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Every Tuesday in February, Philadelphia’s historic Carpenters’ Hall in Independence National Historic Park is offering afternoon high tea hosted by Dolley Madison.

The First Lady to President James Madison in the early 19th century wielded her power as a social butterfly to coax the United States’ sparring congressmen into civility.

“Everything is fun about playing Dolley Madison,” said actress Johanna Dunphy, who portrays Madison wearing a period empire dress with lavender gloves, a blue satin wrap and white feathers in her hair.

“She wanted people to be able to have a conversation regardless of their beliefs,” she said. “She wanted people to be able to talk openly and comfortably and kindly to each other.”

During the tea party, Dunphy circulates among the two dozen seated guests and offers them tips on how to properly interact with people they don’t know or share little in common with.

“When you’re having a conversation, especially with someone new, it’s best to stay on neutral subjects,” Dunphy explained in a refined mid-Atlantic accent presumed to be Madison’s. “For example: The weather.”

Madison then turned to Christine Smith, who came with a feather fascinator affixed to her hair.

“My, was it not blustery when you walked in today?” Madison beamed. “I do not know how you’ve made it in here looking so divine after that wind was gushing around.”

Smith came with her friends because they love both history and tea.

“It was as if you stepped back into history having her here,” she said. “She was a delightful host.”

Madison moved to Philadelphia as a teenager from North Carolina in 1783. The home where she lived with her first husband is now a historic site just a stone’s throw from Carpenters’ Hall.

She married her second husband, James Madison, and quickly became America’s original hostess with the most-ess. Both of her First Lady predecessors, Martha Washington and Abigail Adams, had shied away from the role of party planner-in-chief.

Even before she became the First Lady, Madison had already stepped into that role during the tenure of President Thomas Jefferson, who was a widower.

“Jefferson was not known for having social graces,” Dunphy said. “He needed a woman’s touch to make sure that the wives of the diplomats had someone else to talk to other than the men, who were — to be honest — just hitting each other with sticks most of the time.”

Then, as now, members of Congress could be a prickly bunch more prone to tear one another down than engage in friendly conversation. Madison was politically astute, keeping a keen ear to the goings on in the capital to stay on top of who was saying what about whom. Then, with gentle but insistent grace, she made them talk to each other at her parties.

She engaged in various techniques to get people off their political guard, such as opening her small silver case of snuff and inviting select individuals to partake with her. It was an intimacy few would deny.

Writer Margaret Bayard Smith, a close friend of Madison’s, once described her snuff box as having “magic influence.” Madison held weekly “squeezes,” so named because she would invite more people than her parlor could comfortably hold, forcing them to get close.

“They had to come to an agreement. They had to find consensus. Being physically in the same room at the same time has a lot to do with how that happens,” said Michael Norris, executive director of Carpenters’ Hall.  “Hopefully we’ll all learn a lesson from that, that we need to know today.”

The weekly teas cost $85 and include a full menu of nibbles, such as scones, finger sandwiches, including cucumber and egg salad, savory bites like lobster puffs and smoked salmon, and an assortment of sweet tarts and pastries.

Barbara Coleman came to see Carpenters’ Hall, the site of the original Continental Congress convening in 1774 and where the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was created. Having tea amid that history was enough for her, but the icing on the scone was to have tea with Madison, who set the high bar for the role a woman could play in the new democracy.

“She was so important as Miss Congeniality. She just had a knack for pulling people together in bipartisanship,” Coleman said. “She was amazing.”