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Why was the White House painted white?
Question
#27100. Asked by RND. (Jan 26 03 1:24 AM)
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sequoianoir
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It could hardly be painted any other colour without changing its name!
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RND
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O! Come on Man! Gimme a real answer!
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McGruff
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The President's House had been given a coat of whitewash as early as 1798 in order to protect its locally-quarried sandstone against the deterioriation caused by winter freezes, and from then on white paint was used for the exterior. Moreover, although the building wouldn't officially be designated the 'White House' until the issuance of an executive order by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1901, references to the building as the 'White House' antedate the War of 1812. Barnhart and Metcalf cite a letter written in 1811 which made mention of a politician whose function was 'to act as a sort of political conductor to attract the lightning that may issue from the clouds round the Capitol and the White House at Washington,' and White House curators cite similar contemporary evidence:
There is a Washington myth that people didn't start calling the house the White House until it was painted white to conceal the scorch marks left when the British burned it to its walls in 1814. Not so, says the office of White House curator Betty Monkman. She and her staff have uncovered many references to 'the White House' well before the British marched in. On March 18, 1812, for example, a Massachusetts congressman wrote his wife: 'There is much trouble at the White House, as we call it, I mean the President's.'
 http://www.snopes.com/language/colors/whithous.htm
Here is an in-depth description of the exterior paint job that began in 1980 with the removal of an estimated 36 to 50 layers of paint. It took 13 years to finish.
http://www.paintstore.com/archives/contr-job-profiles/113.html
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