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On this day in 1792, workers laid the cornerstone for the White House.
Here are the facts* that interest me about the White House:
1) George Washington, along with what’s-his-name L’Enfant, chose its site. Washington, not content with having a city, a ritzy neighborhood within that city, and pretty much every other damn thing in the country named for him, suggested that the building just be called “George.” “That would be simpler for the common people,” he explained. L’Enfant refused. So Washington murdered him, growling that, “no filthy Frenchman will deny me my eponymous crib.” When congress still rejected Washington’s entreaties, the president, in a fit of pique, refused to serve a third term. All other explanations for his early retirement are bunk.
2) James Hoban, an Irish immigrant living in Charleston, designed the building. Congress selected his plan, which features the Palladian style, over one submitted by Thomas Jefferson. And thus the phrase “Hoban pwned Jefferson” was born.
2) John and Abigail Adams moved in to the incomplete White House in 1800. In lieu of structural supports, John’s ego held up the building for almost three years.
3) Its white sandstone was intended to stand out against nearby red brick buildings. Passersby began calling it the White House in 1809 — eliciting screams of protest from George Washington’s ghost, which still haunts the place.
4) Most urbanists believe that the building would look better painted black, like so:
* Many if not all of these could be wrong. To be honest, my knowledge of and interest in White House lore are rivaled only by Sam Seaborn’s. And if you don’t get that joke, you are, in fact, much cooler than me, a very low bar indeed.
10 comments
October 13, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Vance
Wow, this wasn’t a freaky illusion after all.
[Hoban’s] plan, which features the Palladian style
This is what made me wonder about Jefferson’s submission. Is it conceivable he would have designed something un-Palladian? There are some drawings here, including a sketch of an elevation — a bit faint but indeed also Palladian. (That post overstates the link — you can see J’s actual submitted plans at the Virginia catalog.)
October 13, 2008 at 10:37 pm
ari
My impression was, and now still is, that Jefferson was also working in the Palladian style. That said, I think the post is pretty freaky, if not illusory.
October 13, 2008 at 10:41 pm
JPool
I was on the verge of asking you for a citation about the naming thing (since I’m in the middle of revising a chapter on the rise of autocracy under Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah), but then of course I realized that you were f-cking with me.
October 13, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Vance
“Urbanists” made me laugh.
October 13, 2008 at 10:54 pm
ari
Sorry, JPool, I didn’t mean to get your hopes up. There is absolutely no scholarly merit to this post. And Vance? I aim to please.
October 13, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Ben Alpers
He’ll save children.
But not the British children.
October 13, 2008 at 11:29 pm
urbino
L’Enfant refused. So Washington murdered him
. . . thus laying the earliest known groundwork for Roe v Wade.
October 14, 2008 at 5:26 am
jacob
I got the Sam Seaborn joke, but my girlfriend didn’t. It only emphasizes how much cooler she is than me.
October 15, 2008 at 12:42 pm
domy
nice art bi ba dok
October 15, 2008 at 5:48 pm
andrew
I wouldn’t have gotten the Sam Seaborn joke if I hadn’t just watched the first few episodes of that show yesterday.