The Presidents’ House, during Mr. Jefferson’s administration, stood unenclosed, on a piece of waste and barren ground, separated from the Capitol by an almost impassable marsh. That building was not half completed, and standing as it did amidst the rough masses of stone and other materials collected for its construction, and half-hidden by the venerable oaks that still shaded their native soil, looked more like a ruin in the midst of its fallen fragments and coëval shades, than a new and rising edifice. The silence and solitude of the surrounding space were calculated to enforce this idea, for beyond the Capitol hill as far as the eye could reach, the city, as it was called, lay in a state of nature, covered with thick groves and forest trees, wide and level plains with only here and there a house along the intersecting ways, that could not yet be properly called streets.
Thomas Moore visited the United States in 1804, and writes in his letters to his mother, that “the Presidents’ House is encircled by a very rude pale, through which a common rustic stile introduced visitors.”
The Executive Mansion was opened for the reception of visitors on the 1st of January, 1818, being the first time since the completion of repairs subsequent to its destruction by the British.
Gas was introduced into the White House during President Polk’s administration, the 29th of December, 1848.
Until President Fillmore’s time there was no library. The circular room in the second story contains now a fine collection of books, many of them purchased during President Buchanan’s administration. The trees on the western side of the mansion were planted by President John Quincy Adams. At various times there have been complaints made of the “palace” in which the Presidents were entertained during their terms, and not a few have been the bitter denunciations, written and spoken, “of its inappropriateness,” averring that it is too fine and too large for a republican Chief Magistrate. However, as the country has increased in population and wealth, these objections ceased to be made, and since the most interested persons say nothing now of its being too large or elegant, it is to be supposed that it will continue to be the Executive Mansion as long as the country remains under its present form of government. Congress has heretofore made an appropriation after the election of each new President,[[24]] for repairing and refurnishing the mansion. After the close of the late civil war, it was in a sad condition, having been subjected to hard usage. It was renovated, and the first floor beautifully papered and refurnished under the auspices of Mrs. Patterson, the daughter of President Johnson.
[24]. There was none made during President Tyler’s administration.
The green-house was partly burned in the winter of 1868, but is now greatly enlarged, and adds much to the beauty of the fine old mansion.
From the library-window on the second floor the view of the Potomac is very extended and magnificent. On a clear day, the distant points of Fort Washington may be dimly defined, and the old city of Georgetown distinctly seen.
The White House was so called in honor of the Virginia home of Mrs. Washington, in which her wedding occurred. Washington had pleasant memories of that residence, and suggested the building of a white house for the Presidents. It cost originally three hundred thousand dollars, and was smaller at the time it was burned by the British than now. Its rebuilding, refurnishings from time to time, and the additions and alterations, have cost a trifle over one million seven hundred thousand dollars.