Site
1201 E. Clay St., Richmond, VA 23219
804–649–1861
Access by tour group only. 18 guests /tour. Tour Calendar
Arrival - Tours begin from the gift shop located in the house’s backyard garden. Access to the garden is from the left side of house—facing the house on Clay St.
Parking is free for visitors and is available at the VCU Medical Center Parking Deck (529 N. 12th Street, Richmond, VA 23219). Parking in this deck is free for museum visitors with validation. Validations are available in the Information Center. Museum visitors should bring their parking ticket inside to get them validated for free.
History
1861 - 1865
Built in 1818, this National Historic Landmark served as the executive mansion and home for Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and his family from 1861–1865.
In May 1861, the capital of the Confederate States of America was moved from Montgomery, Alabama to Richmond, and President Jefferson Davis and his family vacated the First White House of the Confederacy in Montgomery and moved to the house in Richmond, which was leased by the Confederate government from the city.
The Davis family was quite young during their stay at the house. When they moved in, the family consisted of the president and first lady, six-year-old Margaret, four-year-old Jefferson Davis, Jr., and two-year-old Joseph. The two youngest Davis children, William and Varina Anne ("Winnie"), were born in the house, in 1861 and 1864, respectively. Among their neighborhood playmates was George Smith Patton, whose father commanded the 22nd Virginia Infantry, and whose son commanded the U.S. Third Army in World War Two. Joseph Davis died in the spring of 1864, after a 15-foot fall from the railing on the house's east portico. Mrs. Davis' mother and sister were occasional visitors to the Confederate executive mansion.
Davis suffered recurring bouts of malaria, facial neuralgia, cataracts (in his left eye), unhealed wounds from the Mexican War, including bone spurs in his heel, and insomnia. As a result, Davis maintained an at-home office on the second floor of the house, where his personal secretary Colonel Burton Harrison also resided. (This was not an unusual practice at the time, and the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., was similarly added during the Theodore Roosevelt administration.)
The house was abandoned during the evacuation of Richmond on April 2, 1865 and within twelve hours had been seized intact by soldiers from Major General Godfrey Weitzel's XVIII Corps. President Abraham Lincoln, who was in nearby City Point (now Hopewell, Virginia), traveled up the James River to tour the captured city, and visited Davis' former residence for about three hours – although the President only toured the first floor, feeling it would be improper to visit the more private second floor of another man's home. Admiral David Dixon Porter accompanied Lincoln during the visit. They held a number of meetings with local officials in the house, including Confederate Brigadier General Joseph Reid Anderson, who owned the Tredegar Iron Works.