William G. Hall
- Positions
- Doorkeeper
- Messenger
- Years in President's House
- 1889 – 1893
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- Black or African American
- Presidency
- Benjamin Harrison
- Biography
William George Hall was born in Baltimore, Maryland around 1842.1 According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Hall served in the Union Army during the Civil War, and later worked as a doorkeeper at the Interior Department.2 In 1889, Hall replaced longtime doorkeeper Arthur Simmons at the White House. He was assigned outside the door of Private Secretary Elijah Halford, maintaining the flow of visitors, delivering messages on behalf of the secretary, and deciding who could enter to see President Benjamin Harrison.3
At the end of Harrison’s presidency in 1893, Grover Cleveland reinstated Simmons to his former post and transferred Hall to the Treasury Department. Washington’s Evening Star reported: “Doorkeeper Hall was a faithful and most efficient official, and his transfer to another department will be regretted by many officials whose business takes them to the White House.”4
William George Hall continued as a civil servant until his death on August 18, 1911. Hall was buried at Columbian Harmony Payne Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Burials there were later disinterred during Metro construction and moved to National Harmony Memorial Park Cemetery in Maryland.5
- William George Hall in the 1880 United States Federal Census, Year: 1880; Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia; Roll: 122; Page: 21d; Enumeration District: 024; William George Hall in the U.S., Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, 1865-1874; ARC Identifier: 566522; Record Group Number: 101; Record Group: Records of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, 1863-2006.
- Some sources also list his occupation as messenger at the Interior Department. “Change Made in Doorkeepers,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 3, 1889, pg. 4; William George Hall in the 1880 United States Federal Census, Year: 1880; Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia; Roll: 122; Page: 21d; Enumeration District: 024.
- “A Change in the White House Doorkeeper,” Statesville Record and Landmark (North Carolina), June 13, 1889, pg. 1; “White House Workers,” Washington Post, January 11, 1891, pg. 9; Official Register of the United States (Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, 1889), pg. 21.
- “A Change of Doorkeeper,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), March 6, 1893, pg. 6; Official Register of the United States (Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, 1901), pg. 82.
- “HALL,” The Washington Herald, August 20, 1911, pg. 2; William G. Hall in the Washington, District of Columbia, U.S., Columbian Harmony Payne Cemetery, 1901-1959, DC Public Library; Washington, DC, USA; Columbia Harmony Payne Cemetery, 1901-1959, Ancestry.com.
- Birthplace
- Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- National Harmony Memorial Park (formerly Columbian Harmony Payne Cemetery)