the same was true of james hoban. he came to america in the 1780's. he found opportunities in america that would not have been available to him in ireland at that time because of his background, because he did not have a privileged background that was essential in 18th century ireland if you were going to rise to the top of the professional and social ladder. so he found opportunities in the united states and he became the architect of the white house, what about that? a man who started his life in an ' cottageral laborers became the architect of the world's most iconic building. that demonstrates the opportunities that irish people were able to avail of in the united states in the 18th century, 19th century and 20th century. the united states became a haven for irish people. of course, for the most part, we were not involved in the 19th century in the high politics of the united states or the white house. but it is true that gradually, like james hoban, the irish who came here and perhaps entered america at the bottom of the social ladder, climbed th

holden, -- james hoban on white house design. you have seen the impact of the scottish stonemasons. this afternoon, decorative arts from the u.k. and the u.s. perspective. at the end of the program after lunch, we will get back together, all of the speakers, including our impressive luncheon speakers, and in a moderated panel, talk, share thoughts and engage with you. the group and the associations historians worked really closely with various experts that you will meet today. we discussed their respective areas, we consider the flow of history, culture, shared experiences that linked england, ireland and scotland from early times to the present. without further ado, our first speaker is dr. kathleen burke, professor of canterbury history at university college london, and she will lead us through the 200 years of u.k. and irish connections with the white house. what she will do is set the stage for all of the symposium elements to follow. very briefly, professor burke hills from california, which some of us are very happy about.

i am going to talk a little bit about james hoban, not that i am an expert on james hoban, but he is also from the southeast of ireland, in this case county can kenny. he was born about 25 miles from where i grew up in waterford. if you think about john barry and the kennedys and james hoban and myself, we come from the same corner of ireland. where actually not that many immigrants into the united states came from. most of our immigrants came from the west of ireland from the counties on the atlantic seaboard, which tends to be the who generated the greatest push ones toward immigration. i find hoban's story -- he was the man who built and help to rebuild -- i was not going to mention the thing in between, i was going to ask you to speculate what it might have been. [laughter] amb. mulhall: kim revealed that secret, so i can mention that hoban helped to rebuild the white house. also of course he was involved in the building of the capitol , so he was a major figure in the creation of washington, d.c., this wonderful city that i now have had the privilege of living in for the past ei

holden, -- james hoban on white house design. you have seen the impact of the scottish stonemasons. this afternoon, decorative arts from the u.k. and the u.s. perspective. at the end of the program after lunch, we will get back together, all of the speakers, including our impressive luncheon speakers, and in a moderated panel, talk, share thoughts and engage with you. and the associations historians worked really closely with various experts that you will meet today. discussed their respective areas, we consider the flow of history, culture, shared england,es that linked ireland and scotland from early times to the present. without further ado, our first speaker is dr. kathleen burke, professor of canterbury history at university college london, and she will lead us through the 200 years of u.k. and irish connections with the white house. what she will do is set the stage for all of the symposium elements to follow. very briefly, professor burke hills from california, which some of us are very happy about. she settled in the u.k.

twoext on the presidenc dublin architects talk about the jamesborn james hogan, -- hoban. this hour-long session was part of a daylong symposium hosted by the white house historical association and focused on the history of british and irish connections with the white house. >> good morning, everybody. i am ed. i began my career as a british and irish historian. i read my phd about famine. in undergraduate school, i went expeditioneological to date up a medieval house. i just did into less interesting realms such as george washington and american history and all of that, and the s wonderful opportunity to come back full circle to work with both of these wonderful scholars in ireland a couple of months ago on a mission from the white house historical association to travel to dublin, county kilkenny to explore james influences birthplace his and origins. there are monuments to hoban in ireland. brian o'connell, a conservation architect in dublin, i will leave it to you to look into your programs to see the full biographies, was kind enough to drive me down to kilkenny as wel

[laughter] >> james hoban was, washington met in charleston. it was probably arranged. he was prominent there, and all of the men, the five men who recommended him, knew him and all were involved in society there. james hoban have built the links in the town. there's almost no documentation of what he built. the court building seems likely, since all of his recommendations were on the board of the building of the courthouse. he was taken out the hampton, the plantation where a portico had just been added, it looks like him. whatever the case, he shook hands with washington, and washington came back and told his commissioners that he had met a man in charleston, and he was obviously very good and had many lands of his own. an american qualification. hoban quickly headed to philadelphia to meet with washington. it was a successful meeting. a competition was held for the presidents house. it was fixed. [laughter] >> there were many curious entries. one had a thrown minute. -- a throne in it. all kinds of architects, one of them the great carver from new england. but hoban

he produced this as my sort of hoban. this is my view. i'm going back to william james. it about temperament and circumstances. there is a team here. here is one team, here is another team. there is the jefferson-hoban link. there is very little contact on this axis. you can find completely different people and animosity between them if you analyze. you find this is being combination that works. a professional architect against a highly enlightened patron. they're going to quite rightly switch the microphone off. [laughter] before leaving that what we have here is that portrait i had, can we just go back to the portrait? the original is here. from the artist, my colleague and myself, we would like to present this to the white house historical association. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

[laughter] james hoban was, washington met in charleston. it was probably arranged. he was prominent there, and all of the men, the five men who recommended him, knew him and all were involved in society there. linkshoban have built the in the town. there's almost no documentation of what he built. likely,t building seems since all of his recommendations were on the board of the building of the courthouse. he was taken out the hampton, the plantation where a portico had just been added, it looks like him. whatever the case, he shook hands with washington, and washington came back and told his commissioners that he had met a man in charleston, and he was obviously very good and had many lands of his own. an american qualification. headed tokly philadelphia to meet with washington. it was a successful meeting. a competition was held for the presidents house. it was fixed. [laughter] >> there were many curious entries. one had a thrown minute. -- a throne in it. all kinds of architects, one of them the great carver from new england. but hoban won. washington won. they c

you could also blame james hoban for building it too fast the second time around. then, along comes theodore roosevelt. and president roosevelt, the families lived in a mansion and worked in the mansion, the office was in the mansion. roosevelt had a lot of kids and their animals, apparently. so they needed more room. so he added the west wing for the office of the president, and he wanted a larger state dining room. so what he did, this is the west end of the white house, that is the other staircase. that wall to the left, where the chairs are, is the wall to what was then the state dining room. president roosevelt wanted a bigger, so they not only knocked out the stairwell, he took out the load bearing wall. and he had his architect, i know what you wanted to make this big dining room bigger, it was so there was room for the antlers that you can see. all over the walls, you -- that is very impressive in that room. he took out the load bearing wall and charles mckinney rigged a steel buttress system from the roof holding up the second floor, so instead of the load

twoext on the presidenc dublin architects talk about the jamesborn james hogan, -- hoban. this hour-long session was part of a daylong symposium hosted by the white house historical association and focused on the history of british and irish connections with the white house.