While Philadelphia served as the nation's temporary capital, George Washington lived in this house from 1790 to 1797 and brought nine enslaved people from Mount Vernon to work in his presidential household, including Oney Judge and Hercules Posey, both of whom later escaped to freedom. To evade a Pennsylvania law that would have automatically freed any enslaved person residing continuously in the state for six months, Washington rotated the enslaved members of his household in and out of the state just before the deadline. The house was demolished by 1951 without its significance being recognized, and a memorial commemorating the nine enslaved individuals opened on the site in 2010 following years of advocacy by historians and African American community groups. In early 2026, the federal government's removal and subsequent court-ordered restoration of the site's interpretive panels on slavery drew national attention to the ongoing dispute over how the history is presented.