John Adams.
The primary U.S. president to reside within the White Home was John Adams, the second president of the US. He moved into the newly constructed residence in 1800 in the course of the closing yr of his presidency. The White Home, designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban, was constructed between 1792 and 1800, with its website chosen by George Washington, the primary president, and the town planner Pierre L’Enfant.
The constructing was not but accomplished when Adams and his spouse, Abigail, moved in on November 1, 1800. On the time, the nation’s capital was within the strategy of shifting from Philadelphia to the brand new metropolis of Washington, D.C., a district chosen for being on the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers, a strategic location that provided proximity to each the North and the South. The White Home was one of many first buildings constructed on this nascent metropolis, symbolizing the brand new authorities’s permanence.
Adams’s keep within the White Home was comparatively quick, as he misplaced his bid for reelection to Thomas Jefferson in 1800. Nonetheless, his time there was marked by the preliminary challenges of constructing the presidential residence a house. His spouse, Abigail, famously wrote letters expressing the solitary and unfinished state of their new residence, noting how the constructing was chilly and damp and echoed loudly. She even hung her laundry within the East Room to dry.
Regardless of these humble beginnings, the White Home would go on to grow to be the image of the American presidency. It has been renovated, rebuilt, and restored quite a few instances over the centuries, witnessing historical past and shaping the lives of those that lived and labored there. John Adams’s transfer into the White Home was a major occasion that marked the start of an everlasting custom for each president that adopted him.
