White House | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

Located along the banks of the Potomac River, the site of the nation’s capital city was selected after much debate through a compromise between southern and northern representatives during the late 1780s.

The Residence Act of 1790 placed the site along the Potomac River, and gave President George Washington the authority to select the exact location of the new capital city.

President George Washington signed the Residence Act in July 1790 declaring that the Federal Government would reside in a district “not exceeding ten miles square…on the river Potomac.”

City Planner Pierre (Peter) Charles L’Enfant laid out plans for the nation’s new capital and together with President Washington chose the site for the “President’s House.”

The building’s history begins in 1792, when a public competition was held to choose a design for a presidential residence in the new capital city of Washington.

Thomas Jefferson, later the country’s third president (1801–09), using the pseudonymous initials “A.Z.,” was among those who submitted drawings, but Irish American architect James Hoban won the commission (and a $500 prize) with his plan for a Georgian mansion in the Palladian style.

The structure was to have three floors and more than 100 rooms and would be built in sandstone imported from quarries along Aquia Creek in Virginia.

President Washington marked the spot for the future north walls and entrance of the White House in 1791. The chosen location and position for the White House symbolically linked the President’s House to the U.S. Capitol via Pennsylvania Avenue (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. in Washington, DC)

The cornerstone was laid on October 13, 1792. Laborers, including local enslaved people, were housed in temporary huts built on the north side of the premises. They were joined by skilled stonemasons from Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1793.

In 1800 the entire federal government was relocated from Philadelphia to Washington. John Adams, the country’s second president (1797–1801), moved into the still unfinished presidential mansion on November 1 and the next night Adams wrote in a letter to his wife, Abigail Adams:

“I Pray Heaven Bestow the Best of Blessings on This House and All that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under this Roof.”

At the insistence of President Franklin Roosevelt (1933–45), the quotation was inscribed on the fireplace of the State Dining Room immediately below the portrait of Abraham Lincoln, by George Healy.

During the War of 1812 the building was burned by the British, and President James Madison (1809–17) and his family were forced to flee the city. The Madisons eventually moved into the nearby Octagon House, the Washington mansion of John Tayloe, a Virginia plantation owner.

Reconstruction and expansion began under Hoban’s direction, but the building was not ready for occupancy until 1817, during the administration of President James Monroe (1817–25).

It survived a fire at the hands of the British in 1814 (during the war of 1812) and another fire in the West Wing in 1929, while Herbert Hoover was President.

President John Adams opened the White House to the public and started the tradition of hosting New Year’s Day receptions. President Thomas Jefferson expanded on this tradition of hospitality and hosted the first Fourth of July celebration.

Thomas Jefferson held the first Inaugural open house in 1805. Many of those who attended the swearing-in ceremony at the US Capitol simply followed him home, where he greeted them in the Blue Room. President Jefferson also opened the house for public tours, and it has remained open, except during wartime, ever since.

In 1829, a horde of 20,000 Inaugural callers forced President Andrew Jackson to flee to the safety of a hotel while, on the lawn, aides filled washtubs with orange juice and whiskey to lure the mob out of the mud-tracked White House.

After Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, Inaugural crowds became far too large for the White House to accommodate them comfortably.

In Grover Cleveland’s first presidency he held a presidential review of the troops from a flag-draped grandstand built in front of the White House. This procession evolved into the official Inaugural parade we know today. Receptions on New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July continued to be held until the early 1930s.

The 1902 renovation relocated the public entrance to the White House to the East Terrace, but the president and his wife still welcome state visitors in the Entrance Hall.

The Second and Third Floors are private living quarters, used only by the president, family, and guests.

Although the name “White House” was commonly used (because the mansion’s white-gray sandstone contrasted strikingly with the red brick of nearby buildings), it did not become the official name of the building until 1901, when it was adopted by President Theodore Roosevelt (1901–09). The White House is the oldest federal building in the nation’s capital.

There are 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, and 6 levels in the Residence. There are also 412 doors, 147 windows, 28 fireplaces, 8 staircases, and 3 elevators.

With five full-time chefs, the White House kitchen is able to serve dinner to as many as 140 guests and hors d’oeuvres to more than 1,000.

For recreation, the White House has a variety of facilities available to its residents, including a tennis court, jogging track, swimming pool, movie theater, and bowling lane.

The White House and its landscaped grounds occupy 18 acres. The White House Grounds and the surrounding parkland, known as President’s Park, provide an elegant setting to welcome foreign dignitaries and to host national celebrations such as the lighting of the National Christmas Tree and the annual Easter Egg Roll, and on occasion public protests.

The Ellipse is the central landscape feature on the south side. Lafayette Park, on the north side, is surrounded by many historic buildings of interest and is the site of an equestrian statue of President Andrew Jackson and a number of statues of Revolutionary War heroes erected in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The National Park Service maintains the White House Gardens and Grounds, the surrounding parkland known as President’s Park, and provides interpretive programs in the park and at the White House Visitor Center.

For two hundred years, the White House has stood as a symbol of the Presidency, the United States government, and the American people.

Click the following link to a general summary about the White House:

Click to access White-House.pdf

“It is very seldom that the streets of Washington presented a more animated appearance than they did on this occasion. The sidewalks of Pennsylvania avenue were crowded with men, women and children, all anxious to catch a glimpse or the first reigning King ever on our shores.”

“Every window seemed to be filled with anxious spectators, and the house tops were covered with people. The appearance or the street could only remind one familiar with such scenes or an Inauguration day.”

“At 12 o’clock, the royal party reached the Arlington, and while alighting from their carriages and entering the hotel, received by Mr. Roessle, the marines, again in line, presented arms, and the band played the national anthem of the Sandwich Islands.”

“The King was Immediately shown to bis apartments, consisting or the throne roomy the royal dining room, the secretary’s office and the royal bed chamber.”

“… It is the Intention of the President and Mrs. Grant to give a Grand Reception at the White House one evening this week”. (National Republican, December 14, 1874)

Kalakaua “left Honolulu for the United States on the 17th of November, in the American man-of-war Benicia, and reached San Francisco November 21, taking the cars on December 5 arrived in Baltimore at 10.16 Saturday morning, December 12, en route for Washington.”

“The King was accompanied by his excellency JO Dominis, Governor of Oahu, and his excellency John M Kapena, Governor of Maui, the former a representative of the Anglo-American Hawaiian-born element or the nation, and the latter of the educated pure Hawaiian.” Baltimore Sun, December 14, 1874)

“Kalākaua was reportedly the first sitting monarch to visit the United States when he made a cross-country trip from San Francisco to Washington aboard the still-new transcontinental railroad in 1874.”

“He was seeking better trade between the United States and his Sandwich Islands, which is how mapmakers of the day labeled the Pacific archipelago that would become an American territory in 1898.”

“President Ulysses S. Grant, then halfway through his second term, decided to put on a display of diplomatic pomp-and-romp unlike any seen in Washington before.” (Hendrix; Washington Post)

When the king had arrived in San Francisco, he received a telegraph: “The President of the United States extends the cordial welcome of the nation to his great and good friend, His Royal Highness Kalakaua, on his arrival in the United States, and tenders his personal congratulations on the safety of his voyage.”

“The President anticipates with great pleasure the opportunity of a personal greeting, and assures His Highness of the sincere friendship which in common with the people of the United States he entertains for His Royal Highness, and hopes that his journey across the continent may be guarded by a kind Providence.” (Journal of the Telegraph)

“The President anticipates with great pleasure the opportunity of a personal greeting.’” (White House Historical Association)

“On the arrival of the palace train at the Sixth-street depot the King, escorted on his right and left by Secretary Fish and Mr. Commissioner Allen, walked through the depot to the mala B street entrance.”

“On this street a full battalion of Marines were drawn up In line, and as the King stood in the doorway or the depot they presented arms, while the full Marine band played appropriate music.” (National Republican, December 14, 1874)

“By the time of the state dinner 10 days later, Kalākaua was a well-documented celebrity (reporters wrote multiple stories on the king’s cough, picked up, apparently in Omaha — you know how train travel is).”

“There was equally breathless reporting on the dinner. The East Room and the Dining Room were laden with flowers, including banks of them along a framed mirror running the length of the banquet table. The Green Drawing Room featured a portrait of Grant on horseback recently given to him (“The likeness is good and the horse spirited,” the Star said.)”

“Grant, and more specifically, his wife, Julia, amazed the city with a White House table awash in flowers, crystal decanters and a $3,000, 587-piece set of Limoges china imported four years earlier by D.C. merchant J.W. Boteler and Bro.”

“‘Brilliant beyond all precedent,’ marveled the Washington Evening Star the following day.” (Hendrix; Washington Post)

“The Grant museum staff doesn’t have the menu from that first state dinner, but they know what was served at the many that followed. In fact, they recently held a mock state dinner, complete with impersonators standing in for the first couple and a historically correct menu of mulligatawny soup and charred tenderloin of beef.”

“‘Grant did not like any meat that was not thoroughly cooked’ … The original feast went on for some 30 courses.”

“There was probably a mid-meal intermission, with a Marine band playing. Julia Grant sat by the king, the president opposite. The chief justice, the speaker of the House, all the Cabinet members and their wives were at the table lined with glasses and decanters.”

“There were no young ladies present,” the Star reported. (Hendrix; Washington Post)

“(T)he extravagant black-tie blowout that has become America’s highest diplo-social ceremony was not French or British, Russian or Mexican. He was … Kalākaua, the last king of Hawaii.” Hendrix; Washington Post)

“The first ever foreign ruler to be given a White House state dinner was King David Kalākaua. He was hosted by President Ulysses S Grant on December 12, 1874, while in Washington on a mission to win trade concessions.”

“Kalakaua’s traveling was not restricted to visits to the US. In 1881, Kalakaua left his sister in charge and embarked on a lengthy global tour, calling on a host of important courts, from the Forbidden City (the imperial palace in China) to the Holy See (the universal government of the Catholic Church in Vatican City).” (Time)