Why was the Presidents House torn down?
In the early 19th century, Market Street became the busiest commercial street in Philadelphia. The President’s House had been converted into a hotel by November 1800, but the business moved out by 1804. With very large rooms and high ceilings, the building proved inefficient for a hotel. Instead, the first floor of the main house was broken up into stores, and the upper floors became a boardinghouse. By the 1830s, the value of the land was so high that it made commercial sense to tear down the house and build stores in its place. There was no public outcry to preserve what had been the “White House” from 1790 to 1800. Nathaniel Burt bought the property in April 1832, tore down the main house, and opened his new stores by September. The demolition of the surviving walls of the house in the 20th century was unintentional and unnecessary. Had the WPA done its job when it studied the property in the 1930s, it is likely that these walls would not have been torn down in the 1950s.
