John Adams was the first U.S. president to live in the White House.
Adams moved into the unfinished executive mansion in Washington, D.C., in November 1800, near the end of his single presidential term. The building was then known as the President’s House or Executive Mansion and was not yet fully completed.
George Washington selected the site and oversaw early planning for the federal capital, but he never lived in the building. During Washington’s presidency, the national government operated from Philadelphia, where the president lived in a mansion on Market Street.
Adams’s wife, Abigail Adams, joined him in the new residence. The building was still being finished, and she famously used an unfinished room for hanging laundry. The mansion was burned by British forces during the War of 1812 and later rebuilt and repainted, contributing to the popular name “White House.”