Existing comment:
Report of the Committee on the Expenditures of the Public Buildings, April 3, 1818:
In 1818 the Commissioner of Public Buildings reported that before it was burned by the British, the President's House had cost the US government $333,207.04 to build. After the burning, reconstruction (through February 1818) had already cost $207,970, and the commissioner estimated he would need an additional $91,769 to finish the job. (By the time the White House was declared finished in 1820, more than $800,000 would be spent.) |