BLAIR HOUSE TO BE FEATURED ON NEW POSTAL CARD

Blair House, one of Washington's most famous addresses, will be featured on a 15-cent postal card to be issued Wednesday in honor of the restoration of the presidential guest house.

The card, one of a large number of multicolor postal cards being printed for the Postal Service by the Government Printing Office, will be the first commemorative card issued at the 15-cent rate, which took effect April 3.

The card features a painting by Loudoun County artist Pierre Mion that shows Blair House and its adjoining buildings in the 1600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

Across the street from the White House, the four-story house was built in 1824 and acquired by the federal government in 1942. It had been used for years as a presidential guest house until 1982, when it was closed for renovation after the discovery of a natural gas leak.

Work on the house, which President and Mrs. Reagan reviewed Monday, is expected to be completed in June, according to a White House spokesman. As a result, ceremonies marking release of the new postal card will be held at the State Department, which manages the house for visiting heads of state. Speakers at the 11 a.m. Wednesday event are expected to include Postmaster General Anthony M. Frank, Deputy Secretary of State John C. Whitehead and State Department Chief of Protocol Selwa Roosevelt, who is honorary chairman of the Blair House Restoration Fund.

After hearing accounts about its leaky roof and tasteless interior, Congress appropriated $6.6 million in 1984 for the restoration, though final costs are estimated at $9.5 million. Congress insisted that private funds be raised for redecorating and refurbishing the interior of the house, built for Dr. Joseph Lovell, surgeon general of the Army. After Lovell's death in 1836, Francis P. Blair, a controversial Kentucky journalist who came to Washington to publish a newspaper favorable to Andrew Jackson, acquired the house.

Blair became a power broker in the capital, and the nation's leaders often convened at his home. Presidents Lincoln, Jackson and Van Buren often were seen meeting there, and Blair was empowered to offer Robert E. Lee command of the Union armies at a meeting at his home.

Shortly before the Civil War, Blair constructed the adjoining Blair-Lee House for his daughter, Elizabeth Blair Lee. In 1948 the government joined the two houses, and in the late 1960s it added to the complex 700 and 704 Jackson Place, which front on Lafayette Park.

In addition to hosting a number of the world's leaders, the house served as President Truman's residence from November 1948 to March 1952 while the White House was undergoing extensive renovation.

In 1950, it was the scene of a celebrated sidewalk gun battle between two Puerto Rican nationalists who were bent on assassinating Truman and guards who blocked their way.

More recently, the house has been host to Emperors Hirohito of Japan and Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, the king and queen of Spain, the king and queen of Jordan, King Hassan of Morocco, Presidents Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union and Anwar Sadat of Egypt, and Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher of Britain, Menachem Begin of Israel, Jawaharlal Nehru of India and Deng Xiaoping of China.

While the house has been undergoing repairs, visiting heads of state have been housed in hotels, which the State Department decided would be more economical than renting another house in the city.

The cards should be on sale nationally after May 5.

Stamp collectors who wish to obtain first-day-of-issue cancellations of the card, part of a historic preservation series, are requested to mail them by July 3 to Customer-Provided Postal Cards, Postmaster, Washington, D.C. 20066-9991.

The Postal Service will sell up to 50 cards at 15 cents each to individuals who supply mailing addresses on peelable labels by the same date to: Blair House Postal Card, Washington, D.C. 20066-9992.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.