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1790s
The Presidents House was a major feature of Pierre Charles L'Enfant's 1791 plan for the city of Washington. He envisioned a vast palace for the President, a house five times the size of the house which would be built. It was planned and constructed under the personal supervision of President George Washington. -
1800s
After George Washington dismissed French engineer and architect L'Enfant for insubordination, the design of the White House and Capitol would be determined by separate architectural competitions in 1792. James Hoban, an Irish-born and trained architect then living in Charleston, South Carolina, won the design competition for the White House. -
1810s
Hostilities with Great Britain culminated in the invasion of Washington on August 24, 1814. British troops entered the defenseless city, where they torched the building, destroying all but the outer walls. Congress decided to rebuild the public buildings in Washington rather than move the capital to another city. The weakened walls were dismantled to the basement level on the east and west sides and on the north except for the central section. -
1820s
In 1817, Benjamin Latrobe drew proposals for north and south porticoes. These were not constructed until 1824 and 1829. Both porticoes (the south is really a porch) are made of Seneca sandstone from Maryland. Only after Andrew Jacksons election in 1828 did Congress appropriate the funds to build the north portico, which covered the driveway to serve as porte cochere. With the finishing of the porticoes the image of the White House as we know it today was complete. -
1830s
From the 1830s until 1902, changes to the main block of the White House occurred principally to its interiors. Andrew Jackson had furnished the East Room for the first time in 1829. Succeeding presidents and their wives periodically refurbished the house to reflect the changing tastes of their time. As the 19th century progressed and presidential families with children and other relatives crowded into a limited space, demands to move the offices increased. -
1840s
The statue of Jefferson by French sculptor Pierre Jean David d Angers was set up before the White House in 1848 on orders from President James K. Polk, who saw a parallel between himself and the earlier expansionist. The statue stood in the center of the lawn, which was cut and rolled and seasonally decorated with flower beds. Cut off from the driveway by a fence, this small garden was open to the public every day. This statue of Jefferson was moved to the Capitol building in 1873. -
1850s
James Buchanan, at the urging of his niece and White House hostess Harriet Lane, added a wooden greenhouse on the roof of the west terrace in 1857, adjacent to the State Dining Room. One could enter a private world of plants and flowers grown for decorating the house. This simple structure burned in 1867 and was replaced by iron and wood structure twice as large as the earlier one. -
1860s
Stables were an important part of early White House life. First located several blocks from the Executive Mansion, they were shifted around until the creation of greenhouses forced their removal in 1869 from the west colonnade to the area southwest of the Presidents Grounds. -
1870s
In the 1870s and 1880s additional conservatories were added to the White House, including rose houses, a camellia house, orchid houses and a house for bedding plants. All were removed to construct the Executive Office Building (the West Wing) in 1902. -
1880s
Chester A. Arthur, president from 1881 to 1885, found no charm in the White House and called on Louis C. Tiffany, a new lion of the world of fashionable interiors in New York to add his touch to the White House. By far the greatest cost of Tiffanys redecoration was in artistic painting. Practically every surface was transformed with his decorative patterns and complicated glazing accented in the transverse hall and entrance hall by his trademark colored glass. -
1890s
First Lady Caroline Harrison found the White House inadequate as a residence and supported a proposal for a major expansion of the complex that would include an art wing open to visitors. In 1890, Frederick Owen, an engineer and friend of Mrs. Harrison, created plans from her ideas for the expanded house that included an open court and a glass conservatory on the south front. Congress refused to fund the project. -
1900s
In 1902, Mrs. Roosevelt asked the distinguished architect Charles McKim for a complete renovation of the house, leading to major changes in the interior and in the functioning of the building. It doubled the space allocated to the family living quarters, provided a new wing for the president and his staff, and a new area on the east for receiving guests. The White House as we know it today reflects the design of 1902. This restoration preserved the White House as the home of the President. -
1910s
The Rose Garden, nearly a century old and redesigned several times, retains the charm and flavor of early American gardens. Ellen Axson Wilson, first wife of Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) planted the first rose garden in the manner of 17th-century Italian gardens. The Rose Garden today reflects its redesign in 1961 for President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy. It functions as an outdoor space for gatherings and accommodates several hundred spectators. -
1920s
A full third floor was not created until the Coolidge Administration, when problems with the roof structure were discovered. In 1927 William Adams Delano was called upon for advice. He increased the pitch of the roof and lowered the floor to accommodate new guest and service rooms beneath a steel and concrete roof structure. A sunroom facing south toward the river, the predecessor of the current solarium was added. -
1930s
With the expansion of the staff in the 1930s, Franklin D. Roosevelt requested additional space, and the West Wing was completely rebuilt under the eye of Eric Gugler. He built a second story, excavated a larger basement for staff and support services, and moved the oval office from the south to its present location in the southeast corner, adjacent to the Rose Garden. -
1940s
At the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lorenzo Winslow, a government architect assigned to the White House, prepared designs and supervised construction in 1942 of a new east wing. The new east wing contained a formal entrance for guests, offices on the first and second floors, and an air raid shelter underground. -
1950s
Soon after moving into the White House in 1945, President Truman noticed large areas of cracking in the plaster throughout the house. In 1948 Truman appointed a Commission on the Renovation of the Executive Mansion that decided to retain the original walls, the third floor and the roof, while removing and then reinstalling the interiors within a skeleton of steel structural beams on a new concrete foundation. -
1960s
When the Kennedys moved into the White House, they found that the Truman-era decor used modern fabrics or were casual reproductions of period pieces. These items didn't befit the heritage of the home of the president of the United States. Jackie Kennedy's upbringing gave her a deep appreciation for fine art and authentic period pieces, so she looked for ways to not merely redecorate but to restore the White House to a grander, more authentic period look appropriate to its role in American life. -
1970s
Beginning in 1978, a study was begun to assess problems with the exterior paint. Successive layers in some areas as many as 40 have been removed from each of the exterior walls. Following the removal of the paint, masons began repairing stone which had deteriorated over time. -
1980s
As the restoration of the stone walls of the White House entered its late stage in 1988, the White House in cooperation with the National Capital Region of the National Park Service and the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) began a five-year documentation project to record the exterior elevations as part of that project completed in 1993. -
1990s
In 1990 the American Institute of Architects in cooperation with the White House Historical Association sponsored HABS to record the interior architecture of the White House. The results of these two completed projects combined to create a comprehensive record of the historic main house. The updated drawings will be used for base documents for future renovation, restoration, maintenance, and interpretation of the house.
