About Blair House

Deeply ingrained in our nation’s history, Blair House has served as the home away from home for visiting chiefs of state, heads of government, and their delegations since 1942.

An invitation from the President of the United States to occupy this historic residence is an honor of the highest significance. Operated by the Office of the Chief of Protocol, U.S. Department of State (www.state.gov/s/cpr), Blair House provides accommodations for visiting foreign delegations and office space for State Department protocol, security, facilities, and curatorial representatives, as well as for the Blair House Foundation.

The Blair House staff extends the finest of American hospitality to its guests, ensuring their experience is cordial, comfortable and secure and appropriately conveys the honor to which they are entitled. When visiting leaders reside here, the flags of their nations fly proudly over Blair House, a courtesy that serves as both a gracious welcome and a symbol of the home’s crucial role in diplomatic relations.

Inside the Home

Composed of four seamlessly connected townhomes—two on Pennsylvania Avenue and two facing Lafayette Park on Jackson Place—Blair House retains the unique outward appearance of each original house with a carefully integrated interior.

Today, the complex contains more than 120 rooms, a total area of 60,600 square feet, and a staff of 18 full-time employees to oversee all aspects of hospitality and maintenance.

Blair House has 14 guestrooms, each with a full bathroom, three formal dining rooms, two large conference rooms, a hot and cold kitchen overseen by an executive chef and sous chef, a fully equipped beauty salon, an exercise room, and an in-house laundry facility.

Rooms of Blair House

  • Lincoln Room

    During his presidency, Abraham Lincoln would often stroll across Pennsylvania Avenue for quiet, off-the-record conversations with his cabinet member Montgomery Blair, in what was then Blair’s study and former law office. This continued family patriarch Francis Preston Blair’s tradition of receiving Presidents, notably Jackson and Van Buren, in this room.

  • Blair Drawing Rooms

    Blair Drawing Room

    Part of the original 1824 Blair House, the elegant rear Drawing Room adjoins the front Drawing Room, dining room and garden via broad doorways designed to accommodate large gatherings. Weddings have taken place here, including Elizabeth Blair’s to Samuel Phillips Lee in 1843 and General William Tecumseh Sherman’s to Ellen Ewing, daughter of Zachary Taylor’s Interior Secretary Thomas Ewing, in 1850.

  • Library

    The Blair House Library houses over 1,500 books on the history and culture of the United States and other countries. Foreign delegations often present Blair House with books about their homelands. A selection of these important diplomatic gifts, many signed by current and former heads of state, is always on display to convey that America values the international friendships they represent and respects the history and culture of other nations.

  • Lee Dining Room

    One of the most frequently used rooms in the Blair House complex, the Lee Dining Room is well-sized for luncheon meetings and formal dinners. Its décor includes Blair family 18th century Chinese export porcelain and English Georgian pine paneling, donated by Congressman Peter H.B. Frelinghuysen, Jr. and his brother and sister from a historic house in western New Jersey. During his residency at Blair House, President Truman used the Lee Dining Room for Cabinet meetings.

  • Truman Study

    When the White House underwent a major renovation from 1948 to 1952, President Harry S. Truman moved into Blair House and chose this room as his office. In President Truman’s time, the walls were painted green; he worked at a small desk with his back to the fireplace.

  • Jackson Place Conference Room

    The President, Vice President, and Secretary of State have all hosted important meetings in this imposing space, the largest room in the Blair House complex. Also called the Treaty Room and featuring an antique conference table seating 22, it accommodates the signing of important agreements, planning of official visits, and media interviews.

  • Jackson Place Sitting Room

    This room was once part of one of two c.1860 townhouses on Jackson Place that were added to Blair House in 1969–1970. Originally used as a parlor, today it and the accompanying Jackson Place Dining Room serve as quiet settings for hospitality service and small informal gatherings.

The Gardens

The Blair House gardens were created during the major renovation of the house in the 1980s and were funded through generous donations from the following individuals:

  • Mr. and Mrs. Jack Massey: Front gardens (facing Pennsylvania Avenue)

  • Arthur and Janet Ross: Arthur and Janet Ross Garden (large interior garden, above)

  • Fleur Cowles: Small interior courtyard

Mr. and Mrs. Ross subsequently endowed the gardens to maintain and preserve them in perpetuity.