First Division, the veteran's organization of the U.S. Army's First Division, to honor the valiant efforts of the soldiers who fought in World War I.
This monument, located in the center of Lafayette Park, portrays Major General Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) as he appeared while reviewing his troops at the Battle of New Orleans, Louisiana, on January 8, 1815. Thirteen years later he became the seventh president of the United States. The bronze statue faces west, while Jackson and his charger look slightly south toward the White House. Grouped at the base are four of the cannons Jackson captured in Pensacola, Florida.
The statue commemorates Polish patriot Thaddeus Kosciuszko (1746-1817) and his life-long dedication to fighting for freedom in America and Poland. His skill in building fortifications in key places, including West Point, contributed greatly to the success of freedom in the American Revolution. This bronze memorial, located at the northeast corner of Lafayette Park, was dedicated in 1910.
This memorial was erected in 1891 on the southeast corner of Lafayette Park. Some believe the bronze statue portrays the Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834) petitioning the French National Assembly for assistance to the Americans in their fight for independence.
Comte de Rochambeau (1725-1807) commanded the 5,500-man Royal French Expeditionary Force sent to help the American revolutionary forces from 1780 to 1782. His skillful leadership and professional wisdom were vital to the American victory at Yorktown in 1781. The statue depicts him directing his troops. Rochambeau is wearing the uniform of France. He was the "official" representative of the King of France.
This statue memorializes Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, the Continental Army of the United States Inspector General. The Prussian-born general was highly skilled in military tactics and standards. This memorial honors von Steuben for his transformation of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and his service to the American people.
This monument consists of a bronze equestrian statue of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) and a square platform with a bronze soldier at each corner, representing the four branches of the U.S. Army: infantry, artillery, cavalry, and engineers. President Theodore Roosevelt dedicated the monument on October 15, 1903. This site was chosen because General Sherman was reported to have stood here while reviewing returning Civil War troops in May 1865.
First Lady Claudia Taylor (Lady Bird) Johnson created the Committee for a More Beautiful Capital. Part of her dream was to "frame the White House in water." Each fountain is made from an enormous slab of granite 18 feet square, nearly a foot thick, and weighing 55 tons. The granite was quarried in Morton, Minnesota, from rock more than 3.5 million years old. These rainbow granite monoliths were a gift of publishing magnate Mrs. Enid Haupt.
Like the White House, the Treasury Department has been on its original site since 1800. Declared a National Historic Landmark in 1972, the US Treasury Building is the oldest departmental building in Washington. Treasury's responsibilities encompass revenue collection, money production, accounting, and economic policy formulation.
First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy worked with architect John Carl Warnecke to design a square that preserved the 19th-century buildings and historical character of the park, while also making room for modern office buildings. In 1970, Lafayette Square Historic District was placed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Hundreds of enslaved people were involved in nearly every aspect of construction including quarrying and transporting stone, cutting timber, producing bricks, and building the walls and roof. Throughout each phase of construction, enslaved and free African Americans worked as axe men, stone cutters, carpenters, brick makers, sawyers, and laborers.
Lafayette Park has long served as a place for political and social demonstrations. people continue to exercise their right of free speech here, using Lafayette Park as a stage and the White House as an audience. Demonstrations often take the form of nighttime vigils, marches, picketing, and other peaceful means of public awareness.
The Eisenhower Executive Office Building was first built as the Navy, War, and State Department building and completed in 1888. The stables for the president's horses stood on this location prior to that time. In 1949 the building was officially named the Executive Office Building. Today this building serves as the ceremonial office of the vice-president of the United States.
The White House is the oldest public building in the District of Columbia, and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the most famous address in the United States. Here every president except George Washington has led America's government. The White House has come to symbolize the American Presidency throughout the world. While the Capitol represents freedom and the ideals of the nation, the White House stands for the power and statesmanship of the chief executive.
White House Ablaze For Americans, August 24, 1814, was one of the darkest days of the War of 1812. After a victory at nearby Bladensburg, Maryland, British soldiers marched on Washington, destroying the U.S. Capitol and many other public buildings. President James Madison sent word to his wife, Dolley, to flee the President's House.
The seven acre Lafayette Park is directly north of the White House. The land that comprises Lafayette Park had been used as a race track, a showplace for caged animals, a graveyard, a slave market, and an encampment for soldiers, as well as for many political protests and celebrations that continue today.
In November 1923, First Lady Grace Coolidge gave permission for the District of Columbia Public Schools to erect a Christmas tree on the Ellipse south of the White House. The organizers named the tree the "National Christmas Tree." That Christmas Eve, at 5 p.m., President Calvin Coolidge walked from the White House to the Ellipse and "pushed the button" to light the cut 48-foot Balsam fir, as 3,000 enthusiastic spectators looked on.
These five-foot high, four-foot wide ornamental bronze urns were cast here in Washington at the Navy Yard using melted cannon from the Civil War. The Ordinance Department of the U.S. Navy crafted them, and they were erected in Lafayette Park in 1872. They were presented by Secretary of the Navy George Robeson. The urns were included in the 1852 plans for the park by renowned landscape architect Andrew Jackson Downing.
When the British invaded Washington and burned public buildings in August 1814, the White House was destroyed, a a new home for the First Family was needed. Upon Dolley and James Madison's return to Washington a few weeks later, Colonel John Tayloe offered the use of his home to President and First Lady Madison for a temporary "Executive Mansion."
The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution donated the Settlers of the District of Columbia Memorial in April 1935 "as a way of teaching history." The simple granite shaft stands near the sidewalk along Fifteenth Street. Its purpose is to remember the original eighteen patentees "prior to 1700 whose land grants embraced the site of the federal city." A patentee is someone to whom a grant is given. In this case, the grant was ownership of land that became
President's Park preserves the cultural resources of the White House—its architecture, artifacts, landscape design, gardens and grounds, and the surrounding parklands—in ways that foster and preserve dignity and respect for the office of the presidency, while still allowing for their use.
A key feature of the design of the Capitol city, the President has lived in a home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since 1800. Although it didn’t bear the name we know it by today – the White House – until around 1811, President John Adams and wife Abigail were the home’s first residents, and it has been the official residence of the President ever since.
The White House Kitchen Garden was planted on the South Lawn by First Lady Michelle Obama in 2009. The 2,800 square foot garden provides locally-grown food for the first family and White House guests. What's more, the garden is a model for how people like you can grow nutritious food at home. Although the White House Kitchen Garden is a recent addition, there is a long tradition of produce-growing at the White House.
Rainbow colors lit up the White House on the evening of June 26, 2015, in celebration of the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision. The decision, which was announced that same day, legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. On December 13, 2022, the White House was lit up in rainbow colors again, this time the south portico to celebrate the Respect for Marriage Act being signed into law by President Biden.
Public tour requests must be submitted through your Member of Congress. These self-guided tours are generally available Tuesday through Saturday (excluding federal holidays or unless otherwise noted). Tours are scheduled on a first come, first served basis. Requests can be submitted up to three months in advance and no less than 21 days in advance. You are encouraged to submit your request as early as possible as a limited number of spaces are available. The White House tour
This four-foot-high shaft of pink granite stands on the north and south meridian of the District of Columbia. It is symbolically the official starting point for measurement of highway distances from Washington, DC. On July 7, 1919, the first transcontinental military motor convoy, destined for San Francisco, California, started from this spot.
