White House

:"1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" redirects here. For the musical, see 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (musical).

History

The White House was built after the creation of the District of Columbia by an Act of Congress in December, 1790. President George Washington himself helped select the site, along with city planner Pierre L'Enfant. The architect was chosen in a competition, which received nine proposals. James Hoban, an Irishman, was awarded the honor and construction began with the laying of the cornerstone on October 13, 1792. The building he designed was modelled on the first and second floors of Leinster House, a ducal palace in Dublin, Ireland, that is now the seat of the Irish Parliament. Contrary to widely published myth, the North portico was not modelled on a similar portico on another Dublin building, the Viceregal Lodge (now Áras an Uachtaráin, residence of the President of Ireland). Its portico in fact postdates the White House portico's design. The decision to place the capital on land ceded by two slave states—Virginia and Maryland—ultimately influenced the acquisition of laborers to construct its public buildings. The D.C. commissioners, charged by Congress with building the new city under the direction of the president, initially planned to import workers from Europe to meet their labor needs. However, response to recruitment was dismal and soon they turned to African Americans—slave and free—to provide the bulk of labor that built the White House.

Related Topics:
District of Columbia - Act of Congress - 1790 - George Washington - Pierre L'Enfant - James Hoban - October 13 - 1792 - Leinster House - Dublin - Ireland - Irish Parliament - Viceregal Lodge - President of Ireland

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Construction of the White House was completed on November 1, 1800. Over an extremely slow 8 years of construction, $232,371.83 was spent. With inflation, this would be approximately equivalent to $2.4 million today.

Related Topics:
November 1 - 1800

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The front and rear porticoes were not part of the structure until about 1825.

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The building was originally referred to as the Presidential Palace or Presidential Mansion. Dolley Madison called it the "President's Castle." However, by 1811 the first evidence of the public calling it the "White House" emerged, because of its white-painted stone exterior. The name Executive Mansion was often used in official context until President Theodore Roosevelt established the formal name by having "The White House" engraved on his stationery in 1901.

Related Topics:
Dolley Madison - 1811 - Theodore Roosevelt - 1901

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John Adams became the first president to take residence in the building on November 1, 1800. In 1814 during the War of 1812, much of Washington, D.C., was set alight by British troops, and the White House was gutted. Only the exterior walls remained, but it was rebuilt. The walls were repainted white, but it is important to point out that the White House was always painted white as early as 1798, and the repainting from the fire damage did not originate the term "White House" as a popular urban legend claims it did.

Related Topics:
John Adams - November 1 - 1800 - 1814 - War of 1812

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The White House was attacked again on August 16, 1841, when U.S. President John Tyler vetoed a bill which called for the establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members rioted outside the White House in what was (and still is, as of 2005) the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history.

Related Topics:
August 16 - 1841 - John Tyler - Second Bank of the United States - Whig Party - As of 2005

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Like the English and Irish country houses it resembled, the White House was remarkably open to the public until the early part of the twentieth century. President Thomas Jefferson held an open house for his second inaugural in 1805, when many of the people at his swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol followed him home, where he greeted them in the Blue Room.

Related Topics:
Thomas Jefferson - 1805 - Capitol - Blue Room

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Those open houses sometimes became rowdy: in 1829, President Andrew Jackson had to leave for a hotel when roughly 20,000 citizens celebrated his inauguration inside the White House. His aides ultimately had to lure the mob outside with washtubs filled with a potent cocktail of orange juice and whiskey. Even so, the practice continued until 1885, when newly elected Grover Cleveland arranged for a presidential review of the troops from a grandstand in front of the White House instead of the traditional open house.

Related Topics:
1829 - Andrew Jackson - 1885 - Grover Cleveland

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Jefferson also permitted public tours of his home, which have continued ever since, except during wartime, and began the tradition of annual receptions on New Year's Day and on the Fourth of July. Those receptions ended in the early 1930s.

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The White House remained open in other ways as well; President Abraham Lincoln complained that he was constantly beleaguered by job seekers waiting to ask him for political appointments or other favors as he began the business day. Lincoln put up with the annoyance rather than risk alienating some associate or friend of a powerful politician or opinion maker.

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The White House was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 19, 1960.

Related Topics:
National Historic Landmark - December 19 - 1960

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