The White House, District of Columbia ∆
Location: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington.
Signers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were the first two occupants of the White House, official residence of our Nation’s Presidents since 1800. It is a national shrine that symbolizes the honor and dignity of the highest office in the land, and has been the scene of many historic events and brilliant social affairs. Like the Nation itself, it bears the influences of successive Chief Executives. Although rebuilt and modernized, it retains the simplicity and charm of its original appearance.
South facade of the White House.
President George Washington approved the plans for the White House, drawn by Irish-born James Hoban, winner of the prize competition. Maj. Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the French artist-engineer, located the mansion in his plan of the Federal City, in which it and the Capitol were the first public buildings erected. The cornerstone was laid on October 13, 1792. Workmen used light gray sandstone from the Aquia Creek Quarries, in Virginia, for the exterior walls. During the course of construction or soon thereafter, they apparently were painted white. The building was thus unofficially termed the “White House” from an early date, but for many years it was usually referred to as the “President’s House” or the “President’s Palace.”
North facade of the White House in 1807.
In the Palladian style of architecture, the main facade resembles the Duke of Leinster’s mansion in Dublin. Hoban probably derived the details of other faces and the interior arrangement from other contemporary European mansions. He supervised the original construction; the rebuilding after the burning by British forces, in 1814; and the erection of the north and south porticoes, some years later. Over the course of time, however, various architects modified Hoban’s original plans, notably Benjamin H. Latrobe during and after the Jefferson administration.