The White House 



Washington, District of Columbia 



HE White House is the one residence of national interest in the United States. Other 

 houses may have greater local associations, may be larger, more richly built and 

 furnished, may be more splendid, in a word, but no dwelling is so supreme in its 

 attractions to the people as a whole, so richly endowed with historical interest, or 

 associated with so many notable people, as the house of our Presidents, the one truly State resi- 

 dence of our land the White House. The dullest imagination kindles at thought of it, and 

 even the political opponent of its occupant for the time being views it with respect as the home 

 of the head of our State. It is the Nation's house, the one residence in the country of abounding 

 sentimental interest. 



It is a fortunate and delightful circumstance that its architectural interest is also great 

 and very real, a fact of the more moment since the history of its building has not been altogether 

 happy. Its original architect was an Irishman, James Hoban, who not only superintended 

 its construction, but also its rebuilding in 1814, after it had been partly burned by the British. 

 A stately and beautiful house it was he planned and built, and such it has since remained. It was 

 but half finished when first occupied by Mrs. John Adams, on the removal of the seat of govern- 

 ment from Philadelphia to Washington, in 1800. Twenty-five years later the north and south 

 porticoes were built, although proposed as early as 1803, by B. H. Latrobe. Terraces, also, were 

 added on the east and west. The east terrace disappeared early in the sixties; the west terrace, 

 long since degraded into a foundation for greenhouses, has been now happily removed. Large 

 sums of money have, from time to time, been spent on furniture, decorations, and supplies 

 for the President's House, as it was styled for fifty years in the appropriation bills; but little 

 of artistic value of permanent artistic value went into the building, and not until the very 

 complete and beautiful restoration of 1902 did the White House interior become worthily repre- 

 sentative of the best in American household art. This latter restoration was so skilfully done 

 and was so very thorough, including as it did both structural and decorative changes, the rebuild- 

 ing of the terraces, which were originally intended to form a component part of the building, 

 and the erection of an office building, that permitted the house to be used, as it surely should 

 only have been used, as a residence, that the names of the architects, McKim, Mead & White, 

 are clearly entitled to be joined with that of the original creator, James Hoban. 



Judged by the standards of European palaces and the White House, from its official 

 use, is the only building we have that may be properly compared with them it is not large; 

 but it is a building of extraordinary beauty and dignity, a restful and altogether satisfying 



[37] 



