Collection An Artist Visits the White House Past
From the beginning of its construction in 1792, until the 1902 renovation that shaped the modern identity and functions of the interior...
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Have you ever wondered...
White paint has nothing to do with covering the burning of the house by the British in 1814. The building was first made white with lime-based whitewash in 1798, when its walls were finished, simply as a means of protecting the porous stone from freezing. Congressman Abijah Bigelow wrote to a colleague on March 18, 1812 (three months before the United States entered war with Great Britain):
"There is much trouble at the White House, as we call it, I mean the President's" (quoted in W. B. Bryan, "The Name White House," Records of the Columbia Historical Society 34-35 [1932]: 308).
Close-up image of burn marks on the walls of the White House.
White House Collection/White House Historical AssociationMeant to wear off for the most part, leaving cracks and crevices filled, the whitewash was never allowed to weather, but was refreshed periodically until the structure at last was painted with white lead paint in 1818. By that time it had for more than a decade been known as "The White House." The name, though in common use, remained a nickname until October 1901, when Theodore Roosevelt made it official.
James Hoban's North Elevation, 1793.
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