Who made the idea of the White House?

Answer 1

The idea behind the White House was to establish a house for the President to reside in within the established federal city of Washington, D.C. The creation of the White House, it's design and how it would look, was open up to architects to enter their designs in a competition in which nine submissions for possible designs were entered. Interesting to note, one of the submissions was by Thomas Jefferson, a future president, who submitted his design anonymously. George Washington went to the city on July 16, 1792 to review the submissions and selected the one by James Hoban, who was an Irishman living in Charleston, South Carolina; however, not liking all of the designs set forth by Hoban, Washington had his design enlarged, added rooms, and wanted more design, ornaments, and regal character throughout as this would be seen as more befitting of a president for the United States. Construction then began on October 13, 1792, to create what would become the first White House. This building was first referred to by many names including the President's Palace, the Presidential Mansion, and the President's House. It wasn't until around 1811, that it was recorded as being called The White House by the public. Later, President Theodore Roosevelt established the formal name for the building as being the White House.

As for the the architect who designed the White House, he was born in 1758 and died on December 8, 1831. Born in Ireland, he studied architecture at the Royal Dublin Society and later came to the United States after the American Revolutionary War where he resided in Philadelphia in 1781, working as an architect, before then going to South Carolina in 1792. After drawing the winning design for the White House, he moved to Washington, D.C., and continued to work there on other public and government buildings and projects.

Answer 2

It was built by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, or perhaps simply designed by him and actually built by local contractors.