and in 1818, he built the decatur house, which is now the home of the white house historical association, and if you goed in the decatur house and you look up, you see a very similar entrance. it's almost like a miniature of this dome that we have in our church space. and the original church was built as a greek cross, so it was an even four sides, and just six years later in 1822, they expanded the church building to make room for more seating. we don't know who the architect was who did that expansion and who built the bell tower. tragically, latrobe had already died at that time. he had died in new orleans. and i imagine there might be some historians in the room. and if anyone is interested in helping us solve the mystery, we would love to know. the bell tower is very beautiful addition to the church and inside the bell tower, it houses a bell that was forged by paul revere's son, joseph revere. stamped on it, it says 1822 boston revere. it's not the only revere bell that came to washington, but it is the only one that is still in its place and being you'd for its oernlg purpose. it'

and it's my privilege to welcome you to decatur house as well as to the white house historical association. tonight's program is very exciting, and we're honored to partner with the -- our good friends at the richard nixon foundation. i'd like to welcome dr. jim cavanaugh, the chairman of the board of the nixon foundation, his wife esther right up here in the front row. [ applause ]

decatur house was the first private residence in 1818, stephen decatur moved in, in 1819. and then the building on the north side. those are the three landmark buildings that have stayed. since then it has become a square for social protests. really starting i would say organized with the suffrages and that cause with the wilson administration. since then there has been a wide variety of social, political and environmental issues that people take advantage of using that symbol to protest what they believe is wrong policy. that has really been around since the 1910's, beginning with the suffrages. >> did you have something to add? >> yes. going back a little bit further, one thing i wanted to point out with lafayette square was initially when the white house walking being built, both the enslaved and free work orioles that were building the white house were staying in lafayette square. that was sort of a city of workers and their living quarters, and then their working spaces as well. the neighborhood has changed more drastically. now it is obviously a beautiful place to ga

white house historical association, and it's my privilege to welcome many of you back to historic decatur house and the white house historical association for another one of our wonderful lectures. tonight is one of the annual national heritage lectures that we do in partnership with the u.s. capitol historical society and the u.s. supreme court historical society, and we have all our wonderful colleagues tonight and my great friend the new president of the capitol historical society. on june 4, 1919, the 19th amendment was passed and sent to the states for ratification. the suffragists used the white house as a backdrop to challenge inequity and bring attention to their cause. and tonight we look forward to hearing more about their successful efforts to secure womens right to vote. but before i introduce our speaker i have a couple of other introductions and things i'd like to share. first of all we have guests from smith college here tonight, the washington club of smith college. stand up the washington smith college crowd. they're our special guests tonight and we're honored to have them. i'

but the statues out there representing the -- the heroes, that the homes here like decatur house with his wife susan, the cameron house which was -- i forget, cameron was a senator i think. senator cameron from pennsylvania. who had a gorgeous younger wife i'm told. who was having an affair with her neighbor henry adams. where do we get -- >> henry adams got around. >> and i could say this because i was married at saint john's church, my four children were baptized there and two were married there. why was i -- because covering the white house for over seven presidents, i was the youngest kid on the staff. i had to go over every week and cover the president of the united states going to church at saint john's. it is the only church i knew in town when my future husband bill -- but what is it about the real estate of the white house that the suffragists realized was kind of their pot of gold. >> none of it was an accident, right. so the cameron house headquarters originally if you're going to set up a d.c. office of a political movement and want to have access to federal power, that is

white house historical association, and it's my privilege to welcome many of you back to historic decatur house and the white house historical association for another one of our wonderful lectures. tonight is one of the annual national heritage lectures that we do in partnership with the u.s. capitol historical society and the u.s. supreme court historical society, and we have

the creation of an american institution, ordinarily we would do this at the house at historic decatur house which is our base of operation

and it's my privilege to welcome you to decatur house as well as to the white house historical association. tonight's program is very exciting, and we're honored to partner with the -- our good friends at the richard nixon foundation. i'd like to welcome dr. jim cavanaugh, the chairman of the board of the nixon foundation, his wife esther right up here in the front row. [ applause ] and hugh hewitt, the president of the nixon foundation who you'll hear from in a few moments. we have many distinguished guests here today. many former officials from the nixon and other administrations and staff and friends of the nixon foundation, and we're honored to have you here tonight. this year marks the 50th anniversary of patricia nixon becoming the first lady of the united states. under her leadership, the white house collection added over 600 paintings and furnishing elements to the white house collection which is the most of any presidency. the significance of this will be discussed in tonight's program, but it's very important to us here at the white house historical association as a core part of

the creation of an american institution, ordinarily we would do this at the house at historic decatur house which is our base of operation on lafayette park but as we are all working from home and joining you in your home we are trying out the new mode of communication, it is perfectly fitting with our historic mission, as all of you know we were founded in 1961 by first lady jacqueline kennedy who had the vision at such a young age and a short period of time as first lady to create an organization like the white house historical association to get nonprofit, nonpartisan support to the work of maintaining the museum standard of the white house and also in education mission to teach him to tell stories of the white house in history going back to 1792 when george washington who were talking about today actually selected that piece of land in the young architect to build the white house, creating education materials as a core part of our mission and that's what we do every day through the wonderful books that we publish, are programs that we host and around the country and our online social me

decatur is not the same as another county. thereespecially true that are many economic differences in our state, as there are geographic and regional differences. our house delegation will have on or beforeck april 22. i admit there is a lot of free advice on what we could do, to getdo, or first do the economy going again. the staff is taking every digestion seriously. of thed to take all suggestions and recommendations and ask six members of my coronavirus task force to help my administration begin to vet all of these good ideas. these six individuals will serve on my executive committee, and to put together a well playing timeline. mind that these recommendations will have to be thefully integrated into advice we are receiving from dr. harris and the medical team of experts from throughout the state. will reviewnd i these recommendations so we can provide an updated plan of action before the current ony-at-home order expires april 30. going forward, we will hopefully dates ono give regular what segments of the economy might be able to open, and we are also allowing our businesses ample time to plan for a safe, responsible reopening. this will be a road

decatur is not the same as dover. it is especially true that there are many economic differences in our state, as there are geographic and regional differences. our house delegation will have the report back on or before april 22. as you would expect, i am getting a lot of advice and i admit there is a lot of free advice on what we could do, should do, or first do to get the economy going again. the staff is taking every suggestion serious and we are looking at it, and we've had some good ones come in already. i intend to take all of the suggestions and recommendations and ask six members of my coronavirus task force to help my administration begin to vet all of these good ideas. these six individuals will serve on my executive committee, and they will work to put together a thoughtful, well planned timeline for us to open up the economy. keep in mind, though, that these recommendations will have to be carefully integrated into the advice we are receiving from dr. harris and the medical team of experts from throughout the state. on or before april the 28th, dr. harris and i will review these recommendations so we can provide an updated plan of action b