The White House: Everything You Need to Know About the US Presidents Residence
Table Of Content
Until the 1900s, the vice president actually lived at his private residence, which was not unexpected due to the few duties of the position. Until the 1920s, for instance, vice presidents were not even invited to attend Cabinet meetings. Only in 1974 did Congress decide to make the Naval Observatory, a residence built in 1893 for the superintendent of US Naval Operations (USNO), the residence of the vice president. However, only in 1977 did Vice President Walter Mondale (under President Jimmy Carter) use the Naval Observatory as a primary residence for the first time. Running water was added to the mansion in 1833, including a pump to get water to the second floor. The 1840s saw additions of natural gas to the White House, providing centralized heat and replacing candles with gas lights.
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Just before the demolition, the wallpaper was salvaged and sold to the White House. Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of President John F. Kennedy (1961–63), directed a very extensive and historic redecoration of the house. Thomas Jefferson added his own personal touches upon moving in a few months later, installing two water closets and working with architect Benjamin Latrobe to add bookending terrace-pavilions. Having transformed the building into a more suitable representation of a leader’s home, Jefferson held the first inaugural open house in 1805, and also opened its doors for public tours and receptions on New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July. Fujinaga testified his company owned 12 parcels in HPP and built on and sold 11 of those. The other parcel is the vacant one-acre lot on which the house built on Reynolds’ land was supposed to be constructed.
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The Cabinet Room has a large mahogany table where the president can meet with his entire cabinet of 15 cabinet-level secretaries, such as the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of the Treasury, and Attorney General (Secretary of the Justice Department). Spread out over what is today Lafayette Square and the North Lawn of the White House were brickyards and kilns, the carpenters’ hall, storehouses, the cookhouse, and the stonecutters’ lodges. On the South Lawn were a sawmill and at least one pit for tempering bricks. There were several pits for sawing logs—one man standing above and another in the hole, sawing the log with a long saw in between. Sawyers listed on government payrolls such as “Jerry,” “Charles,” “Len,” “Dick,” “Bill,” and “Jim” were black laborers hired from their masters. Experienced carpenters and master stonemasons were rare in America, so most of the skilled builders were Scots, Irish, and English.
The first first family
Architect Lorenzo Winslow oversaw the three-year gut renovation, during which the inside of the White House was demolished and completely rebuilt. “The Truman renovation is the largest reconstruction at the White House because of the sheer amount of demolition and reconstruction that you see inside,” says Fling. Scars from the 1814 fire appeared 176 years later, in 1990, when white paint was removed from the walls in the course of restoration.
Opening to the public
Plaque unveiled honouring Scots who built the White House - Historic Environment Scotland
Plaque unveiled honouring Scots who built the White House.
Posted: Fri, 26 Oct 2018 07:00:00 GMT [source]
When President Harry S. Truman moved into the White House in 1945, he became concerned about the state of the building. In 1947, a chandelier in the Blue Room almost fell on Bess Truman and her guests from the Daughters of the American Revolution, and in 1948, the leg of Margaret Truman’s piano pierced through the floor of what is now the private dining room. Engineers confirmed that the building was at risk of collapse, and Truman and his family relocated to Blair House, the president’s guesthouse located nearby at 1651 Pennsylvania Ave.
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. Commissioners originally tried to bring cheap workers over from Europe to build the new capital, their recruitment efforts fell short.
The White House Visitors Centre is worth visiting regardless as a great source of White House history, including details of the building’s architecture and history. There are plenty of fun anecdotes and a comprehensive American Presidential history. Allow an hour or two to do it justice and the visitors centre is open until 4pm daily.
The plans included the location for the future White House, the Capitol to house Congress, and the National Mall. James Hoban, an Irish immigrant and architect hand-picked by President George Washington, designed the original building. After the British set fire to it in 1814, during the War of 1812, Hoban led the effort to rebuild the structure. Despite all his tweaks, Jefferson did not change the appearance of the house substantially.
Although the exterior has remained similar since the completion of the North Portico in 1830, the mansion’s interior was totally renovated between 1948 and 1952 under President Harry S. Truman. The Executive Mansion has 132 rooms, including 35 bathrooms, spread over six levels. The first guards served as tour guides during the day, and only in 1830 were the first formal guards stationed outside the mansion during public events. In 1837, the White House finally received its first full-time guard, with multiple guards only becoming standard in the 1840s.
According to the White House Historical Association, Washington, D.C.’s city commissioners originally planned to spirit workers from Europe for the construction, which started in 1792 and took eight years to complete. When they got little response, they instead enlisted the labor of both free and enslaved African Americans to work alongside local white laborers and craftsmen, plus a handful of Europeans to build not just the president's home, but other government buildings such as the U.S. During the final days of White House construction, labor forces—both enslaved and free—were drastically cut by the commissioners. By this point, the exterior was largely finished, and free white carpenters furiously worked to finish the interiors.
The White House underwent a significant external renovation to strip the many layers of paint, which took 20 years and wasn’t completed until President William ‘Bill’ Clinton’s administration. When finished, over 45 coats of paint had been removed from the exterior walls. In 1792, James Hoban had proposed a south porch with doors opening to it from the three south parlors. These were not constructed until 1824 (the south portico) and 1829 (the north portico) and then under the supervision of James Hoban.
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