--- Section One ---
- *Steam Name: [Varangian]Blitz [U.M.P]
- *Steam ID: STEAM_0:0:45281092
- *Discord Name & ID: Blitz#6813
- *Timezone: CET / UTC +1
--- Section Two ---
*Time Period (Exact dates not required - just a sense of when and where they're from): November 1, 1800
*Character Name: White House
*Brief summary of the character: The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800.[3] The term "White House" is often used as a metonym for the president and his advisers.
*Why do you want to play this character?: I want to be the foundation that great RP can reside within.
Backstory (optional)?:
1789–1800
Following his April 1789 inauguration, President
George Washington occupied two private houses in New York City as the executive mansion. He lived at the first, known as the
Franklin House and owned by Treasury Commissioner
Samuel Osgood, at 3 Cherry Street, through late February 1790.
[7][8] The executive mansion moved to the larger quarters of the
Alexander Macomb House at 39–41 Broadway
[8] where he stayed with his wife and a small staff until August 1790. In May 1790, construction began on a new official residence in Manhattan called
Government House.
Washington never lived at the Government House, however, since the national capitol was moved to Philadelphia, and then to Washington, D.C., before its completion.
[9][10] The July 1790
Residence Act designated the capital be permanently located in the new
Federal District, and temporarily in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for ten years while the permanent capital was built.
[11] Philadelphia rented the mansion of the wealthy merchant
Robert Morris at 190 High Street (now 524–30 Market Street) as the
President's House, which Washington occupied from November 1790 to March 1797.
[12] Since the house was too small to accommodate the thirty people who made up the presidential family, staff, and servants, Washington had it enlarged.
[12]
President
John Adams also occupied the High Street mansion from March 1797 to May 1800. On Saturday, November 1, 1800, he became the first president to occupy the White House.
[13]
The President's House in Philadelphia was converted into the Union Hotel, and later used for stores, before being demolished in 1832.
[12]
Philadelphia began construction of a much grander
presidential mansion several blocks away in 1792. It was nearly completed by the time of Adams' 1797 inauguration. However, Adams declined to occupy it, saying he did not have Congressional authorization to lease the building. It remained vacant until it was sold to the
University of Pennsylvania in 1800.
[14]
Architectural competition
The President's House was a major feature of
Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant's[a] 1791
plan for the newly established federal city of Washington, D.C.
[15] Washington and his Secretary of State,
Thomas Jefferson, who both had personal interests in architecture, agreed that the design of the White House and the Capitol would be chosen in a
design competition.
[16]
Nine proposals were submitted for the new presidential residence, with the award going to Irish-American architect
James Hoban. Hoban ultimately supervised the construction of both the US Capitol and the White House.
[17] Hoban was born in Ireland and trained at the
Dublin Society of Arts. He emigrated to the US after the revolution, first seeking work in Philadelphia and later finding success in
South Carolina, where he designed the state capitol in
Columbia.
President Washington visited
Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1791 on his "Southern Tour", and saw the under-construction
Charleston County Courthouse designed by Hoban. He is reputed to have met with Hoban then. The following year, he summoned the architect to Philadelphia and met with him in June 1792.
[18]
On July 16, 1792, the president met with the commissioners of the federal city to make his judgment in the architectural competition. His review is recorded as being brief, and he quickly selected Hoban's submission.
[19]
Design influences
The Neoclassical design of the White House is based primarily on ideas inherited from the Roman architect
Vitruvius and the Venetian architect
Andrea Palladio. The design of the upper floors also includes elements based on Dublin's
Leinster House, which later became the seat of the Irish parliament (
Oireachtas).
[20] The upper windows with alternate triangular and segmented pediments, for example, are directly inspired by the Irish building.
[21] Additionally, several Georgian-era Irish country houses have been suggested as sources of inspiration for the overall floor plan, including the bow-fronted south front and the former niches in the present-day
Blue Room.
The first official White House guide, published in 1962, suggested a link between Hoban's design for the South Portico and
Château de Rastignac, a neoclassical country house located in
La Bachellerie in the
Dordogne region of France and designed by Mathurin Salat. Construction on the French house was initially started before 1789, interrupted by the
French Revolution for twenty years, and then finally built between 1812 and 1817 (based on Salat's pre-1789 design).
[22] The theoretical link between the two houses has been criticized because Hoban did not visit France. Supporters of the connection posit that
Thomas Jefferson, during his tour of
Bordeaux in 1789, viewed Salat's architectural drawings (which were on-file at the college) at the
École Spéciale d'Architecture (Bordeaux Architectural College).
[23] On his return to the US he then shared the influence with Washington, Hoban, Monroe, and
Benjamin Henry Latrobe.
[22]
Construction
Construction of the White House began at noon on October 13, 1792, with the laying of the cornerstone.
[24][25] The main residence, as well as the foundations of the house, were built largely by
enslaved and free
African-American laborers, as well as employed Europeans.
[26] Much of the other work on the house was done by immigrants, many of them without citizenship yet. The sandstone walls were erected by
Scottish immigrants, employed by Hoban,
[27] as were the high-relief rose and garland decorations above the north entrance and the "fish scale" pattern beneath the pediments of the window hoods. There are conflicting claims as to where the sandstone used in the construction of the White House originated. Some reports suggest sandstone from the
Croatian island of
Brač (specifically the
Pučišća quarry whose stone was used to build the ancient
Diocletian's Palace in
Split) was used in the original construction of the building. However, researchers believe limestone from the island was used in the 1902 renovations and not the original construction. Others suggest the original sandstone simply came from
Aquia Creek in
Stafford County,
Virginia, as importing the stone would be too costly.
[28][29][30] The initial construction took place over a period of eight years, at a reported cost of $232,371.83 (equivalent to $3,710,000 in 2021). Although not yet completed, the White House was ready for occupancy circa November 1, 1800.
[31]
Due in part to material and labor shortages,
Pierre Charles L'Enfant's plan for a grand palace was five times larger than the house that was eventually built.
[27] The finished structure contained only two main floors instead of the planned three, and a less costly brick served as a lining for the stone façades. When construction was finished, the porous sandstone walls were
whitewashed with a mixture of lime, rice glue, casein, and lead, giving the house its familiar color and name.
[27]
Architectural description
The main entrance is located on the north façade under a
porte cochere with
Ionic columns.
[32] The ground floor is hidden by a raised carriage ramp and
parapet. The central three bays are situated behind a
prostyle portico that was added circa 1830. The windows of the four bays flanking the portico, at first-floor level, have alternating pointed and segmented
pediments, while the second-floor pediments are flat. A
lunette fanlight and a sculpted floral
festoon surmount the entrance. The roofline is hidden by a balustraded
parapet.
The three-level southern façade combines
Palladian and neoclassical architectural styles. The ground floor is
rusticated in the Palladian fashion. The south portico was completed in 1824.
[33] At the center of the southern façade is a neoclassical projected bow of three bays. The bow is flanked by five bays, the windows of which, as on the north façade, have alternating segmented and pointed pediments at first-floor level. The bow has a ground-floor
double staircase leading to an
Ionic colonnaded loggia and the
Truman Balcony, built in 1946.
[34] The more modern third floor is hidden by a balustraded parapet and plays no part in the composition of the façade.
Naming conventions
The building was originally variously referred to as the
President's Palace,
Presidential Mansion, or
President's House.
[35] The earliest evidence of the public calling it the "White House" was recorded in 1811.
[36] A myth emerged that during the rebuilding of the structure after the
Burning of Washington, white paint was applied to mask the burn damage it had suffered,
[37] giving the building its namesake hue.
[38] The name "Executive Mansion" was used in official contexts until President
Theodore Roosevelt established "The White House" as its formal name in 1901 via Executive Order.
[39] The current letterhead wording and arrangement of "The White House" with the word "Washington" centered beneath it dates to the administration of
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
[40]
Although the structure was not completed until some years after the presidency of George Washington, there is speculation that the name of the traditional residence of the president of the United States may have been derived from
Martha Washington's home,
White House Plantation, in Virginia, where the nation's first president courted the first lady in the mid-18th century.
[41]
Evolution of the White House
Early use, the 1814 fire, and rebuilding
On Saturday, November 1, 1800,
John Adams became the first president to take residence in the building.
[27] The next day he wrote his wife Abigail: "I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this House, and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof."
[42] President
Franklin D. Roosevelt had Adams's blessing carved into the mantel in the State Dining Room.
[42]
Adams lived in the house only briefly before
Thomas Jefferson moved into the "pleasant country residence"
[43] in 1801. Despite his complaints that the house was too big ("big enough for two emperors, one pope, and the grand lama in the bargain"),
[44] Jefferson considered how the White House might be added to. With
Benjamin Henry Latrobe, he helped lay out the design for the East and West Colonnades, small wings that help conceal the domestic operations of laundry, a stable and storage.
[27] Today, Jefferson's colonnades link the residence with the East and West Wings.
[27]
In 1814, during the
War of 1812, the White House was set ablaze by British troops
[45] during the
Burning of Washington, in retaliation for attacking and burning
Toronto (then called York),
[46] Port Dover and other towns in
Upper Canada; much of Washington was affected by these fires as well. Only the exterior walls remained, and they had to be torn down and mostly reconstructed because of weakening from the fire and subsequent exposure to the elements, except for portions of the south wall. Of the numerous objects taken from the White House when it was ransacked by British troops, only three have been recovered. Employees and slaves rescued a painting of George Washington,
[45], in 1939, a Canadian man returned a jewelry box to President Franklin Roosevelt, claiming that his grandfather had taken it from Washington, and, also in 1939, a medicine chest that had belonged to President Madison was returned by the descendants of a British naval officer.
[47][48] Some observers allege that most of these spoils were lost when a convoy of British ships led by
HMS Fantome sank en route to
Halifax off
Prospect during a storm on the night of November 24, 1814,
[49][50] even though
Fantome had no involvement in that action.
[51]
After the fire, President
James Madison resided in
the Octagon House from 1814 to 1815, and then in the
Seven Buildings from 1815 to the end of his term.
[52] Meanwhile, both Hoban and Latrobe contributed to the design and oversight of the reconstruction, which lasted from 1815 until 1817. The south
portico was constructed in 1824 during the
James Monroe administration; the north portico was built six years later.
[27] Though Latrobe proposed similar porticos before the fire in 1814, both porticos were built as designed by Hoban.
[53] An elliptical portico at
Château de Rastignac in La Bachellerie, France, with nearly identical curved stairs, is speculated as the source of inspiration due to its similarity with the South Portico,
[54] although this matter is one of great debate.
[55] Italian artisans, brought to Washington to help in constructing the
U.S. Capitol, carved the decorative stonework on both porticos. Contrary to speculation, the North Portico was not modeled on a similar portico on another Dublin building, the
Viceregal Lodge (now
Áras an Uachtaráin, residence of the
president of Ireland), for its portico postdates the White House porticos' design.
[54] For the North Portico, a variation on the
Ionic Order was devised, incorporating a swag of roses between the volutes. This was done to link the new portico with the earlier carved roses above the entrance.
Overcrowding and building the West Wing
By the time of the
American Civil War, the White House had become overcrowded. The location of the White House, just north of a canal and swampy lands, which provided conditions ripe for
malaria and other unhealthy conditions, was questioned.
[56] Brigadier General Nathaniel Michler was tasked with proposing solutions to address these concerns. He proposed abandoning the use of the White House as a residence, and he designed a new estate for the first family at
Meridian Hill in Washington, D.C. Congress, however, rejected the plan.
[56] Another option was Metropolis View, which is now the campus of
The Catholic University of America.
[57]
When
Chester A. Arthur took office in 1881, he ordered renovations to the White House to take place as soon as the recently widowed
Lucretia Garfield moved out. Arthur inspected the work almost nightly and made several suggestions.
Louis Comfort Tiffany was asked to send selected designers to assist. Over twenty wagonloads of furniture and household items were removed from the building and sold at a
public auction.
[58] All that was saved were bust portraits of
John Adams and
Martin Van Buren.
[59] A proposal was made to build a new residence south of the White House, but it failed to gain support.
In the fall of 1882, work was done on the main corridor, including tinting the walls pale olive and adding squares of
gold leaf, and decorating the ceiling in gold and silver, with colorful
traceries woven to spell "USA." The Red Room was painted a dull Pomeranian red, and its ceiling was decorated with gold, silver, and copper stars and stripes of red, white, and blue. A fifty-foot jeweled
Tiffany glass screen, supported by imitation marble columns, replaced the glass doors that separated the main corridor from the north vestibule.
[60][61]
In 1891, First Lady
Caroline Harrison proposed major extensions to the White House, including a National Wing on the east for a historical art gallery, and a wing on the west for official functions.
[56] A plan was devised by Colonel Theodore A. Bingham that reflected the Harrison proposal.
[56] These plans were ultimately rejected.
However, in 1902,
Theodore Roosevelt hired
McKim, Mead & White to carry out expansions and renovations in a neoclassical style suited to the building's architecture, removing the Tiffany screen and all Victorian additions.
[62][63] Charles McKim himself designed and managed the project, which gave more living space to the president's large family by removing a staircase in the West Hall and moving executive office staff from the second floor of the residence into the new West Wing.
[27]
President
William Howard Taft enlisted the help of architect
Nathan C. Wyeth to add additional space to the West Wing, which included the addition of the
Oval Office.
[56] In 1925, Congress enacted legislation allowing the White House to accept gifts of furniture and art for the first time.
[64]: 17 The West Wing was damaged by fire on Christmas Eve 1929;
Herbert Hoover and his aides moved back into it on April 14, 1930.
[65] In the 1930s, a second story was added, as well as a larger basement for White House staff, and President Franklin Roosevelt had the Oval Office moved to its present location: adjacent to the
Rose Garden.
[27]
Truman reconstruction
Decades of poor maintenance, the construction of a fourth-story attic during the Coolidge administration, and the addition of a second-floor balcony over the south portico for
Harry S. Truman[66] took a great toll on the brick and sandstone structure built around a timber frame.
[27] By 1948, the house was declared to be in imminent danger of collapse, forcing President Truman to commission a reconstruction and to live across the street at
Blair House from 1949 to 1951.
[67] The work, done by the firm of
Philadelphia contractor
John McShain, required the complete dismantling of the interior spaces, construction of a new load-bearing internal steel frame, and the reconstruction of the original rooms within the new structure.
[66] The total cost of the renovations was about $5.7 million ($60 million in 2021).
[68] Some modifications to the floor plan were made, the largest being the repositioning of the grand staircase to open into the Entrance Hall, rather than the Cross Hall.
[66] Central air conditioning was added, as well as two additional sub-basements providing space for workrooms, storage, and a bomb shelter.
[27] The Trumans moved back into the White House on March 27, 1952.
[27] While the Truman reconstruction preserved the house's structure, much of the new interior finishes were generic and of little historic significance. Much of the original plasterwork, some dating back to the 1814–1816 rebuilding, was too damaged to reinstall, as was the original robust Beaux Arts paneling in the East Room. President Truman had the original timber frame sawed into paneling; the walls of the
Vermeil Room,
Library,
China Room, and
Map Room on the ground floor of the main residence were paneled in wood from the timbers.
[69]
Jacqueline Kennedy restoration
Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of President
John F. Kennedy (1961–63), directed a very extensive and historic redecoration of the house. She enlisted the help of
Henry Francis du Pont of the
Winterthur Museum to assist in collecting artifacts for the mansion, many of which had once been housed there.
[70] Other antiques, fine paintings, and improvements from the Kennedy period were donated to the White House by wealthy philanthropists, including the
Crowninshield family,
Jane Engelhard,
Jayne Wrightsman, and the Oppenheimer family.
Stéphane Boudin of the
House of Jansen, a Paris interior-design firm that had been recognized worldwide, was employed by Jacqueline Kennedy to assist with the decoration.
[70] Different periods of the early republic and world history were selected as a theme for each room: the Federal style for the
Green Room, French Empire for the
Blue Room, American Empire for the
Red Room, Louis XVI for the
Yellow Oval Room, and Victorian for the president's study, renamed the
Treaty Room. Antique furniture was acquired, and decorative fabric and trim based on period documents was produced and installed. The Kennedy restoration resulted in a more authentic White House of grander stature, which recalled the French taste of Madison and Monroe.
[70] In the
Diplomatic Reception Room, Mrs. Kennedy installed an antique "Vue de l'Amérique Nord" wallpaper which
Zuber & Cie had designed in 1834. The wallpaper had hung previously on the walls of another mansion until 1961 when that house was demolished for a grocery store. Just before the demolition, the wallpaper was salvaged and sold to the White House.
The first White House guidebook was produced under the direction of curator Lorraine Waxman Pearce with direct supervision from Mrs. Kennedy.
[71] Sales of the guidebook helped finance the restoration.
In a
televised tour of the house on
Valentine's Day in 1962, Kennedy showed her restoration of the White House to the public.
[72]
The White House since the Kennedy restoration
Congress enacted legislation in September 1961 declaring the White House a museum. Furniture, fixtures, and decorative arts could now be declared either historic or of artistic interest by the president. This prevented them from being sold (as many objects in the executive mansion had been in the past 150 years). When not in use or display at the White House, these items were to be turned over to the
Smithsonian Institution for preservation, study, storage, or exhibition. The White House retains the right to have these items returned.
[64]: 29
Out of respect for the historic character of the White House, no substantive architectural changes have been made to the house since the Truman renovation.
[73] Since the Kennedy restoration, every presidential family has made some changes to the private quarters of the White House, but the
Committee for the Preservation of the White House must approve any modifications to the State Rooms. Charged with maintaining the historical integrity of the White House, the congressionally-authorized committee works with each First Family – usually represented by the first lady, the
White House curator, and the
chief usher – to implement the family's proposals for altering the house.
[74]
During the
Nixon Administration (1969–1974), First Lady
Pat Nixon refurbished the Green Room, Blue Room, and Red Room, working with
Clement Conger, the curator appointed by President
Richard Nixon.
[75] Mrs. Nixon's efforts brought more than 600 artifacts to the house, the largest acquisition by any administration.
[76] Her husband created the
modern press briefing room over
Franklin Roosevelt's old swimming pool.
[77] Nixon also added a single-lane bowling alley to the White House basement.
[78]
Computers and the first laser printer were added during the
Carter administration, and the use of computer technology was expanded during the
Reagan administration.
[79] A Carter-era innovation, a set of
solar water heating panels that were mounted on the roof of the White House, was removed during Reagan's presidency.
[80][81] Redecorations were made to the private family quarters and maintenance was made to public areas during the Reagan years.
[82] The house was accredited as a museum in 1988.
[82]
In the 1990s,
Bill and
Hillary Clinton refurbished some rooms with the assistance of
Arkansas decorator Kaki Hockersmith, including the Oval Office, the East Room, Blue Room,
State Dining Room, Lincoln Bedroom, and Lincoln Sitting Room.
[83] During the administration of
George W. Bush, First Lady
Laura Bush refurbished the Lincoln Bedroom in a style contemporary with the
Lincoln era; the Green Room,
Cabinet Room, and theater were also refurbished.
[83]
The White House became one of the first wheelchair-accessible government buildings in Washington when modifications were made during the presidency of
Franklin D. Roosevelt, who used a wheelchair because of
his paralytic illness. In the 1990s,
Hillary Clinton, at the suggestion of Visitors Office Director Melinda N. Bates, approved the addition of a ramp in the East Wing corridor. It allowed easy
wheelchair access for the public tours and special events that enter through the secure entrance building on the east side.
In 2003, the Bush administration reinstalled solar thermal heaters.
[81] These units are used to heat water for landscape maintenance personnel and for the
presidential pool and spa. One hundred sixty-seven solar photovoltaic grid-tied panels were installed at the same time on the roof of the maintenance facility. The changes were not publicized as a White House spokeswoman said the changes were an internal matter. The story was picked up by industry trade journals.
[84] In 2013, President
Barack Obama had a set of
solar panels installed on the roof of the White House, making it the first time solar power would be used for the president's living quarters.
[85][86]
Layout and amenities
Today the group of buildings housing the presidency is known as the White House Complex. It includes the central
Executive Residence flanked by the
East Wing and
West Wing. The
Chief Usher coordinates day to day household operations. The White House includes six stories and 55,000 square feet (5,100 m2) of floor space, 132 rooms and 35 bathrooms, 412 doors, 147 windows, twenty-eight fireplaces, eight staircases, three elevators, five full-time chefs,
a tennis court, a (single-lane) bowling alley, a movie theater (officially called the
White House Family Theater[87]), a jogging track,
a swimming pool, and a putting green.
[40] It receives up to 30,000 visitors each week.
[88]
Executive Residence
Main article:
Executive Residence
The original residence is in the center. Two
colonnades – one on the east and one on the west – designed by Jefferson, now serve to connect the East and West Wings added later. The
Executive Residence houses the president's dwelling, as well as rooms for ceremonies and official entertaining. The State Floor of the residence building includes the
East Room,
Green Room,
Blue Room,
Red Room,
State Dining Room,
Family Dining Room,
Cross Hall,
Entrance Hall, and
Grand Staircase.
[89] The Ground Floor is made up of the
Diplomatic Reception Room,
Map Room,
China Room,
Vermeil Room,
Library, the main kitchen, and other offices.
[90] The second floor family residence includes the
Yellow Oval Room,
East and
West Sitting Halls, the White House Master Bedroom,
President's Dining Room, the
Treaty Room,
Lincoln Bedroom and
Queens' Bedroom, as well as two additional bedrooms, a smaller kitchen, and a private dressing room.
[91] The third floor consists of the White House Solarium, Game Room, Linen Room, a Diet Kitchen, and another sitting room (previously used as President George W. Bush's workout room).
[92]
West Wing
Main article:
West Wing
The West Wing houses the president's office (the
Oval Office) and offices of his senior staff, with room for about 50 employees. It also includes the
Cabinet Room, where the president conducts business meetings and where the
Cabinet meets,
[93] as well as the
White House Situation Room,
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, and
Roosevelt Room.
[94] In 2007, work was completed on renovations of the press briefing room, adding
fiber optic cables and
LCD screens for the display of charts and graphs.
[95] The makeover took 11 months and cost of $8 million, out of which news outlets paid $2 million.
[95] In September 2010,
a two-year project began on the West Wing, creating a multistory underground structure.
[96]
Some members of the president's staff are located in the adjacent
Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which was, until 1999, called the Old Executive Office Building and was historically the State War and Navy building.
[95]
The Oval Office, Roosevelt Room, and other portions of the West Wing were partially replicated on a
sound stage and used as the
setting for
The West Wing television show.
[97]
East Wing
Main article:
East Wing
The East Wing, which contains additional office space, was added to the White House in 1942. Among its uses, the East Wing has intermittently housed the offices and staff of the
first lady and the White House Social Office.
Rosalynn Carter, in 1977, was the first to place her personal office in the East Wing and to formally call it the "Office of the First Lady". The East Wing was built during
World War II in order to hide the construction of an underground bunker to be used in emergencies. The bunker has come to be known as the
Presidential Emergency Operations Center.
Grounds
The White House and grounds cover just over 18 acres (about 7.3 hectares). Before the construction of the North Portico, most public events were entered from the
South Lawn, the grading and planting of which was ordered by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson also drafted a planting plan for the
North Lawn that included large trees that would have mostly obscured the house from Pennsylvania Avenue. During the mid-to-late 19th century a series of ever larger
greenhouses were built on the west side of the house, where the current West Wing is located. During this period, the North Lawn was planted with ornate carpet-style flowerbeds. The general layout of the White House grounds today is based on the 1935 design by
Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. of the
Olmsted Brothers firm, commissioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the Kennedy administration, the
White House Rose Garden was redesigned by
Rachel Lambert Mellon. The Rose Garden borders the West Colonnade. Bordering the East Colonnade is the
Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, which was begun by
Jacqueline Kennedy but completed after her husband's assassination. On the weekend of June 23, 2006, a century-old
American Elm (Ulmus americana L.) tree on the north side of the building came down during one of the many storms amid
intense flooding. Among the oldest trees on the grounds are several magnolias (
Magnolia grandiflora) planted by Andrew Jackson, including the Jackson Magnolia, reportedly grown from a sprout taken from the favorite tree of Jackson's recently deceased wife, the sprout planted after Jackson moved into the White House. The tree stood for over 200 years; but in 2017, having become too weak to stand on its own, it was decided it should be removed and replaced with one of its offspring.
[98][99] Michelle Obama planted the White House's first organic garden and installed beehives on the South Lawn of the White House, which will supply organic produce and honey to the First Family and for state dinners and other official gatherings.
[100] In 2020, First Lady
Melania Trump redesigned the Rose Garden.
Public access and security
Historical accessibility
Like the English and Irish country houses it was modeled on, the White House was, from the start, open to the public until the early part of the 20th century. President
Thomas Jefferson held an open house for his second inaugural in 1805, and many of the people at his swearing-in ceremony at the
Capitol followed him home, where he greeted them in the
Blue Room. Those open houses sometimes became rowdy: in 1829, President
Andrew Jackson had to leave for a hotel when roughly 20,000 citizens celebrated his inauguration inside the White House. His aides ultimately had to lure the mob outside with washtubs filled with a potent cocktail of orange juice and whiskey.
[101] Even so, the practice continued until 1885, when newly elected
Grover Cleveland arranged for a presidential review of the troops from a grandstand in front of the White House instead of the traditional open house. Inspired by Washington's open houses in New York and Philadelphia, John Adams began the tradition of the
White House New Year's Reception.
[102] Jefferson also permitted public tours of his house, which have continued ever since, except during wartime, and began the tradition of an annual reception on the Fourth of July. Those receptions ended in the early 1930s, although President
Bill Clinton briefly revived the New Year's Day open house in his first term.
Aviation incidents
In February 1974, a stolen army helicopter
landed without authorization on the White House's grounds.
[103] Twenty years later, in 1994, a light plane flown by
Frank Eugene Corder crashed on the White House grounds, and he died instantly.
[104]
As a result of increased security regarding air traffic in the capital, the White House was evacuated in May 2005 before an unauthorized aircraft could approach the grounds.
[105]
Closure of Pennsylvania Avenue
On May 20, 1995, primarily as a response to the
Oklahoma City bombing of April 19, 1995, the
United States Secret Service closed off Pennsylvania Avenue to vehicular traffic in front of the White House from the eastern edge of Lafayette Park to 17th Street. Later, the closure was extended an additional block to the east to 15th Street, and East Executive Avenue, a small street between the White House and the
Treasury Building.
After
September 11, 2001, this change was made permanent, in addition to closing E Street between the South Portico of the White House and
the Ellipse.
[106] In response to the
Boston Marathon bombing, the road was closed to the public in its entirety for a period of two days.
The Pennsylvania Avenue closure has been opposed by organized civic groups in Washington, D.C. They argue that the closing impedes traffic flow unnecessarily and is inconsistent with the well-conceived historic plan for the city. As for security considerations, they note that the White House is set much farther back from the street than numerous other sensitive federal buildings are.
[107]
Prior to its inclusion within the fenced compound that now includes the
Old Executive Office Building to the west and the Treasury Building to the east, this sidewalk[
clarification needed] served as a queuing area for the daily public tours of the White House. These tours were suspended in the wake of the September 11 attacks. In September 2003, they resumed on a limited basis for groups making prior arrangements through their Congressional representatives or embassies in Washington for foreign nationals and submitting to background checks, but the White House remained closed to the public.
[108] Due to budget constraints, White House tours were suspended for most of 2013 due to
sequestration.
[109] The White House reopened to the public in November 2013.
[110]
Protection
The White House Complex is protected by the
United States Secret Service and the
United States Park Police.
During the 2005 presidential inauguration,
NASAMS (Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System) units were used to patrol the airspace over Washington, D.C. The same units have since been used to protect the president and all airspace around the White House, which is strictly prohibited to aircraft.
[111][112]
