1. For starters, it wasn’t regularly called the White House until Teddy Roosevelt officially named it that in 1901.
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It had been periodically and informally called the White House since 1811, though.
2. Which means that before 1901, it was known by several different names, including the President’s Palace, the President’s House, and the Executive Mansion.
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The names were often used interchangeably.
3. It’s the only private residence of a head of state that the public can visit for free.
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Visitors do have to request and book tours in advance, though.
4. The White House was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban, who won a competition in 1792. He based his model on a villa in Dublin called the Leinster House.
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Leinster House still exists, and it houses the Irish Parliament.
5. That’s not the only White House lookalike — there’s also a private home that’s an exact replica in McLean, Virginia.
It’s a scaled-down version, but it
has its own Blue Room, Lincoln Bedroom and more! There are other
replicas in Atlanta, Austria, China, among others.
6. It was indeed built by slaves.
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Michelle Obama was right — D.C.
commissioners had slaves, in addition to white laborers and European
immigrants, construct the president’s house.
7. George Washington never actually lived there.
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But his portrait hangs on its walls.
The cornerstone was laid while he was president in 1792, and he died in
1799, less than a year before the first tenants moved in.
8. It wasn’t totally finished when John and Abigail Adams moved in on Nov. 1, 1800, so Abigail hung her laundry to dry in the East Room.
© 1966 White House Historical Association
Artist Gordon Phillips envisioned what that might have looked like in this painting in 1966.
9. The West Wing didn’t exist until 1902, when Teddy Roosevelt had it built to replace an extensive network of decorative greenhouses.
Library of Congress / Via whitehousehistory.org
Before that, the president would work
from his room of choice on the second floor of the White House, where
the first family also lived. Roosevelt’s six children proved too
distracting.
10. But the Oval Office wasn’t put in until 1913, per William Howard Taft’s instructions.
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