Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. It was designed by Irish-born James Hoban and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone. During the War of 1812 British troops burned it in retaliation for an earlier burning of Canadian government buildings in York, Ontario, by the United States.