 Welcome to the home of the Commandant. In March 1801, President Thomas Jefferson and the second Commandant of the Marine Corps, Lieutenant Colonel William Ward Burroughs, made a horseback tour through the new city of Washington, D.C., looking for a proper site for the marine barracks and a home for the Commandant. A short walk from the Washington Navy Yard and an easy marching distance of the Capitol, this spot was their choice. Still used for its original purpose, the home of the Commandants has been home to all but the first two Commandants and their families. Every year we open our home to our Marine Corps family to see the historic furnishings, most of which have been here for decades and were donated by former Commandants and their families. But like many traditions, events of this year have changed how these holidays will look and feel. We know this home, the Marine Barracks at 8th and 9th and the Historic Parade Deck, hold a special place in the hearts of generations of Marines, families and supporters of the Corps. Not only is this building a national historic landmark, but it represents a living museum to all who visit every year. There's history on every wall and in every corner. We've asked one of the Marines who brings groups through this home to lead you on a tour of the rooms. We hope this video tour can bring cheer to those who have not been able to pay a visit to this unique home. We hope you and your families have a safe and happy holiday season. Good morning ladies and gentlemen, my name is Sergeant Saunders. I am going to be giving you a virtual tour of the home of the Commandants this year. You're going to notice many of our Christmas decorations and historical items throughout our home. All the Christmas decorations were donated or owned by the home of the Commandants and were put up by volunteers. The historical information and documents and pieces that you'll see around the home were donated or on loan by the Commandants or the Marine Corps Museum. If you could follow me. For our first floor tour and the first room we're going to address is the Lady Sitting Room. If you look around this room you'll see many pieces of artwork depicting women in military service. This is a specific request from General Berger and Miss Berger to show the sacrifices and dedication of our female service members and it is reflected here by the artwork that we have lined in the walls including the portraits of Lady Liberty. Now other items in the Lady Sitting Room that are of importance. We have Archibald Henderson's work desk. You'll see here it was donated by his spouse after Archibald Henderson passed away in the home. We all know Archibald Henderson, the grand old man of the Marine Corps. From his point many Commandants left an item or two to the home after their time as Commandant and you'll get to see many of those items as we go about. To include General Noah Chandelier above us. That was his donation after his time here in the home of the Commandants. This time we're going to transition into the dining room. First I want you to take note of our carpet. It is lined with the insignia and design that you'd find on the NCO sword. And the portraits of our first two Commandants. Major Samuel Nicholas and Lieutenant Colonel William Ward Burroughs. We are now entering the formal dining room. As you look around you'll see our 22-seater mahogany table. On the floor are carpet dedicated to our officers in the Marine Corps. It has quadrufoils in the corners and olive branches running down the side to pay tribute to our officer ranks. To my right you have the Lejeune China Cabinet. General Lejeune whenever he left the home of the Commandants did not leave a gift to the home. However in his passing his daughter Major Lejeune felt it best to donate his China Cabinet to the home of the Commandants and it is on display currently. As we wake our way down you're going to see a portrait of Archibald Henderson and his spouse painted by Colonel Waterhouse. The bullet glass mirror which was donated by General Dunford has his tribute to remind us of our naval heritage. As we get back you'll see the silver tray over here on the wall. The silver tray has every Commandant who has ever served's name etched in it. It is the only place you'll find mention of the fourth Commandant of the Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Gale. Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Gale is the only Commandant to be dishonorably discharged from the Marine Corps for conduct on becoming an officer and a gentleman. You have his name listed here and he has a blacked out portrait in the Pentagon and after that that's all we have. We make our way on to a slightly larger Waterhouse portrait depicting Archibald Henderson giving his daughter away at her wedding reception. You'll see the crowd, you'll see the Marine musical element and you'll see an original design of the home. As the Commandant mentioned the barracks was founded March 31st, 1801. The home of the Commandants began construction in 1804 and was completed in 1806. You'll notice that it is missing its two left and right additions to include the sun porch in the back. This is how the home was originally designed, what it originally looked like until we started doing our first renovations starting in 1902. Over time we've added electricity, indoor plumbing, heating, AC but the home, the original walls of the home still stand. This time we're going to transition into the hallway. Before we head into the drawing room I'd like to point out a portrait of our third Commandant Lieutenant Colonel Wharton. We also have a portrait depicting Thomas Jefferson, the president and the second Commandant of the Marine Corps, Lieutenant Colonel William Ward Burroughs on that horseback ride looking for a place to settle the Marines. As the Commandant mentioned we settled on square 927 which is where the barracks stands to this day. To my left and right we have Commandants Wilson and Burrow who are responsible for bringing the Marine Corps into the future after Vietnam. We had a lot of Marines, we needed to scale down so we decided to start pushing and making our Marine Corps all around better. We stopped recruiting at the numbers that we needed for the war and instead we were charged with making an overall better Marine Corps. Both of these Marines were responsible for transitioning us into the modern era. So here we are in the drawing room. The drawing room is the first place you're going to see many of our more modern Commandant's portraits. Formerly every Commandant would have a portrait painted to show the evolution of the Marine Corps uniform and to pay tribute to their time as the Commandant. Now today the portraits are no longer paid for by Congress, they are handed off and paid for by the Marine Corps. If you look around we'll see General Kelly. He was the youngest man to achieve the rank of general. He most recently he passed away in December of 2019 and was laid to rest by the Marines at Marine Barracks Washington. Move on to General Krulak. He was responsible for implementing the crucible at the end of enlisted boot camp. General Mundy, you'll see him there in his uh... up in the Commandant's office wearing his full-dressed blues with all of his medals and laurels. You'll notice that he has the French Legion of Merit in the center of his collar. Move on we have a portrait of General Dunford. General Dunford is the first portrait to not be hand-painted in the home. It was actually a picture rendered on a digital drawing pad. You'll see that he also has a slightly smaller portrait. He said he made that decision because of such his short time here in the home. He was only in the home for about a year in change before he transitioned to become the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Our final portrait here in the drawing room is the portrait of General Conway. You'll notice General Conway is wearing a black coat which covers all of his medals. He did this because he had a lot of Marines that had to be laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery and he wanted to ensure that the people who came to visit those funerals were paying attention to the most important thing. The Marine who gave their life for our nation. He would wear that coat. It seemed all the time because he was going out there so often. A lot of Marines really resonated in respect to his decision there to cover up his accomplishments in lieu of the fallen Marine. Here we are in the Sun Porch. This is one of the continual additions of the home of the Commandants. The original exterior wall used to be right here. Then over time we added a porch and awning and then finally they enclosed it in to add more heat-controlled living space to the home of the Commandants. Now this wall I originally pointed at is the original exterior of the home. You'll see the original brickwork and some of the original glass that was established in the home back in 1806. Also what you'll find in the Sun Porch is some of the first personal items of the burgers. This bar set was picked up by them when they were serving in Hawaii. It was refurbished and now they have it on display here as a wonderful conversation piece at the home of the Commandants. Things that take place here in the Sun Porch range from prepping before the evening parades all the way to congressional breakfast held by the Commandant. At this time we're going to transition into the music room. Here we are in the music room easily anchored by our baby grand piano which was donated by General Cates. You'll also see that we have a tribute here to John Philip Sousa otherwise known as the March King. John Philip Sousa was enlisted in the Marine Corps at age eleven by his father because he wanted to go off and join the circus and his dad didn't want that. His wages were paid mostly to his parents except for a stipend that was taken out to pay for food and uniforms. You'll see some of his personal items here ranging from spectacles to his conductor's wand, glass, and then there's a portrait of him here. You'll see in that picture behind him is a Tiffany dragon glass lamp which we have here currently in the home of the Commandants. We value this lamp at the rate of one staff sergeant. Now, during an earthquake that took place in the DC area a Marine enlisted aide who was serving in the home ran across the parade deck through the back door and wrapped himself around the lamp in order to protect it from receiving any damage. That Marine was then promoted to gunnery sergeant and he finally left the home of the Commandants as the chief enlisted aide, Massar and Zabel. Two of our Commandants' portraits in this room to include General Jones and General Amos. General Jones after he was done being the Commandant of the Marine Corps went on to be the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and then the 19th Director of National Security. Behind us we have General Amos. General Amos was the first Marine aviator to ever achieve the rank of Commandant. As we make our transition through the room you'll see behind me we have our utility Commandants. These are our Commandants who chose to wear their utility uniforms while they for their official portrait. First we have General Gray. General Gray wore his utility uniform with the understanding that this is the Marine's uniform that they work in and that he was also a working Marine. General Gray is currently the oldest Commandant still living. He is at 92 years old. He frequents many events that we host here in the National Capital Region. Next to him we have General Hage, the first Commandant to employ desert utilities into semi-annual wear or for deployed forces. And then off to my left we have the most recent addition to the home General Neller's portrait where he is in his woodland camis. He wears this because he was the general who had to retire desert camouflage utilities from semi-annual use. Now before we leave this room I'd like to talk a little bit about some of the more fun stories we have here in the home. Archibald Henderson, Grand Old Man of the Marine Corps, served 38 years as the Commandant. He lived in this home for 38 years. One evening he came home from work, he laid down on the sofa and then he passed away. He spent his entire life here, his home, in his will he tried to will the home of the Commandants to his family but however it's General Officer's quarters and it is owned by the Marine Corps. Fast forward to the first morning, to the first time that General Green and his wife were staying in the home. General Green had dismissed his staff, had everyone go home, there was no one inside the home of the Commandants. They go to bed, Miss Green hears something downstairs. So she comes down the staircase that's behind me and sees a gentleman staring into the fire. She addresses this gentleman, she walks into the room and asks him to leave. He turns around, takes a bow and disappears. The next morning after Miss Green's recomposed herself and she's ready to attack the day, she's flipping through binders of portraits given to her by the Marine Corps Museum that she needs to help pick and design the home of the Commandants for the new occupants. She sees a portrait of Archibald Henderson and exclaims this was him, this is the gentleman I saw last night. General Green looked over and said I believe it, Archibald's still looking over the Marine Corps, he's been here for quite a long time. So far we haven't seen any reference or mention of him, he's remained pretty quiet and we'd like to take that as a note that the Marine Corps is going in the right direction. If you could follow me. Welcome to the second floor of the home of the Commandants. Personally this is my favorite floor in the entire home because it allows us to show our groups and tours who come through that this is a lived-in home. You are currently standing on the floor where the Commandant and his spouse, Miss Berger, stay. Through this door is their bedroom, the Commandant's office, their living room and they have a guest bedroom on this floor. You also see a couple of their personal items ranging from an antique refrigerator, a chest that was picked up during their time in Bahrain and a sewing machine. That wall is in, it is an antique, it can still work. Miss Berger keeps the belt off of it so that nobody has to be inclination to try and touch it during a tour. You also look around and you'll see portraits of their family. Speaking of family, I'd like to point out we have this new addition, our portrait of a Gold Star family. These are for all the Marines who couldn't, who weren't able to come home in return. We like to make sure that we pay as many tributes to those families whose service members gave their ultimate sacrifice. And we try to remember it throughout the home and throughout the barracks. Now if we can pan, we can go and look at the office of the Commandant. Now we choose not to go in there, but I count this as a snapshot of his career and things that you can look for and get a little glimpse into what the Commandant does on his day-to-day basis. He has the capability to do most of his work from home if he was ever unable to make it to the Pentagon. However, the Commandant usually is leaving for the Pentagon before many Marines wake up. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the third floor of the home of the Commandants. Now, as I've pointed out in many other places, the home has grown over the years. This used to have much shorter ceilings and this used to be a working attic space for the Marine List and AIDS before we had a fully finished basement down below. Now this room has had the ceilings raised and all of the rooms have been renovated to act as guest rooms. On this floor you're going to see pieces of art, historical relevance, and we're going to start by walking into the Jefferson room. Here in the Jefferson room this room is dedicated to President Thomas Jefferson, due to his assistance in helping establish the Marine Corps in Washington, DC. Now if you remember we were put here at square 927 on 8th and I Street because of our close proximity to the Washington Navy Yard and the U.S. Capitol which can be seen by looking out this window. We're working our way into the Colonel Waterhouse room. Colonel Waterhouse is a Marine officer who suffered an injury that was about to end his career. So instead of leaving the Marine Corps he decided to show that he had a skill set that few do not still possess. The ability to capture Marine Corps history on canvas. Now if you look around you'll see all these portraits were our hand-painted oil paintings depicting Marines from the Boxer Rebellion, World Wars I and II, Vietnam, Korea, anywhere the Marines went. Colonel Waterhouse used his gift to capture those scenes where maybe we might not have had a camera or there weren't any Marines to capture that significant moment. Over the bed you have a picture of a Boxer Rebellion battle where the Marines are riding on horseback, all the way to World War II in Vietnam behind you where our Marines are just writing letters to home. If you Google Colonel Waterhouse, USMC, and go to images you'll see hundreds of paintings that he did to capture the history of the Marine Corps. He is largely responsible for some of the more classic looks that the Marine Corps has captured over their time. This bedroom is dedicated to him and Medal of Honor recipients. If you look here he painted those two portraits of Medal of Honor recipients. He wanted to complete the entire set but he didn't have enough time. He passed away in 2013. Here we are standing beside the portrait of Commodot Neville. He stood for his portrait in his blues with medals and sand brown belt. Now he got his the first portrait of his painting done. They painted his face and then it was time to take a break. He laid down there were going to start up in the morning. He passed away in his sleep that evening so one of his Marine enlisted aides who was dedicated to service donned his generals blues coats and stood for the rest of the painting. Our aides do a lot of things to help our Commodots to include maintaining of uniforms, making sure everything's set up in the appropriate way all the way up into making sure their portraits are done to capture their dedication to the Marine Corps. You can follow me into the Philip suite. During the war of 1812 the Marines deployed to go and defend the Capitol. While we were doing that the British snuck in behind and used Marine Barracks Washington as their headquarters and operation center. When the war concluded and it was time for the British to retreat because hostilities weren't growing their way they burned down the rest of DC but they left Marine Barracks Washington alone. This is probably hopefully out of respect for the Marine Corps for what they had seen on the battlefield. Now fast forward Prince Philip needs to come to Washington DC and wants to stay somewhere. He elects to stay here in the home of the Commodots. Why? Because the British stayed here just a little bit back in the war of 1812. Now they left a few items such as this comb set and the bed frame. It's always nice to have our Royal Marines come and visit us here in Washington DC. We look forward to the next opportunity. So here we are in a room that allows you to stand on the third floor and look out over the entirety of Marine Barracks Washington the oldest post to the corps. You can also look down and see Marine Family Garden. The garden that was mentioned that takes it pays tribute to the families of the Marine Corps. In this room we have the Mundy couch which is donated by Commodot Mundy and the last thing I'd like to point out is this door frame here. Now I've mentioned a few times how the home was built by the Marines. The Marines did a wonderful job. The home still stands today with minor correction and renovation. Here shows a door frame that was a little off-squared and the Marines showing their adaptive spirit instead of having to undo the entire door frame cut the door at an angle so that it would fit in that door frame. Our adaptability has progressed with us throughout the times. The last item I would like to point out here on the third floor of the home is a fire helmet that was donated to the home of the Commodots by the fire teams that served on 9-11. As you'll see the 343 were for the service and emergency personnel who perished that day and obviously the 9-11 to commemorate the date. For many of the Marines serving today 9-11 served as a catalyst to push them into service to our nation and it's a constant reminder to all of our active duty Marines who come through and see this to remind us why we twake up and train every day. At this time ladies and gentlemen I'd like to thank you for coming with me on this tour of the home of the Commodots. Have a safe and happy holiday season.