Can you imagine yourself living and working in a 132-room mansion, standing huge and stately in the midst of a beautiful seven-hectare landscape garden? Well, the President of the United States does. The American President’s official residence and office is the mansion called White House, originally called the President’s House and then the Executive Mansion, till it was christened White House in the year 1901, by President Theodore Roosevelt.

The White House is a major tourist attraction, with at least a million people visiting it annually to have a tour of the location in Washington D.C. where many major decisions affecting world politics have been made. Of course, not all the one hundred and thirty two rooms are open to the general public.

The main building stands one hundred and seventy five feet long and eighty-five feet high. Tourists enter the White House through the east wing. They are generally allowed to enter five rooms on the first floor.

The main reception room for guests calling on the President is the Blue Room, an oval drawing room with furnishings representing the period between 1817 and 1825. The Red Room is used as a parlor and it is so called because red silk hangs on the walls. Another room that also serves as a parlor is the Green Room, whose walls are covered with light green silk moiré. The dining room, officially referred to as the State Dining Room, is yet another major attraction. It can accommodate one hundred and forty guests at a time. After formal dinners, the president’s guests retreat to the largest room in the White House. This is the East room and it measures seventy-nine feet in length and almost thirty-seven feet in width.

The White House

The living quarters of the President are housed in the second floor, as also do the famous rooms the Lincoln Bedroom, the Queen’s Room and the Treaty Room. Guest rooms and staff quarters are all located in the third floor.

History
Can a guided tour be complete without a narration of the history of the building? Well, the original building of the White House was designed by an Irish architect James Hoban. The government had organized a competition calling for designs for the official building of the American President and Hoban’s simple Georgian mansion, in classical Palladian style of Europe in the 1700s was selected. Work was begun in 1792.

The first residents in the White House were President John Adams and his wife. Although the first family was occupying the mansion, work continued and it was during the time of Thomas Jefferson that many of the original plans were executed.

Destruction and restoration
During the reign of President James Madison, the White House was set ablaze by English forces on August 24, 1814. The act was an offshoot of the War of 1812 and President Adams and his wife Dolley Adams were forced to flee the White House. It was rebuilt and President Monroe moved into it in the year 1817. The President’s office cum building was remodeled and strengthened by Harry Truman, when he was in power. It was during that time that the number of rooms increased from one hundred and twenty five to the current one hundred and thirty two.

When John Kennedy became its occupant, his wife formed a Fine Arts Committee, in the year 1961, to restore the White House interior to its original appearance. The reign of President Nixon witnessed more major changes being executed in the building, with Mrs. Nixon continuing the efforts of the Kennedys.