White House

Many workers built the White House. Some were enslaved, which means they were not free and were not paid.

They cut stone and made bricks. They cut down trees for wood. Stone carvers from Scotland carved beautiful decorations into the stone.

Building began on October 13, 1792, when the first stone, the cornerstone, was laid. For eight years, enslaved people worked alongside paid workers and skilled craftsmen. Enslaved people were not free and their wages went to the people who owned them. They cut stone at a quarry on Aquia Creek in Virginia, made bricks, cut down trees and raised the walls.

The outer walls are sandstone, a stone that soaks up water. Stonemasons from Scotland dressed and laid the stone and carved the decorations. Bricks for the inside walls were baked in kilns right beside the building site.

Construction formally began with the laying of the cornerstone on October 13, 1792. In December 1791 the government had bought a quarry on Wiggington's Island, on Aquia Creek in Stafford County, Virginia, so stone could be shipped up the Potomac. Brick makers built kilns beside the site for the interior walls, and axemen felled timber in Maryland and Virginia for floors and roof.

The White House Historical Association documents enslaved people in every stage of the work, from quarrying to raising the walls, hired from their owners; the commissioners paid the owners, not the workers. Historian Bob Arnebeck has identified over 200 enslaved people who worked on the White House and the Capitol. They worked alongside free African American and white laborers, local artisans and immigrants from Ireland, Scotland and elsewhere in Europe. The mason Collen Williamson trained enslaved workers at the quarry; Scottish masons dressed and laid the stone and carved the detail over the north door, which survives largely as built. Unskilled laborers earned about $0.31 a day; skilled stone cutters about $1.34.

The White House has been fixed and changed many times.

Once, workers took out everything inside. Then they built the inside again, strong and new. Each spring, children come to roll eggs on the South Lawn.

A marker in the floor of the Entrance Hall shows four big dates: 1792, when building began; 1817, when it was rebuilt after the fire; 1902, when it was modernized; and 1952. From 1948 to 1952, under President Harry S. Truman, workers took out the whole inside of the house and rebuilt it.

Since then, every family who lives here has changed some rooms or gardens. And since 1878, children have rolled eggs on the South Lawn at the Easter Egg Roll. Visitors can tour the house if they book through their member of Congress, or their country's embassy if they come from abroad.

The Entrance Hall marker records the four major building campaigns: 1792, 1817, 1902 and 1952. Theodore Roosevelt's 1902 renovation modernized the house and moved the executive offices to the new West Wing; a further significant renovation followed in 1927 under Calvin Coolidge. The Truman Renovation of 1948 to 1952 gutted the interior and rebuilt it, changing the house more than the fire of 1814 had. Heating, plumbing, lighting and cooling were updated as technology changed.

It took the name "White House" informally early on: in March 1812 Congressman Abijah Bigelow wrote of trouble "at the White House, as we call it." On October 17, 1901, at Theodore Roosevelt's direction, official papers changed their heading from "Executive Mansion" to "White House." Today the National Park Service runs President's Park and a visitor center; public tours are booked through a member of Congress or, for visitors from abroad, an embassy.