Inside the White House
In its 230 years, the “People’s House” has gone through many preservation and renovation projects.
Every president since John Adams has occupied the White House, and the history of this building extends far beyond the construction of its walls. From the Ground Floor Corridor rooms, transformed from their early use as service areas, to the State Floor rooms, where countless leaders and dignitaries have been entertained, the White House is both the home of the President of the United States and his family, and a museum of American history.
George Washington’s plan
It was George Washington, the first President of the United States, who selected the site for the White House in 1791, two years after he was sworn into office standing on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York.
Working with Washington, artist and engineer Pierre Charles L’Enfant prepared a city plan for Washington, D.C., reserving eighty-two acres for a “President’s Park.” L’Enfant’s original design for a “President’s Palace” was approximately four times the size of the present White House and it was not the design that Washington chose for the presidential mansion.
A competition design submitted by Irish-born architect James Hoban was instead chosen — Hoban substantially reduced the house’s scale in the final approved design — and the cornerstone for the building was laid in 1792 and. The total cost was $232,372.
But Washington and his wife Martha never lived in the White House. After eight years of construction, President John Adams and his wife, Abigail, moved into the unfinished house in 1800.
The structure was expanded during the administration of Thomas Jefferson when the president and architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe worked together to create a series of low colonnades — also known as the “45 second commute” — on either side of the principal residence that connected the home to stables and other site elements.
The fire of 1814
During the War of 1812, the British set fire to the President’s House in 1814, in retaliation for an earlier burning of Canadian government buildings in York, Ontario, by the United States.
James Hoban was re-appointed to rebuild the house, and President James Monroe moved into the building in 1817.
Considering that it had taken nearly ten years to build the first White House, it was remarkable that Hoban was able to direct a reconstruction of the house in slightly less than three years. This was possible in part because some of the stone walls could be reused, but the main reason was that Hoban altered the structural scheme of the house by substituting timber for brick in some of the interior partitions. The shortcut saved time, but produced a weaker structure than the one George Washington watched over in the 1790s. The ill effects of this decision would cause the virtual demolition and rebuilding of the White House some 130 years later in 1948–1952. External forces also contributed to the hasty rise of the President’s House: innovation, business prosperity, and the success of manufacturing in the United States. In the invoices of the 1790s, the names of individual craftsmen and tradesmen abound, but in the reconstruction records after 1814 were bills from manufacturers, merchants, suppliers, contractors and other businessmen predominate.
During Monroe’s administration, the South Portico was constructed in 1824, and Andrew Jackson oversaw the addition of the North Portico in 1829. During the late 19th century, various proposals were made to significantly expand the President’s House or to build an entirely new house for the president, but these plans were never realized.
The Roosevelt Renovation
In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt began a major renovation of the White House, including the relocation of the president’s offices from the Second Floor of the Residence to the newly constructed temporary Executive Office Building — now known as the West Wing.
The Roosevelt renovation was planned and carried out by the famous New York architectural firm McKim, Mead and White.
McKim restored the Empire décor and designed a set of furniture comparable to the Bellangé originals. The walls were covered with heavy, steel blue ribbed silk, woven to match a sample from the Napoleonic era.
Taft and the Oval Office
Roosevelt’s successor, President William Howard Taft, had the Oval Office constructed within an enlarged office wing. On an early October morning in 1909, President Taft became in fact the first President to walk into the Oval Office.
Preferences for oval rooms date to the time of George Washington. At the president’s home in Philadelphia, Washington had two rooms modified with a bowed-end in each that were used for hosting formal receptions called levees. As his guests formed a circle around him, Washington would stand in the center to greet them. With no one standing at the head or foot of the room, everyone was an equal distance from the president.
The circle became a symbol of democracy, and Washington likely envisioned the oval Blue Room as the ideal place to host a levee.
For President Taft, the Oval Office may have symbolized his view of the modern-day president. Taft intended to be the center of his administration, and by creating the Oval Office in the center of the West Wing, he was more involved with the day-to-day operation of his presidency than were his recent predecessors.
What President Taft could not imagine in 1909, when he built the Oval Office, was that the office itself would become a symbol of the Presidency.
Truman’s renovation vs preservation
Less than fifty years after the Roosevelt renovation, the White House was showing signs of serious structural weakness.
In 1948, President Harry S. Truman appointed a Commission on the Renovation of the Executive Mansion to manage the modern transformation of the White House. Historic restoration as we know it today was not considered. Instead, the commission determined to retain the historic sandstone walls, the third floor and the roof, while removing and then rebuilding the other interiors on a skeleton of steel structural beams and a new concrete foundation.
Everything but the outer walls were dismantled. The reconstruction was overseen by architect Lorenzo Winslow, and the Truman family moved back into the White House in 1952.
The White House we know today is largely due to the renovation led by Truman. The construction took place between 1948 and 1952 and was a remarkable feat of engineering.
Later renovations
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had an indoor swimming pool built in 1933 and President Gerald Ford had an outdoor pool built in 1975. There was also a tennis court built during 1902, but this was moved further south during the Taft renovation of the West Wing. The present tennis court on the South Lawn was modified during President Barack Obama’s time in office to allow for both tennis and basketball.
During the Nixon Administration, more space was required to accommodate the growing press corps. Therefore, in 1970, the briefing room was constructed on top of the emptied pool that was installed for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s physical therapy. In 2000, the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room was named in honor of former Press Secretary James Brady.
Obama’s White House and the First Family’s Residence
Donald and Melania Trump’s projects
President Donald Trump also completed a partial renovation of the West Wing of the White House in 2017. The makeover of the People’s House was approved in 2014 under President Obama, a White House spokesperson told Town & Country.
Trump’s wife, First Lady Melania Trump has announced two restoration and preservation projects: one to build a new Tennis Pavillon, to replace a small building that currently houses a restroom and a storage space on the White House grounds; and a historic preservation project for the Rose Garden.
The Tennis Pavilion’s design is “heavily influenced by the White House architecture”, according to a report the NPS created for the final review of the project last year. Taking cues from the neoclassical building, which was completed in 1800, the pavilion will be fronted with columns and large arched windows.
“It will use the design of the White House as inspiration and incorporate architectural elements such as a colonnade, large floor-to-ceiling windows and fanlight windows in the facades,” NPS added.
Other details including white limestone cladding and a copper roof were also chosen to match The White House style.
The new plans for the Rose Garden were announced very recently by the First Lady.
“Preserving the history and beauty of the White House and its grounds is a testament to our nation’s commitment to the care of this landscape and our dedication to American ideals, safeguarding them for our children and their children for generations to come,” said the First Lady.
Fun facts:
- There are 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, and 6 levels in the Residence. There are also 412 doors, 147 windows, 28 fireplaces, 8 staircases, and 3 elevators.
- The White House kitchen is able to serve dinner to as many as 140 guests and hors d’oeuvres to more than 1,000.
- The White House requires 570 gallons of paint to cover its outside surface.
- At various times in history, the White House has been known as the “President’s Palace,” the “President’s House,” and the “Executive Mansion.”
- President Theodore Roosevelt officially gave the White House its current name in 1901.
About Adventures in Preservation (AiP)
Adventures in Preservation (AiP) is a non-profit connecting people and preservation through enriching cultural heritage travel and hands-on education. AiP was founded in 2001 by two women with a great love of historic buildings and a strong desire to travel and understand the world. While perusing the travel section of the Boulder Bookstore, the Volunteer Vacation section suddenly brought everything into focus. Judith Broeker and Jamie Donahoe combined their goal of saving historic buildings with the concept of experiential travel, and created AiP’s hands-on preservation vacations.
Work started on several sites in the U.S., and as word spread, requests for help began to pour in from around the world, underscoring the great potential of using volunteers to restore historic buildings. In supporting community-based preservation initiatives, we discovered that our love of old buildings could translate into environmental and economic sustainability for communities.
AiP is picking up the pace! As our hands-on experiential travel becomes more popular, we have new projects, new partners and initiatives to keep you excited and involved.
