The President's Residence
designslinger]
On January 20, 2009 Barack Obama will be moving into the White House. It was not the
first presidential house, that honor goes to a private home in the city of Philadelphia which was the nation's capital in 1790. Philadelphia was chosen as the interim seat of government while a new Federal City was being built on the banks of the Potomac River. After George Washington was elected president he moved into a house owned by a friend, Robert Morris, who offered his Market Street home as the President's official residence. Washington took him up on the offer, paid the rent, and added more square footage to what was already considered the largest house in the city. When John Adams succeeded Washington as President, he moved in and stayed until the President's House in Washington D.C. was ready in November, 1800. The large residence became a hotel, then a rooming house, was gutted and became retail space, and was demolished in 1932. But, the old home is going through a revival of sorts. In 2007 the site was excavated and the foundation walls of the main house were uncovered. They will be incorporated into a design by the Philadelphia architecture firm Kelly-Maiello commemorating the nation's first Presidential residence.
mberry via flickr; House and garden illustrated in Turgot plan of Paris 1734-1739, elysee.fr /Artwork: designslinger]
The President of France resides in a building with a history that dates back to 1718.
The Elysee Palace has had several owners and been through several extensive remodels, renovations and restorations. When the original home was built for the Comte d'Evreux, the location was in the countryside of the Fauborg St. Honore outside the center of Paris. The main gate fronted a rural road and the garden faced the wide open area of the future Champs Elysee. Kings, famous mistresses (Madame de Pompadour), Emperors, Tsars, Dukes and Revolutionaries - all have taken up residency in the Elysee property. The manor house served as a storage facility for the Crown Furniture in 1768 and again in 1794, when it became the national repository for furniture confiscated from wealthy and royal homes after the Revolution. The house contains portions of original architecture as well as grand design statements from the Napoleonic periods. Finally, after many owners, architects, decorators and reconfigurations, the French National Assembly issued a decree in 1848 designating the Elysee National as the Residence of the President. After a few more political upheavals in French politics, the house served several different purposes depending on who controlled the government. Finally, in September 1874, Marshal Mac-Mahon, President of the Republic, moved into the Palace and it has remained the home of the French president ever since.
Vladimir Hall & Georgy Hall, kremlin.ru /Artwork: designslinger]
The President of the Russian Federation has several residences to call home. One of them
serves as the working residence and another serves as the ceremonial residence. Then there are the subordinate residences for vacations and other matters of state. The grandest of them all is the Great Kremlin Palace built between 1838 and 1849 for Tsar Nicholas I. From the time of Peter the Great, the Tsar's primary residence was in St. Petersburg and where the Tsar lived, government followed. Moscow was the historical capital of the country and served as a base of operations for the administration of the far flung empire. It would be like the President of the United States deciding to live in New York with Cabinet members in tow, and the nuts and bolts of government remaining in Washington. Nicholas asked a St. Petersburg architect Konstantin Ton to design the palace which was intended as a monument to Russian history and a celebration of the Russian military. The building survived the proletariat revolution in 1917, the Second World War, and 70 years of bleak Soviet rule. Today there are no Tsars, just presidents who get to live like Tsars; Lenin must be turning in his grave.
The White House may not be as elaborate as the official residences of other presidents.
But the American version of a presidential palace will do just fine as the home of President Barack Obama.
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