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Below, find answers to six common questions about the iconic structure that has served as home to all but one U.S. president. Jefferson appointed architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe as the surveyor of public buildings in 1803 and put him in charge of any improvements to the President’s House. Latrobe, born in England to an American mother and an English father, had practiced in the United States for seven years. They shared an intense interest in architecture, science, invention, philosophy, and religion.
Architecture: 1790s-1840s
Like both the White House and Naval Observatory, the EEOB is also on the National Registry of Historic Places, having received the honor in 1969. Twenty-five years later, it was moved to the southeast corner of the building, overlooking the Rose Garden. Despite the building being modernized for innovations like the Internet and Wi-Fi, most presidents since 1880 have used the Resolute desk, which was given as a gift by Queen Elizabeth from the wood of the H.M.S. Resolute. Incoming presidents typically redecorate the Oval Office according to their individual tastes, often selecting historic artifacts from previous administrations to reinstate. The West Wing office complex was built in 1902, allowing the president to move his office out of the executive residence to a more professional environment. It includes modernizations like the Situation Room, which is staffed 24 hours a day to keep the president updated on crucial events around the world.
Early history
President Truman was not an avid bowler, but friends from his home state, Missouri, financed the building of bowling lanes in the West Wing for him in 1947. Richard Nixon, who was a dedicated bowler, had a subterranean single-lane bowling alley installed beneath the area of the north portico in 1973. When First Lady Michelle Obama took the stage during the first night of the Democratic National Convention, she talked about how it felt to be a Black woman waking up in the White House every morning—a building constructed with enslaved labor. It was a powerful moment in her speech, hearkening back to the generations of African Americans forced into bondage in this country. Up until a few decades ago, little attention was paid to looking into who actually laid the foundations and put up the walls of the White House. But what documentation exists today shows that many of Washington, D.C.’s most iconic government buildings, including the White House, were built by enslaved people.
White House completes $50 million revamp of high-security Situation Room - CNN
White House completes $50 million revamp of high-security Situation Room.
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The impressive and seemingly sturdy structure stands out among the dozens of makeshift shelters, tents and tarps that those without a home have constructed along the drainage basin, as filmed by local news station KTLA. It wasn’t until Hoban left Ireland and emigrated to America that he had a chance meeting with President George Washington in Charleston in 1791. The meeting led the American president to hire Hoban as the designer of the White House. Most people are familiar with the dogs that have lived in the White House – such as Bo and Sunny Obama, or President George W Bush and First Lady Laura Bush’s Scottish terriers, Barney and Miss Beazley.
The Official 2024 White House Christmas Ornament
He began a stone wall around the house, planted trees and flower gardens, and built graveled driveways. Commissioners, charged by Congress with building the new city, initially planned to import workers from Europe. Response to recruitment was dismal, but they found good hands among African Americans—enslaved and free—to increase the labor force that built the White House, U.S. Capitol, and other early government buildings. The White House has undergone many renovations throughout its history, starting with Thomas Jefferson, who, along with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, added the East and West Colonnades, which now link the East and West Wings with the Executive Residence. The first major renovation of the White House took place during the War of 1812.
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Both porticoes (the south is really a porch) are made of Seneca sandstone from Maryland. Only after Andrew Jacksons election in 1828 did Congress appropriate the funds to build the north portico, which covered the driveway to serve as porte cochere. With the finishing of the porticoes the image of the White House as we know it today was complete.
The general layout of the White House grounds today is based on the 1935 design by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. of the Olmsted Brothers firm, commissioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the Kennedy administration, the White House Rose Garden was redesigned by Rachel Lambert Mellon. Bordering the East Colonnade is the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, which was begun by Jacqueline Kennedy but completed after her husband's assassination. Homeless Californians built a house complete with rock walls, a garden, a barbecue grill, a hammock, decorative string lights, potted plants and working electricity on a strip of land wedged between a busy freeway and the Arroyo Seco in Los Angeles. "I wake up every morning in a house built by slaves." After Michelle Obama said those words at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, thousands of Americans flooded the White House Historical Association with calls. This led historians from the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture and the White House Historical Association on a years-long journey that turned up some interesting answers and even bigger questions.
President Thomas Jefferson added a fence that enclosed the grounds, but they remained open for common use. In 1873, President Ulysses S Grant began closing the grounds at sunset for additional security and in 1893, President Grover Cleveland closed the South Grounds, typically the first family’s garden, after strangers tried to take a picture of his young daughter, Esther. The North and South Grounds were closed permanently during Calvin Coolidge’s presidency at the recommendation of the United States Secret Service. The portrait locations follow a rough pattern; they are mostly arranged chronologically, with a few exceptions.
The first first family
Stonemason Collen Williamson trained enslaved people on the spot at the government's quarry at Aquia, Virginia. Enslaved people quarried and cut the rough stone that was later dressed and laid by Scottish masons to erect the walls of the President's House. The slaves joined a work force that included local white laborers and artisans from Maryland and Virginia, as well as immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, and other European nations. While the building appears to be two stories from the street, there are actually six floors. There are three floors above ground (the State Floor and two floors for the residence), and three floors below ground. While much of the State Floor and residence layout has remained the same since its construction, many other areas of the White House have changed dramatically.
Unfortunately for Madison, British forces in Canada repelled the American invasion. Then, Britain struck back the following year with an invasion of America’s coast. Also two stories, the East Wing, meanwhile, contains office space for the first lady and her staff and features a covered entrance for guests during large events. The Situation Room, known officially as the John F. Kennedy Conference Room, is located in the West Wing basement and actually comprises several rooms.
The Trumans helped redesign most of the state rooms and decorate the second and third floors, and the president proudly displayed the results during a televised tour of the completed house in 1952. William Taft hired architect Nathan Wyeth to expand the executive wing in 1909, resulting in the formation of the Oval Office as the president’s work space. In 1913, the White House added another enduring feature with Ellen Wilson’s Rose Garden.
This procession then evolved into the official inaugural parade we recognise today. The West Wing also houses the Situation Room, the Cabinet Room, the Press Room, and offices for advisors and the chief of staff. Additional offices for the president’s staff are located in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
The portraits of the most recent presidents are in the entrance hall of the State Floor and they extend chronologically up the stairway to the residence. In 1812, war erupted between the United States and Britain over trade disputes and the impressment of American sailors into the Royal Navy. Under fourth president James Madison, who famously wrote most of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights, the US invaded British Canada, hoping to make quick territorial gains.
In December 1791, the federal government purchased a stone quarry belonging to the prominent Brent family on Wiggington’s Island in Stafford County, Virginia. As these building materials were produced and gathered, laborers constructed the building under the watchful eye of foremen and overseers. Throughout the construction, most unskilled laborers earned around $0.31 per day. In fact, many slave owners who appear in the surviving documentation came from southern Maryland, specifically Prince George’s, Charles, St. Mary’s, and Calvert Counties. Each of these counties had convenient access to the Potomac River, making it easy to transport enslaved people upriver to work on federal construction projects like the White House. Since the commissioners were wealthy landowners themselves, it is likely they communicated with other landowners to create a network of enslaved labor.
Although Hoban was the architect, Washington oversaw construction of the house while serving his two terms as president in New York and Philadelphia. He insisted that the President’s House be built of stone and embellished with extensive stone ornamentation. A quarry at Aquia Creek 40 miles down the Potomac from the site proved to be convenient. The creek was navigable from a quarry dock up to a wharf near the building site. The building material was sandstone (called “freestone” because it was so easy to quarry), which was porous and susceptible to cracking in freezing weather. But L’Enfant had a falling out with the president’s commissioners that led to his dismissal in February 1792 before he had completed plans for the Capitol and President’s House.
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