White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 when the national capital was moved from Philadelphia.[2] The term "White House" is often used as a figure of speech for the president and his advisers.[3]
"1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" redirects here. For other uses, see 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (disambiguation) and White House (disambiguation).White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
U.S.
Joe Biden, President of the United States and the First Family
October 13, 1792
November 1, 1800[1]
Federal Government of the United States
55,000 sq ft (5,100 m2)
December 19, 1960
The residence was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the Neoclassical style.[4] Hoban modeled the building on Leinster House in Dublin, a building which today houses the Oireachtas, the Irish legislature. Constructed between 1792 and 1800, its exterior walls are Aquia Creek sandstone painted white. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he and architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe added low colonnades on each wing to conceal what then were stables and storage.[5] In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by British forces in the burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed Executive Residence in October 1817. Exterior construction continued with the addition of the semicircular South Portico in 1824 and the North Portico in 1829.
Because of crowding within the executive mansion itself, President Theodore Roosevelt had all work offices relocated to the newly constructed West Wing in 1901. Eight years later, in 1909, President William Howard Taft expanded the West Wing and created the first Oval Office, which was eventually moved and expanded. In the Executive Residence, the third floor attic was converted to living quarters in 1927 by augmenting the existing hip roof with long shed dormers. A newly constructed East Wing was used as a reception area for social events; Jefferson's colonnades connected the new wings. The East Wing alterations were completed in 1946, creating additional office space. By 1948, the residence's load-bearing walls and wood beams were found to be close to failure. Under Harry S. Truman, the interior rooms were completely dismantled and a new internal load-bearing steel frame was constructed inside the walls. On the exterior, the Truman Balcony was added. Once the structural work was completed, the interior rooms were rebuilt.
The present-day White House complex includes the Executive Residence, the West Wing, the East Wing, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which previously served the State Department and other departments (it now houses additional offices for the president's staff and the vice president), and Blair House, a guest residence. The Executive Residence is made up of six stories: the Ground Floor, State Floor, Second Floor, and Third Floor, and a two-story basement. The property is a National Heritage Site owned by the National Park Service and is part of the President's Park. In 2007, it was ranked second on the American Institute of Architects list of America's Favorite Architecture.[6]
The first presidential mansion, Samuel Osgood House in Manhattan, occupied by Washington from April 1789 – February 1790
The second presidential mansion, Alexander Macomb House, in Manhattan, occupied by Washington from February–August 1790
The third presidential mansion, President's House in Philadelphia, occupied by Washington from November 1790 – March 1797. Occupied by Adams: March 1797 – May 1800.
Government House in Manhattan, built in 1790–1791, was designed to be the permanent presidential mansion, but Congress moved the national capital to Philadelphia before its completion.
President's House in Philadelphia (built in the 1790s), was not used by any president after the presidential mansion, known as the White House, was moved from Philadelphia to the new national capital of Washington, D.C.
Evolution of the White House
Early use, 1814 burning, and reconstruction
On Saturday, November 1, 1800, John Adams became the first president to take residence in the building.[27] The next day he wrote his wife Abigail:
"I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this House, and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof."[41]
President Franklin D. Roosevelt had Adams's blessing carved into the mantel in the State Dining Room.[41]
Adams lived in the house only briefly before Thomas Jefferson moved into the "pleasant country residence"[42] in 1801. Despite his complaints that the house was too big ("big enough for two emperors, one pope, and the grand lama in the bargain"),[43] Jefferson considered how the White House might be expanded and improved. With Benjamin Henry Latrobe, he helped lay out the design for the East and West Colonnades, small wings that helped conceal the domestic operations of laundry, a stable and storage.[27] Today, Jefferson's colonnades link the residence with the East and West Wings.[27]
In 1814, during the War of 1812, the White House was burnt by British forces during the Burning of Washington, in retaliation for acts of destruction by American troops in the Canadas; much of Washington was affected by these fires as well.[44][45] Only the exterior walls remained, and they had to be torn down and mostly reconstructed because of weakening from the fire and subsequent exposure to the elements, except for portions of the south wall. Of the numerous objects taken from the White House when it was sacked by the British, only three have been recovered.[44][46][47]
White House employees and slaves rescued a copy of the Lansdowne portrait, and in 1939 a Canadian man returned a jewelry box to President Franklin Roosevelt, claiming that his grandfather had taken it from Washington; in the same year, a medicine chest that had belonged to President Madison was returned by the descendants of a Royal Navy officer.[44][46][47] Some observers allege that most of the spoils of war taken during the sack were lost when a convoy of British ships led by HMS Fantome sank en route to Halifax off Prospect during a storm on the night of November 24, 1814, even though Fantome had no involvement in that action.[48][49][50]
After the fire, President James Madison resided in the Octagon House from 1814 to 1815, and then in the Seven Buildings from 1815 to the end of his term.[51] Meanwhile, both Hoban and Latrobe contributed to the design and oversight of the reconstruction, which lasted from 1815 until 1817. The south portico was constructed in 1824 during the James Monroe administration. The north portico was built in 1830.[27] Though Latrobe proposed similar porticos before the fire in 1814, both porticos were built as designed by Hoban.[52] An elliptical portico at Château de Rastignac in La Bachellerie, France, with nearly identical curved stairs, is speculated as the source of inspiration due to its similarity with the South Portico,[53] although this matter is one of great debate.[54]
Italian artisans, brought to Washington to help in constructing the U.S. Capitol, carved the decorative stonework on both porticos. Contrary to speculation, the North Portico was not modeled on a similar portico on another Dublin building, the Viceregal Lodge (now Áras an Uachtaráin, residence of the president of Ireland), for its portico postdates the White House porticos' design.[53] For the North Portico, a variation on the Ionic Order was devised, incorporating a swag of roses between the volutes. This was done to link the new portico with the earlier carved roses above the entrance.
A view from the south, with the south fountain
A view from the north, with the north fountain
The White House at night, viewed from the north
