Sep 4, 2017 4 min read

President James Monroe was inaugurated as the fifth leader of a young nation March 4, 1817. But the successor to James Madison couldn’t move into his new home.

British troops had burned the White House, the U.S. Capitol and other federal buildings in Washington, D.C., two ½ years earlier, in retaliation for an American attack on the Canadian city of York in August 1812. Both events were part of the confusingly named War of 1812, which began that year but ended in 1815.

Less than three months into his initial term, with the White House still under repair, Monroe embarked on an extended trip – essentially a 2,000-mile goodwill tour intended to promote national unity. He left Washington, D.C., May 31, traveled through the Northeast to Portland, Maine – then part of Massachusetts – then weaved west along the Great Lakes to Detroit, before meticulously heading southeast back to D.C. Sept. 17.

It was the first presidential trip since George Washington’s tour of the South in 1791.

Two hundred years ago this week, Monroe’s final swing brought him through Ohio to Western Pennsylvania, where he became the first sitting president to visit Pittsburg – without the “h” or any black and gold teams. His itinerary included Washington County, where he essentially split a full day between Washington and Canonsburg, before stops in two familiar Fayette towns: Brownsville and Uniontown.

Monroe became the first of four U.S. presidents – in office or out – to visit what is now Washington & Jefferson College. The school was Washington College when he arrived in the late afternoon of Sept. 4. He appeared at McMillan Hall, which was built in 1793 and which, according to W&J, “is the third-oldest building in continual use on a college campus” in the United States.

The Rev. Guerdon Gates, a student in 1817, said Monroe arrived “riding upon a gray horse” around 5 p.m. with a group of attendants closely following. Gates said the president stopped at David Morris’ Tavern (later known as the Globe Inn) on South Main Street, “where he was to lodge,” dismounted and “walked down the middle of the street (with) the inhabitants being paraded on either side saluting him.”

“Munroe,” as Gates spelled the commander-in-chief’s name, was greeted with an impromptu speech by college president Andrew Wylie, who welcomed the president formally and thanked him for stopping. Monroe had dinner and stayed the night.

At least 15 presidents have visited Washington. “The major reason” many of the earlier ones did “was the National Road (Route 40),” W&J history professor Thomas Mainwaring said. “It was the new transportation link of 1818.”

The next morning, Monroe moved on to Jefferson College in Canonsburg.

A faculty committee cobbled together a speech that touted Jefferson for being the longer-established and top school in the area. The Rev. William M. Millan, principal of Jefferson College, delivered the address at Emery’s Tavern, which touted the school as being “the original seat of literature in the West” and being “the consecrated spot which first gave birth to science in this western region.”

Monroe and his entourage arrived in Pittsburgh, a burgeoning city of 7,000, that evening. He crossed the Monongahela River on a ferry rowed by four sea captains and was met on shore by enthusiastic crowds. The president spent the next day at a federal arsenal in the city.

After fording the Mon by horseback, the president arrived in Brownsville the evening of Sept. 8 for a reception and more addresses. Monroe slept at the Brashear House, an inn built in 1797 where Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay had previously stayed. Then it was off to Uniontown for another reception and address Sept. 10.

The fifth president returned to D.C. seven days later, but not to the White House. Renovations would not be completed until that October, when the first couple could finally move in. Monroe was 59 at the time – 28 years older than his wife, Elizabeth.

That was an eventful summer for Monroe, one with a lot of miles and saddle sores. But it was a memorable three-plus months for the last Founding Father to lead this nation.