A (Brief) History of Washington DC: Home to the US Presidents

From an ambitious vision on paper to a grand metropolis, Washington DC boasts a rich history. What was once a swampy landscape, the nation’s capital, is now an internationally recognized seat of American power as envisioned by the American leaders who, back in the 1780s, longed for a proper “federal city” to match the sprawling urban centers of Europe.

It is perhaps fitting that the location for a “federal city” from which the head of state and United States Congress would run the new nation would come out of a compromise. As with the ratification of the Constitution, the Southern and Northern States and their representatives could not agree on a permanent national headquarters. Before 1791, the capital moved frequently from city to city, which included Annapolis, Philadelphia, and New York. The latter served as the location for the nation’s first inauguration on April 30, 1789, when George Washington was sworn in as the first President of the United States.

Congress had decided on the formation of a permanent capital as far back as 1783, but apart from agreeing that it was to be named Washington to honor George Washington and be part of a new District of Columbia, honoring the explorer Christopher Columbus, the two national geographic regions could not agree on much else. Because the capital was likely to attract a significant amount of business and its surrounding population, exerting a certain amount of influence on its social, political, and economic fabric, the Northern and Southern states wished to have the city within their own respective regions.

As neither side would give in, in 1790, Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton, to have the agricultural states accept his proposed financial program, which on the surface appeared to benefit the North, struck a deal with the South’s leading representative in the Federal Government, Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson. In return for the federal government assuming the Revolutionary War debts, which the South mostly paid up and not the North, but would now be dispersed between both regions equally, the Southern Congressmen agreed to place the capital along the Potomac River, on land carved out of parts of Maryland and Virginia.

While the representatives agreed that Philadelphia would serve as the nation’s temporary capital until the new city was ready, Congress wasted no time asking the nation’s first president to choose a proper place. In January 1791, George Washington, a former surveyor, chose a plot of land less than 20 miles from his plantation at Mount Vernon. The American president promptly hired Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant, a French engineer and veteran of the Revolutionary War, to design and build the “federal city.” Together with American surveyor Andrew Ellicott and an African American mathematician, Benjamin Banneker, the men set off to create a city modeled on the great urban centers of Europe.

The Capitol Building was the city’s focal point; the Presidential Mansion (White House), placed on one of the topography’s highest points, overlooking the Potomac River, and the city streets would spread out from the Capitol like rays, surrounding public squares. Overly ambitious, L’Enfant quickly overexerted his budget on turning the swampy area into his vision, clashing with government officials. Having forced a local landowner off his land without prior approvals, the Frenchman was forced out and replaced with his assistant, Andrew Ellicott, in 1792. Turning L’Efant’s dreams into reality began that same year with construction on the White House, the first and oldest building in Washington. George Washington laid the cornerstone of the new Capitol Building a year later.

A Nation’s New Home

The United States capital officially relocated from Pennsylvania to Washington DC in 1800, once construction ended on the North Wing of the Capitol Building. The first president to begin his term in the new “federal city” was Thomas Jefferson, following a brief stint in the nearly-finished Presidential Mansion by John and Abigail Adams. Historian Eric Foner’s Give Me Liberty: An American History (2009, 2nd edition, p. 288) paints a vivid picture of the nation’s capital on the day the third president moved in: “The city, with its unpaved streets, impoverished residents, and unfinished public buildings, scarcely resembled L’Enfant’s grand plan.”

As the entire federal staff conducting the day-to-day running of the country from Philadelphia consisted of only 126 people, the move to the new capital was not all that difficult. Still, none could escape the dichotomy. Where Philadelphia was the seat of American culture and one of its oldest cities, Washington’s unpassable muddy roads and scarcely more than twenty buildings left much to be desired.

The president’s home would officially earn the moniker, the White House, following its reconstruction after the sacking of Washington by the British during the War of 1812, which left the brick mansion burned to a crisp and in need of a new coat of, this time, white stucco. To this day, and apart from brief periods when the building had been under renovation, each American president and their family had called the White House “home” for the duration of their terms.

By all metrics, if any had existed, Washington DC’s growth into L’Enfant’s vision of a great urban center was slow. With private development lagging, the city lacked basic infrastructure and never quite grew in population. It was not until the American Civil War (1861-1865) that the federal government’s wartime expansion spurred population growth, and the capital became a major metropolitan center for military action and government administration. Now a proper government center and finally recognized as such, Washington DC witnessed unprecedented growth. Ten years after the conflict nearly tore the United States apart, the capital’s population boomed by seventy-five percent.

The sudden influx of residents led to much-needed infrastructure improvements, and soon, street cars, sewer systems, and essential utilities spread out across the district. The Federal government added to Washington’s landscape with the new construction of the Washington Monument and the Library of Congress.

As with the Civil War, the capital witnessed massive growth during World War I with the expansion of the federal government’s role on the world’s stage, opening many jobs. Business followed the population trends, and by the end of the Great War, Washington had added another 100,000 people to bring its population to 450,000. Following the trend, the capital’s total population numbers would grow to over 600,000 by the conclusion of World War II in 1945—a number close to its current statistic of 681,683 residents in 2024.

The Home of the American President

One of Washington DC’s most significant roles is that of the address belonging to the nation’s most powerful individual and its commander-in-chief, the American president. The White House has not always been the sprawling complex we see today—or try to see through the tall metal gates surrounding its grounds. While early presidents such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison made only a few landscape or furniture changes, James Monroe and Andrew Jackson ordered the construction of the White House’s first additions, the South Portico and North Portico, respectively, to accommodate the growing number of visitors.

Because the presidential workload increased with America’s role in the world following the Spanish-American War and the acquisition of an overseas empire, the White House could no longer accommodate the growing staff and administration. In 1902, President Roosevelt oversaw the building’s first major modern renovation by adding the West Wing, which provided a dedicated office space and separated the president’s living quarters from his everyday administrative tasks. Part of the addition was the creation of the Oval Office, which quickly became a symbol of the presidency by providing the POTUS with a dedicated space to conduct official business.

Since President Harry Truman and, later, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy spearheaded major structural and cosmetic updates, the White House continues to serve as a functioning seat of American power while moonlighting as a living museum that offers tours to the public.