In November, millions of Americans will cast their votes to determine who will occupy the White House for the next four years. Few voters know that if it were not for an Irish immigrant, the official residence of the President of the United States (and the greatest home court advantage in the world) might be altogether different.
Irish Roots
James Hoban was born in Desart, Callan, in County Kilkenny in 1762. We know little of his early life except that he was raised as a devout Catholic. By the age of 18, he was studying architecture under Thomas Ivory at the Royal Dublin Society. In 1781, he left the emerald isle for the shores of the new world and made landfall in Philadelphia.
A New, American Life
He soon made his way to Charleston, South Carolina, and began building a career in architecture (pun intended). He designed several public buildings of note, including the old South Carolina state capitol. In 1789, he met and married Susanna Sewell, with whom he would later have ten children.
Making A Name
In 1792, he moved to the spanking new town of Washington D.C., where the only street was yet unpaved. The reason for his pilgrimage was compelling: a competition to determine who would design the new official residence of the President of the United States. Hoban submitted a design inspired by the Leinster House in Dublin and won the $500 first prize (and the architectural commission of a lifetime). Later that year, Hoban proudly participated in the ceremony where George Washington himself laid the cornerstone of the new building.
The project was to last seven years, relying heavily on labor provided by poor European immigrants and black slaves. Hoban was a gentle master who forbade floggings and corporal punishment of any kind on his jobsite.
During this time, Washington D.C. became a hotbed of construction activity and Hoban’s talents were in high demand. He accepted an appointment as Superintendent Architect of the Capitol, a post he would hold for the next nine years as that majestic building rose above the swamps of Washington.
The First First Tenants
As the new century turned, the presidential residence was ready to accept its first occupants. John and Abigail Adams moved in on November 1, 1800. (They spent a miserably cold winter; the next occupant, Thomas Jefferson, would install special coal burning fireplaces.)
In 1802, the city of Washington D.C. was officially incorporated and Hoban was elected as a member of the first City Council. He would serve in that governing body until his death. He was also a Master of the first Federal Masonic Lodge.
How About White?
Washington D.C. had been growing for more than a decade when trouble flared anew with the British, whose troops famously invaded the city and set the presidential residence ablaze in 1814. After the conflict ceased, Hoban energetically rebuilt the residence, ordering for the first time that its walls be whitewashed.
An Accomplished Life
James Hoban died peacefully in 1831, at age 69, leaving an estate valued at $90,000 (a tidy sum in those days). His architectural legacy is far more important. From 1814 until the present, the iconic color and design of the official residence of the most powerful political leader in the world has taken its form and name from the talented mind and eye of a successful Irish immigrant: James Hoban.
