Days of Destruction: The President's House

Gallery

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The scorch marks of the fire are still visible today on the White House as two areas have been left unpainted.
White House Collection/White House Historical Association
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The frontispiece to the 1807 travel guide, A Stranger in America by Charles W. Janson, was a rare early view of the White House as it appeared before the 1814 fire.
White House Collection/White House Historical Association
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The North Door surround, embellished by Scottish stonemasons with unquestionably the finest architectural stone carving produced in America at that time, survived the 1814 fire.
Jack Boucher, HABS
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Mrs. Madison, with Latrobe's design skills, combined republican simplicity with high federal style to create a setting for political discourse in a cordial environment. The architect custom-designed furniture for the Oval Room in the Grecian mode then popular in England.
Courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society
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The principal drawing room of the Madison White House—today's oval Blue Room—between 1810 and 1814.
Peter Waddell for the White House Historical Association
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Gilbert Stuart's 1797 portrait of George Washington was taken down and reframed to better preserve it in 2004.
White House Historical Association
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Dolley Madison through the later years of her life saved and cherished this red velvet ball gown. Curators who have studied the fabric of the gown believe it may have been material from the red velvet curtains that hung in the oval drawing room.
Greensboro Historical Museum
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The President's House was left a gutted ruin; the walls still 'white except for great licks of soot that scarred the sockets that had been windows.' President's House by George Munger, ca. 1814-1815.
White House Collection/White House Historical Association