Not so. The President's House had been given a coat of whitewash as early as 1798 in order to protect its locally-quarried sandstone against the deterioriation caused by winter freezes, and from then on white paint was used for the exterior. Moreover, although the building wouldn't officially be designated the "White House" until the issuance of an executive order by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1901, references to the building as the "White House" antedate the War of 1812. Barnhart and Metcalf cite a letter written in 1811 which made mention of a politician whose function was "to act as a sort of political conductor to attract the lightning that may issue from the clouds round the Capitol and the White House at Washington," and White House curators cite similar contemporary evidence
I have it from the mouth of a relative of a relative that was there, and HE SAID, "Look, it 's not our fault, we tried the make the building WHite, but the snow melted before we could cover all of the outside walls. ah mon dieu, the luietentnet said, bluez or something...so we burned it instead. It was very emabrassing to be a Canadian at that battle." Let the historians make of it what they will, but they'll never find the snow. HA HA
