Started in 1793, while George Washington was president. However, he was the only president not to have lived in the White House.
Other interesting facts:
During the War of 1812, when Dolley Madison rescued the few items that survived the burning of the White House, Gilbert Stuart's treasured portrait of George Washington presented a special difficulty. The enemy was approaching, torches ready, and Dolley's staff urged her to flee. She refused to leave without the portrait. It proved impossible to remove the frame from the wall. Dolley ordered the canvas cut out and the frame destroyed. With the painting, she fled to join the president and the American forces in Maryland.
When the capital was moved from Philadelphia in 1800, the city of Washington and the President's Mansion had just been carved out of a forested wilderness. The home was often uncomfortably cold and damp because the staff was too small: there were not enough people to cut firewood in the forests.
Only one chief executive has ever been married in the White House. President Grover Cleveland, a bachelor when elected, married pretty 21-year-old Frances Folsom on June 2, 1886. He was 49. The wedding march was played by none other than John Philip Sousa. Frances Cleveland gave many parties and was called the most popular of First Ladies. She outlived her husband by nearly 40 years, and died in 1947.
The long-popular name The White House was not printed on the president's official stationery until the time of Theodore Roosevelt.
During his days in the White House, Thomas Jefferson, one of America's greatest presidents, experimented with rare plants and played his violin. He even taught his pet mocking bird to hop up the stairs after him.
At a reception in 1948, chandeliers swayed and tinkled a warning that the building was structurally unsound. The mansion underwent 4 years of full reconstruction within its original shell. Meanwhile, President Truman and his family settled into Blair House across the street. At the same time, a bomb shelter was built deep under the White House.
The famous White House Easter egg-rolling party has been a popular tradition since the times of Rutherford B. Hayes. One year the event attracted 30,000 people.
