Nov 1: John Adams Moves Into the White House, Gunfight at Blair House

Host 1 Welcome to On This Day in American History. On this day, November 1st, well, imagine being the most powerful person in the country but you're shivering in a drafty house with bare walls. Or like picture waking up from an afternoon nap to the sound of a gunfight right on your on your front lawn.

Host 2 Yeah, you probably pictured the modern presidency as this, you know, shielded impenetrable institution. But when you dig into the historical sources for today's deep dive, you actually find this through line of intense physical vulnerability and well, incredible resilience.

Host 1 Right. Let's start with that freezing house back in 1800. So John John Adams becomes the first president to move into the president's house, but wait, if he's the commander in chief, why is he moving into what sounds like, like, I mean, an active construction site?

Host 2 Well, you have to remember the context of the time. The capital wasn't this established cultural hub yet. It was essentially being carved right out of a swamp just to appease different political factions.

Host 1 Wow. So they were just entirely isolated out there.

Host 2 Exactly. Abigail Abigail Adams actually complained that nearby nearby Georgetown, quote, affords nothing so acquiring even even basic supplies, what they called the most trifling articles, meant dealing with this absolute logistical nightmare.

Host 1 Right. Shipping them from afar over terrible dirt roads, I imagine. So it's less like moving moving into a luxury mansion and more like, camping in a cold stone shell before the drywall's hung.

Host 2 That is spot on. there's no central heating the plaster is literally still damp and it is bitter cold yet despite all of that Adams writes a letter the very next day November 2nd blessing the home he wrote his hope that none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof

Host 1 which is wild to think about because every single single president since has lived there and And that blessing is still famous today, even though, you know, the British burned that that original structure down just 13 years and eight months later.

Host 2 True. The original walls didn't last, but the legacy of that space definitely survived.

Host 1 Well, that physical space actually became a massive liability much later on. Right. I mean, the White House didn't just start out drafty. A century and a half later, it was practically collapsing.

Host 2 Oh, absolutely. Fast forward to 1950, the White House requires such extreme renovations that Harry Truman is forced to move out completely, setting up residence across the street at Blair House, which instantly creates a terrifying security flaw.

Host 1 Because Blair House is just a townhouse. It's right on the street. You don't have don't have the iron gates or like the massive lawn acting as a buffer like you do at the White House.

Host 2 Exactly. The Exactly. The public can literally walk right up to the front steps. So on this 85 degree day, Truman is taking a nap inside and two two Puerto Rican nationalists launch this really brazen attack on the residence.

Host 1 When I was reading this part of the historical accounts, and I honestly couldn't believe it, Truman actually wakes up, goes to his third floor window and looks out directly into the middle of the gunfight.

Host 2 Yeah, he's staring right down at his own attempted assassination until policeman screams at him to get back.

Host 1 Truman wrote in his diary later, it's hell to be president which feels like quite quite an understatement for that afternoon.

Host 2 Definitely. And the vulnerability of that street level house house led to an immense tragedy during the firefight Officer Leslie Cauffelt is mortally wounded but as he's dying he still manages to shoot one of the attackers.

Host 1 Oh wow that is incredible.

Host 2 It really is. To To this day Coffelt is the only Secret Service member to die protecting a a president. It fundamentally altered the the whole security apparatus eventually eventually forcing Truman into bulletproof cars.

Host 1 So we go from from an unprotected house on a street to a completely different kind of physical space, a stadium where a grieving city is seeking some sense of normalcy.

Host 2 Right. Jumping to 2001, the September 11th attacks had delayed the baseball season, pushing the World Series back.

Host 1 Right. So it's Halloween night, but the game stretches past midnight into November 1st. And Derek Jeter is at bat in the bottom of the 10th inning and, he's been in this like major slump.

Host 2 But this is where the environment, the crowd, and the moment all converge. converge. Jeter hits hits a walk-off home run and as he's rounding the bases a fan in the stands holds up a sign that says Mr. November

Host 1 coining the nickname right there I mean it was baseball's first ever November World Series game

Host 2 and think about the mechanism of that moment Arizona eventually won the series but that home run provided profound therapeutic relief for New York

Host 1 it wasn't just a game it was a physical space where a recovering city could gather and feel a collective triumph

Host 2 exactly that's exactly that

Host 1 how much needed needed win okay also on this day in 1765 the stamp act took effect in 1952 the US tested its first hydrogen bomb Mike's and in in 1957 Michigan's Mackinac Bridge opened

Host 2 Consider how these physical spaces, an unfinished mansion, a vulnerable townhouse, a stadium in a recovering city, fundamentally shaped the historical legacies forged within them.

Host 1 Thanks for tuning in. See you back here tomorrow.