The White House has a very colourful history
‘ The wood beams were perilously close to giving out
IT’S one of the most famous buildings in the world and it will soon have a new occupant.
Until 1901, the White House was officially known as the Executive Mansion.
President Theodore Roosevelt announced the change, and not just because he didn’t fancy living in something that sounded like a double-garaged house you’d find on a new-build estate in the commuter belt.
The White House, which sits at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, had already been the home of every American President since 1800.
There had already been three previous Executive Mansions – two in New York, one in Philadelphia. Both cities had served as the fledgling nation’s capital while the “Federal City” was built.
The new one was variously named the President’s Palace, Presidential Mansion or President’s House before John Adams, the first occupant, decided to stick with Executive Mansion as a moniker.
However, when the porous sandstone walls were whitewashed, it didn’t take long for the new building to acquire a new name.
The building was first called the White House in 1811, which disproves the myth that it was only so-called when fresh, white paint was used to cover scorch damage caused when a British force torched the city’s public buildings in the Burning of Washington three years later.
There was also some speculation that the name derived from White House Plantation, where George Washington had courted the future First Lady, but he’d died a year before it was completed.
And Roosevelt didn’t just change the White House’s name, he’s largely responsible for the building’s current layout.
Because of overcrowding, he moved every one of the work offices into a newly-constructed West Wing.
This was expanded eight years later to create the first Oval Office, which was later moved to its current location because of further expansion and to give Franklin D. Roosevelt – a wheelchair user – more privacy and access to the Residence, as the original White House was now termed.
After years of squeezing additional offices and living space into the White House, it was discovered in 1948 that the building’s load-bearing exterior walls and internal wood beams were perilously close to giving out.
As a result, Harry S. Truman had to move into the guest house while all the internal rooms were dismantled and a new loadbearing steel frame built.
Since then, apart from each new administration refurbishing various rooms to make their own mark, the only significant alteration came when Richard Nixon added a single-lane bowling alley to the basement.