White House Architect, Facts & Layout
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Not until 1909 did Congress provide appropriations to pay White House servants. During the 19th century the White House became a symbol of American democracy. In the minds of most Americans, the building was not a “palace” from which the president ruled but merely a temporary office and residence from which he served the people he governed.
The Grounds
Various proposals were put forward during the late 19th century to significantly expand the President’s House or to build an entirely new residence, but these plans were never realized. The Neoclassical design of the White House is based primarily on architectural concepts inherited from the Roman architect Vitruvius and the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio. Following his April 1789 inauguration, President George Washington occupied two private houses in New York City, which served as the executive mansion. In May 1790, construction began on a new official residence in Manhattan called Government House. The White House and its landscaped grounds occupy 18 acres (7.2 hectares). Since the administration of George Washington (1789–97), who occupied presidential residences in New York and Philadelphia, every American president has resided at the White House.
Public access and security
The building was designed by architect James Hoban, whose plans were selected out of nine proposals, and was loosely based on the neo-classical Leinster House in Dublin. 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. President Bill Clinton briefly revived the New Year's Day open house in his first term. The White House and grounds cover just over 18 acres (about 7.3 hectares).
Early use, 1814 burning, and reconstruction
There are rumors of secret rooms in the building, but, according to the White House Historical Association, the only "secret" passage is an emergency shelter built under the East Wing during the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, following the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. Vice President Dick Cheney used the passage during the 9/11 terrorist attacks and, The Washington Post reports, President Donald Trump was likely sequestered there during a 2020 protest outside the White House. At 55,000 square feet, the six-floor White House boasts 132 rooms (16 are family guest rooms), along with 35 bathrooms.
Later, President Benjamin Harrison’s wife Caroline Harrison would rue the fact that there was ‘no feeling of privacy’ on the property. A refrigerator was among the first modern amenities to make their way to the interior of the grand mansion. Soon after, in 1849, gas lighting was installed and later, in 1891, came electric lighting. Before the construction of the White House, there were two presidential palaces, one in New York and the other in Philadelphia. Both were occupied by Washington at different times during his eight-year tenure as the president. Originally, it was planned that the sandstone for the building would be imported from Europe.
Historic sites in Washington D.C.
The White House is both the home and workplace of the president of the United States, and it is the headquarters of the president’s principal staff members. There was no one at the door to receive Charles Dickens when he visited the White House on an official invitation during his 1942 tour to the US. Subsequently, the famed novelist let himself in and began exploring the building on his own. Jefferson’s zealous republicanism meant that he made the house open for public visitation at a certain hour each morning. The first Inaugural open house at the White House took place in 1805 and was held by President Thomas Jefferson following his swearing-in ceremony.
It has hosted longstanding traditions such as the annual Easter Egg Roll, as well as historic events like the 1987 nuclear arms treaty with Russia. The only private residence of a head of state open free of charge to the public, the White House reflects a nation’s history through the accumulated collections of its residing presidents, and serves as a worldwide symbol of the American republic. A final major overhaul took place after Harry Truman entered office in 1945. With structural problems mounting from the 1902 installation of floor-bearing steel beams, most of the building’s interior was stripped bare as a new concrete foundation went in place. 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. Architect Eric Gugler more than doubled the space of what was becoming known as the “West Wing,” added a swimming pool in the west terrace for the polio-stricken president, and moved the Oval Office to the southeast corner.
Allow an hour or two to do it justice and the visitors centre is open until 4pm daily. The Kennedy restoration resulted in a more authentic White House of grander stature, which recalled the French taste of Madison and Monroe.[69] In the Diplomatic Reception Room, Mrs. Kennedy installed an antique "Vue de l'Amérique Nord" wallpaper which Zuber & Cie had designed in 1834. The wallpaper had hung previously on the walls of another mansion until 1961 when that house was demolished for a grocery store. Just before the demolition, the wallpaper was salvaged and sold to the White House. Burned to the ground by the British in August 1814, the President’s House was nearly left in its smoldering remains as lawmakers contemplated moving the capital to another city.
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Instead, Hoban was brought back to rebuild it nearly from scratch, in some areas incorporating the original, charred walls. Upon reassuming residency in 1817, James Madison and his wife Dolley gave the home a more regal touch by decorating with extravagant French furniture. 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.
He personally drew up landscaping plans and had two earthen mounds installed on the south lawn to remind him of his beloved Virginia Piedmont. Meanwhile, construction continued on the building’s interior, which still lacked ample staircases and suffered from a persistently leaky roof. During Jefferson’s tenure, the White House was elegantly furnished in Louis XVI style (known in America as Federal style).
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According to the official White House web page, it’s home to 28 fireplaces, eight staircases, three elevators, 412 doors and 147 windows—and has a kitchen equipped to serve full dinner for up to 140 guests, or hors d'oeuvres for 1,000-plus visitors. And when it gets a new coat of paint every four to six years? The second president of the United States, John Adams, moved into the still-unfinished presidential mansion on November 1, 1800.
She believed it would be altogether inappropriate to hang the president’s laundry outdoors. In 1962, Jacqueline also conceived of and then conducted a televised tour of the many rooms of the mansion to arouse public interest in the beauties of the place. President William Howard Taft (1909 — 13), Roosevelt’s immediate successor, oversaw the construction of the Oval Office within an enlarged West Wing. The East Wing will be added during the tenure of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933 — 45).
Responding to charges that she had stolen government property when she left the White House, she angrily inventoried all the items she had taken with her, including gifts of quilts and waxworks from well-wishers. The White House is a Georgian mansion in the Palladian style. Reportedly, Abigail was in the habit of using the then still incomplete East Room for hanging out the laundry!
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