White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. It has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800.

The house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia Creek sandstone in the Neoclassical style. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he (with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe) expanded the building outward, creating two colonnades that were meant to conceal stables and storage. However, in 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army in the Burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed Executive Residence in October 1817. Construction continued with the addition of the South Portico in 1824 and the North in 1829.

White

White is an achromatic color, literally a "color without hue", that is a mixture of the frequencies of all the colors of the visible spectrum. It is one of the most common colors in nature, the color of sunlight, snow, milk, chalk, limestone and other common minerals. In many cultures white represents or signifies purity, innocence, and light, and is the symbolic opposite of black, or darkness. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, white is the color most often associated with perfection, the good, honesty, cleanliness, the beginning, the new, neutrality, and exactitude.

In ancient Egypt and ancient Rome, priestesses wore white as a symbol of purity, and Romans wore a white toga as a symbol of citizenship. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance a white unicorn symbolized chastity, and a white lamb sacrifice and purity; the widows of kings dressed in white rather than black as the color of mourning. It sometimes symbolizes royalty; it was the color of the French kings (black being the color of the queens) and of the monarchist movement after the French Revolution as well as of the movement called the White Russians (not to be confounded with Belarus, literally "White Russia") who fought the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War (1917-1922). Greek and Roman temples were faced with white marble, and beginning in the 18th century, with the advent of neoclassical architecture, white became the most common color of new churches, capitols and other government buildings, especially in the United States of America. It was also widely used in 20th century modern architecture as a symbol of modernity, simplicity and strength.

House

A house is a building that functions as a home, ranging from simple dwellings such as rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes and the improvised shacks in shantytowns to complex, fixed structures of wood, brick, marble or other materials containing plumbing, ventilation and electrical systems. Most conventional modern houses in Western cultures will contain a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen or cooking area, and a living room. In traditional agriculture-oriented societies, domestic animals such as chickens or larger livestock (like cattle) may share part of the house with humans. The social unit that lives in a house is known as a household. Most commonly, a household is a family unit of some kind, although households may also be other social groups or individuals. The design and structure of the house is also subject to change as a consequence of globalization, urbanization and other social, economic, demographic, and technological reasons. Various other cultural factors also influence the building style and patterns of domestic space.

James Brady

James Scott "Jim" Brady (August 29, 1940 – August 4, 2014) was an assistant to the U.S. President and White House Press Secretary under President Ronald Reagan. In 1981, Brady became permanently disabled from a gunshot wound during the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. Brady became an ardent supporter of gun control as a result of this event. Brady died on August 4, 2014, 33 years after the shooting. His death was ruled a homicide, caused by the gunshot wound he received in 1981.

Early career

Brady began his career in public service as a staff member in the office of Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen (R-IL). In 1964, he was the campaign manager for Wayne Jones of Paris, Illinois in the race for US Congressman in the 23rd District. In 1970, Brady directed a campaign in the 23rd Illinois Congressional District for Phyllis Schlafly.

Brady served various positions in the private sector and in government, including service as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, James Thomas Lynn; Special Assistant to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget; Assistant to the Secretary of Defense; and member of the staff of Senator William V. Roth, Jr. (R-DE). He also served as Press Secretary to then-presidential candidate John Connally in 1979.

West Wing

The West Wing of the White House, also known as the Executive Office Building, houses the offices of the President of the United States. The West Wing contains the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room, the Situation Room, and the Roosevelt Room.

The West Wing's three floors contain offices for the White House Chief of Staff, the Counselor to the President, the Senior Advisor to the President, the White House Press Secretary, and their support staffs. The Vice-President has an office in the building, but his primary office is next door in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

The James S. Brady Press Briefing Room – where the Press Secretary makes announcements and gives daily briefings to reporters – is located in the West Colonnade of the White House, between the West Wing and the Executive Residence.

History

Before construction of the West Wing, presidential staff worked on the second floor of what is now the Executive Residence. However, when Theodore Roosevelt became President, he found that the existing offices in the Mansion were insufficient to accommodate his family as well as his staff. In 1902 he had the West Wing constructed by the New York architects McKim, Mead & White. The West Wing was originally intended as a temporary office structure, built on the site of the greenhouse and stables. The President's Office and the Cabinet Room took up the eastern third of the building. President Roosevelt's office was located approximately where the Roosevelt Room is now.