Not all inaugurations in Washington DC took place at the US Capitol. Here’s where the other spots are (or were).
This is part two of my riveting four-part series about where Presidential inaugurations have taken place and how to visit these places today. Here’s how things break down:
Part One: Inaugurations at the US Capitol
Part Two: Inaugurations elsewhere in Washington, DC
Part Three: Inaugurations outside of Washington, DC
Part Four: Bonus Inaugurations
Old Brick Capitol
Inauguration Count: 1
Year: 1817
After the British inconveniently torched the Capitol in 1814, the government constructed a new brick building across the street to serve as a temporary capitol while the real one was rebuilt. James Monroe’s first inauguration took place out front. Starting in 1891, the building was used for various other purposes, from a POW prison for captured Confederate soldiers, to the headquarters of the National Women’s Party.
Visiting: The Old Brick Capitol is no more. It was demolished in 1929 to make way for the current Supreme Court building. However, while you cannot visit the Old Brick Capitol, you can occupy the space in which it once stood by simply arguing a case in front of the Supreme Court (or take a free self-guided tour like I did in February 2018).
Brown’s Indian Queen Hotel, Washington, DC
Inauguration Count: 1
Year: 1841 (April)
Shortly after becoming Vice President on March 4, 1841, John Tyler skipped town and headed home to Williamsburg, Virginia. Just a month later, on April 5, he received word that President Harrison had died. After traveling back to Washington, he took the oath of office in his hotel room at Brown’s Indian Queen Hotel on April 6 (he gave an inaugural address before Congress three days later). The building would later become the Metropolitan Hotel before being town down in 1835.
Visiting: The building is gone, but you can stop by its former location on the Northwest corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 6th Street NW. Today there is an office building where the hotel once stood. As a point of reference, the Newseum is across right across 6th street on the Northeast corner of the intersection.
Kirkwood Hotel, Washington, DC
Inauguration Count: 1
Year: 1865 (April)
As During his Vice Presidency, Andrew Johnson lived at the Kirkwood Hotel in Washington DC. That is where, on the night of April 14, 1865, he was awaken by a fellow boarder and told that President Lincoln had been shot. As it turns out, Johnson himself was also supposed to be assassinated that night, but his would-be assassin didn’t follow through. Instead, the assassin went and got plastered, and Johnson took the oath of office at the hotel the next day. The building was torn down ten years later.
Visiting: The Kirkwood Hotel once stood on the Northeast corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 12th Street NW. Today the site is home to an office building occupied by a law firm.
Update 4/1/2019: After I posted this on March 20, I was actually in DC March 28-31, so I popped by the former sites of the Brown’s Indian Queen Hotel (see above) and the Kirkwood Hotel to take some pics. When I got to the Kirkwood spot, I realized this was a very familiar intersection that I had passed through many times before. It’s crazy how much history is out there that we walk right past without even realizing!
It was windy that day so I ended up taking several selfies to try and get one where my hair wasn’t too crazy. Going in, I was thinking it might look odd to passersby to see some chick taking a bunch of photos of some random office building. As it turns out, I was definitely not the only person taking a bunch of photos at this intersection. I was just the weirdo facing the “wrong” direction. The reason this intersection was so familiar is that it is also home to the infamous Trump International Hotel in the Old Post Office Building, which sits directly across Pennsylvania Avenue from the old Kirkwood site. So, there’s another Presidential tie in, I guess. Construction of the Old Post Office Building did not begin until 1892, so it would not have been there during the time Johnson resided at the Kirkwood Hotel.
The White House
Inauguration Count: 3
Years: 1945 (January), 1945 (April), 1974
Unlike other inauguration sites, the White House has hosted a combination of formal inauguration ceremonies and unscheduled swearing-in ceremonies. When FDR was inaugurated for his fourth term on January 20, 1945, there were austerity measures in place due to WWII, so the big parade, ceremony at the US Capitol, and other festivities were scrapped in favor of a more modest ceremony at the South Portico of the White House. Just 82 days later, Roosevelt passed away on April 12th; Harry Truman took the Oath of Office in the Cabinet Room that evening.
On August 9, 1974, Gerald Ford took the Oath of Office in the East Room of the White House, becoming the only President to take office due to the previous President’s resignation. Unlike other Presidents that took over in the middle of a term, he did have a formal inauguration ceremony with an invited audience, a speech, etc., but this was nowhere near the scale of a typical inauguration.
Side Note: There technically have been some other times that the Oath of Office has been taken at the White House. See Part Four of this series for more on that.
Visiting: The South Portico is on the exterior of the building, so it’s easy enough to see. It’s on the side facing the Washington Monument, and you can see it from the National Mall (it’s visible in the photo above). You pretty much have to know someone to visit the Cabinet Room, but the East Room is part of the standard White House tour. I’ve of course seen the South Portico, but as of yet have never been inside the White House.
I’ve never been to the real East Room, but here’s a pic I took in September 2014 of the replica of the East Room at Nixon’s Presidential Library. If it was reflecting Ford’s inauguration day, there’d be a replica platform with a replica podium in front of the replica gold drapes.
Update 7/26/2019: I finally did go on the standard White House tour about a week ago. Below is a pic of me in the real East Room, which is now sporting area rugs, but otherwise looks very similar to the replica.
