Main Campus - Paley Library
Room: lecture hall

The urban landscape is constantly changing but underneath the surface lays clues to our past. Archeologist Rebecca Yamin and architect Emanuel Kelly will discuss one of Philadelphia’s most revealing urban archeological digs—the excavation of the house where American presidents George Washington and John Adams lived between 1780 and 1800—and the subsequent challenges that took place around site interpretation.
The dig led to the commemorative structure at 6th and Market Streets, The President’s House: Freedom and Slavery in Making a New Nation, designed by Kelly/Maiello Architects & Planners as part of a national competition. The interpretive site aims to address the dual history of this location: in this house, the presidents were making decisions that shaped the executive branch of government and here President Washington kept nine slaves. To interpret the duality of this site, KMA designed a structure to mark the footprint of the original building and include architectural elements of the original and a glass enclosure through which visitors can view archaeological fragments discovered during site excavation.
Join us to discuss history, memory and the challenges of interpreting the difficult past and slavery with Yamin, who was the head archeologist at this important dig and Kelly, the principal of KMA and a driving force behind the interpretive project.