The White House, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., has served as the official residence and workplace for every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. Designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the Neoclassical style and constructed between 1792 and 1800, its distinctive white Aquia Creek sandstone exterior gives it its iconic name. Famously set ablaze and largely destroyed by British forces during the War of 1812 in 1814, it was swiftly reconstructed, with President James Monroe moving back into the partially restored residence by 1817. Significant expansions followed, including President Theodore Roosevelt's creation of the West Wing in 1901 (which later housed the first Oval Office under William Howard Taft in 1909), the East Wing, and a major structural overhaul under President Harry S. Truman in the late 1940s. Today, the complex encompasses multiple buildings, standing as a prominent National Heritage Site and a symbol of American democracy.