The White House, built in the late eighteenth century and magnificently embellished with stone decoration, was the finest residence in the new republic. It is perhaps curious that a republic would permit so opulent a residence for its elected head of state, but a public tally did not make the decision. George Washington approved the White House. His expressed wishes included not only the stone construction but extensive stone ornamentation as well.

The White House was completed long before the Capitol, which continued building until the 1820s. Already in 1798 one could walk through the presidential "palace," where rooms remained unfinished, but ceilings and walls, windows and doors were in place. Externally the building looked then as it does today, except that the portico on the south would not appear until 1824 and that on the north until 1829-1830.

Houses of "dressed" or finished stone were uncommon in America, even though fieldstone and rock houses were familiar in regions where those materials were plentiful. The young United States was a nation of wood houses, principally, with brick not even a close second. As settlement developed, "permanent" and fireproof materials appeared in greater number. But it would not be until the later nineteenth century that public buildings in America would be principally of stone. Underpinned with steel, the stone would become a mere veneer, with the real structure the skeleton beneath. The White House represents the old way, practiced for thousands of years, with a thick outer layer of stone backed by a less expensive and more quickly built but stronger lining of brick within.

The few instances of building with smooth-faced cut stone in America are found usually in facades, as at Cliveden (1764), near Philadelphia. Stone graces the main façade, while the sides and rear are stucco over rubble, scored in imitation of ashlar or uniform stone blocks. Houses fully rendered in dressed stone were very rare. An example is Mount Airy (1758), near Warsaw, Virginia, one of the few houses in he colonies that drew praise from visiting Englishman. Mount Airy is built of the same Aquia sandstone as the White House. Another example, on the type of Cliveden, is the John Carlyle house in Alexandria, Virginia, where only the façade is dressed Aquia stone. Both buildings were well known to George Washington and may have helped inspire his love of stone. The external walls of Mount Vernon faced with beveled wooden blocks were covered with sand-impregnated paint, resulting in the impression of stone.

The White House broke with all American precedents not only because of its great scale, but also because of the richness of the stone carving. President Washington overrode the opinions of Thomas Jefferson and the city commissioners to make this house stone instead of brick. The elegant swags of oak leaves and flowers, the window hoods, the lofty pilasters, and the charming motif of cabbages roses were all executed to suit Washington’s taste. The familiar image of the White House, a distant view with porticoes, does not include details of the stone carving, and even those who visit often miss them.

All of this was built under the watchful eye of George Washington, acting usually through the architect/builder James Hoban. Born in County Kilhenny, Ireland, Hoban was trained in architectural drawing at the Royal Dublin Society’s school for boys, under the direction of the Anglo-Irish master Thomas Ivory, designer of many of the principal buildings of Dublin.

In the White House, a familiar English architectural style was imported to the United States. Palladianism, as expressed in the architectural design and construction books of the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), was adapted in France and the British Isles, creating distinctive styles. Jefferson was fascinated by the rational forms of French Palladianism.

The White House represents a country house version of the Anglo-Palladianism found often in rural settings in England, Ireland, and sometimes, Scotland. During the process of building, it was Americanized in various ways. In its general exterior design, it departs from British models primarily in the extensiveness of the ornament. One can suppose that it was through these decorations that George Washington hoped to give the President’s House prominence and exception as a house of state.