Theodore Roosevelt named the White House.

  • The White House, 1900
The White House, 1900
Credit: © bauhaus1000—iStock/Getty Images
Author Bennett Kleinman

May 14, 2026

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America’s first 25 presidents didn’t live in the White House — or at least, they didn’t call it that. Upon its completion in 1800, the building at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was known as the President’s Palace. Its name was then officially changed to the Executive Mansion in 1810 to avoid regal undertones. The building wasn’t formally named the White House until the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. 

The nickname “White House” first emerged around 1811, as evidenced by an April 24 letter from British diplomat Francis J. Jackson to former Secretary of State Timothy Pickering. The informal moniker arose because the building’s white-gray color made it stand out from the many nearby structures predominantly made of red brick.

While this nickname remained popular, the name wasn’t formalized until 1901, roughly one month into Teddy Roosevelt’s presidency. In an October 17 letter sent by the president’s personal secretary George B. Cortelyou to Secretary of State John Hay, staff were directed to “change the headings, or date lines, of all official papers and documents requiring his signature, from ‘Executive Mansion’ to ‘White House.’” 

According to Roosevelt’s Presidential Library, the name change was part of an ongoing effort to modernize the presidency and reaffirm the building as a symbol of the people it serves, rather than a private mansion.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

Three official presidential residences existed before the White House.

When George Washington assumed the presidency in 1789, the White House was still 11 years from completion and the national capital was in New York City. So from the start of Washington’s term on April 30 until February 23, 1790, his official residence was the Samuel Osgood House (named for the politician who owned it) in Lower Manhattan. 

Washington later moved into a nearby residence owned by land speculator Alexander Macomb, which served as the second official presidential home until August 30, 1790. In late 1790, the nation’s capital shifted to Philadelphia, and so too did its leader, who moved into a home owned by merchant Robert Morris. Washington remained there until leaving office in 1797. His successor John Adams lived in the Morris house for the first three years of his presidential term, before moving to the White House in Washington, D.C., on November 1, 1800.

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