 "As Trump returns to White House, the 225-year-old history of the world’s most famous building")
It is the world’s most famous address. So far, every American president except George Washington has stayed in the White House. Now it has got a new resident or rather an old one has returned. Donald Trump moved in after he took oath as the 47th president of the United States on a frigid day in Washington DC. For the next four years, this will be his office and home.
But how did the White House become one of the most important buildings of all time? We look back at the history.
How Washington became the US capital
Washington DC is the powerhouse it is today, courtesy of George Washington . It was he who zeroed in on the site on the Potomac River, where the White House would later come up.
The capital was a subject of much debate between southern and northern representatives during the late 1780s. From Philadelphia to New York, the options were aplenty. However, the then US president believed that the site currently located between Virginia and Maryland would make for the capital city he had envisioned.
With the 1790 Residence Act, the US Congress gave President George Washington the authority to pick the exact location of the new capital city. By 1880, the president, the Congress and the Supreme Court would have to relocate from its then location in Philadelphia to the city which would later be named after Washington.
How the site of the White House was picked
French-born architect and engineer Pierre Charles L’Enfant was picked to design the capital city, the Congress and the house of the president. He had a grand plan for the president’s residence – a building four times the size of what the White House would be. It would come up on a ridge and overlook the Potomac River toward Mount Vernon, Washington’s home, according to a report in National Geographic.
But L’Enfant was dismissed after a fallout with the president’s “meddlesome” commissioners. The task was then handed over to James Hoban, who was recommended by Washington’s friends in Charleston. Born in Ireland, he was a carpenter, who repaired wheels and then went to on become the architect of the world’s most famous building.
The foundation work of the president’s house had begun based on L’Enfant’s designs. But the commissioners had their concerns. Commissioner Dr David Stuart thought the presidential palace site was “much too extensive” for the residence of the head of a democratic society, better reflecting a “despotic government”, writes William Seale, author and historian of the two-volume book “The President’s House,” in non-profit The White House Historical Association.
The commissioners wanted the replacement house to be seen from the great avenue (now famous as Pennsylvania Avenue) that connected it to the Capitol. The president met with them and listened to what they had to say. Then he marked the spot for the future north walls and entrance of the White House. The north wall was where L’Enfant had driven a stake in the ground.
This would change L’Enfant’s plan. As Hoban directed the laying of the foundations of the building, the construction officially began on 13 October 1792.
How the White House was constructed
During his two terms, George Washington oversaw the construction of the presidential home. He wanted the house to be built with stone.
Before L’Enfant was dismissed, he purchased Government Island in Virginia and then a small quarry on Aquia Creek about 64 kilometres down the Potomac River. More than 100 men were employed for the production of Aquia sandstone, which was then ferried to Washington using a barge and a boat. The workers were mostly slaves but some were freedmen and stonemasons from US and Scotland.
“Washington envisioned a great world power and he wanted it to look like a world power, and these (stones) are the tools of one aspect of his attempt to realise that,” Seale was quoted as saying by CNN.
To protect the stone exterior from moisture and cracking, the building was whitewashed by Scottish stonemasons in 1798. This is how it earned the moniker the “White House”. The name made its way to newspapers but journalists and Americans also called it the “President’s House” or the “Executive Mansion.”
As work had begun based on the original design by L’Enfant, Hoban consulted with Washington. The final result was an Irish Georgian–style mansion, which was inspired by Leinster House, now the Parliament of Ireland, in Dublin.
Washington added his touches to the house – a distinctive rose and acorn-carved stone embellishments. He also reduced the size of the house to two storeys doing away with the raised basement, according to the National Geographic report. His advisers thought there would be not enough stone and chose to be conservative. However, the president was clear that the building could be expanded or even replaced in the future.
How the White House changed over 200 years
Washington was deeply involved in building the structure, which has now become synonymous with American democracy. However, he never lived in it. He died shortly before the construction was completed. It took eight years.
The first president to move into the building was John Adams on 1 November 1800. There were six habitable rooms back then. The biggest room on the first floor or the State Floor was the East Room, occupying the east end of the building. It was unfinished. So was the oval room (now the Blue Room) where public receptions were held.
The Adams family lived there for four months. In the 1800 presidential election, Adams lost to Thomas Jefferson . When the new president occupied the White House, he made changes that suited his tastes, selling off a stable and two carriages, converting the State Dining into his office and bringing improvements to the presidential grounds. Jefferson also opened the house for public tours and it has welcomed visitors ever since, except during times of war. He officially gave the building its name – the White House.
In its 225-year-old history, the White House has changed and evolved. It has seen four major renovations. It survived fires at the hands of the British in 1814 and was rebuilt in 1817. Theodore Roosevelt modernised the White House in 1902 and established the West Wing as the new executive office space for the president and his staff, according to The White House Historical Association. His successor, William Haft, had the Oval Office constructed.
Major changes happened a few decades later. A fire in the West Wing in 1929 when Herbert Hoover was president gutted the interiors. It was renovated throughout Harry S Truman’s presidency, who spent much of his time in Blair House. While the exterior walls remained the ones first put in place, the building that we know today is largely because of the changes made between 1948 and 1952.
How big is the White House?
Today, the White House boasts 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, and six levels in the Residence. It has 412 doors, 147 windows, 28 fireplaces, eight staircases, and three elevators.
Over the years, every president has made some changes to the White House. They have decorated some parts of the house to express their style. With the advent of technology, heating, plumbing, lighting and security all changed.
Presidents and first ladies refurbished some rooms. The Blue Room was renovated by Jacqueline Kennedy, Thelma “Pat Nixon” and Hillary Clinton. Some added artwork and furniture. In recent years, Michelle Obama brought in Alma Thomas’ painting “Resurrection”, the first work of an African-American woman in the White House collection, and Melania Trump acquired Isamu Noguchi’s sculpture Floor Frame for the White House Rose Garden.
When Biden took over from Trump, the Oval Office underwent a makeover. He replaced the portrait of Andrew Jackson with that of Benjamin Franklin. He changed the rug, going for a deep blue one with a presidential seal in the middle, last used by Bill Clinton.
Now Trump is back. It remains to be seen what portrait will adorn the walls of the Oval Office in his second term. And what happens to Biden’s rug?
With inputs from agencies
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