The White House

The White House stands at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., serving as the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States since John Adams first occupied it in 1800. Designed by the Irish-born architect James Hoban, whose winning entry in a 1792 competition drew on the Neoclassical Georgian style of Irish country houses, the building was constructed of Aquia Creek sandstone that was later painted white, giving the residence its name. British troops set fire to the building during the War of 1812 in 1814, gutting its interior, and Hoban himself oversaw its reconstruction using much of the surviving exterior stone. The building has since been expanded and renovated repeatedly, including the addition of the West Wing and East Wing in the early twentieth century, while its original neoclassical facade has remained a recognizable symbol of the American presidency.