Washington City

A sketch of the neighborhood into which President and Mrs. Adams moved in 1800. The President's residence is the most distant building, to the left of the center of the picture. The building was not to be known as the White House until after it had been burned during the War of 1812 and then reconstructed and painted white. This drawing by N. King, made probably in 1799 and published in 1805, is the earliest known picture of what was to become the White House.

Copyright 1959, 1964, 1969 by T. Harry Williams, Richard N. Current, and Frank Freidel.