The personal preferences of presidents and their families, as well as the demands of the growing federal government, have helped drive changes to the White House over time. Below are some highlights.
WASHINGTON – President Harry Truman knew it was time to destroy the White House when the legs of Baldwin’s black grand piano crashed through his daughter Margaret’s living room floor.
In a letter to his daughter, the president joked that if he had crashed through the ceiling with a marble bathtub, he would have startled his wife’s gathering of Daughters of the American Revolution.
“Don’t you think it would have grabbed headlines, to say the least?” Truman wrote.
Truman moved across Pennsylvania Avenue to Blair House, now reserved for visiting dignitaries, from 1948 to 1952 while construction crews demolished and renovated the dilapidated presidential mansion. Modern materials such as steel and concrete have strengthened the original wood and brick building.
The Truman-era renovations caused more changes to the historic building than the fires during the War of 1812 and the destruction of the east wing by President Donald Trump. Over the two-plus centuries since the original building was completed in 1800, each major and even minor renovation has sparked controversy. President Thomas Jefferson’s portico, President Truman’s namesake balcony, and even Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden were each criticized for being too expensive or falsifying history.
The personal preferences of presidents and their families, as well as the demands of the growing federal government, have helped drive changes to the White House over time. Below are some highlights.
The original White House, built between 1792 and 1800
President George Washington lived and worked in Philadelphia for most of his two terms as the new nation’s first leader. Washington, a native of Virginia, chose the site of the proposed “Presidential Palace,” but never occupied it.
According to the White House Historical Society, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson organized an architectural competition to design the mansion in 1792, and Irish-born James Hoban won the $500 prize.
When President John Adams moved in in November 1800, many of the rooms had not yet been plastered and there were holes where the grand staircase was to be installed. First Lady Abigail Adams used the unfinished East Room as a laundry room.
Jefferson Colonnade 1801
According to the White House Historical Society, Mr. Jefferson worked with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe to add the Colonnade, a covered walkway supported by classical Ionic columns.
The east and west colonnades led to service buildings such as icehouses and storage rooms for coal and wood.
Federalist critics in Congress argued that the colonnade looked aristocratic. national intelligence officer Newspaper editorials questioned the need for such decorations in government buildings.
Currently, the west colonnade runs along the modern-day Rose Garden and connects to the Oval Office, while the east colonnade is being demolished as part of President Trump’s ballroom project.
President Barack Obama called the walk along the west portico a “45-second commute” from the main building to the west wing, where his family lives.
Burning of Britain 1814
On August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812, British troops set fire to the presidential palace. Much of the building’s interior and furnishings were destroyed, but the exterior walls remained intact, according to the White House Historical Association.
After the fire, some lawmakers considered moving the house to another part of Washington, D.C., or even to another city. However, President James Madison rehired Hoban and rebuilt it based on the original design.
Hoban is credited with completing the rebuild in three years. But his shortcuts included reusing some of the damaged stone walls and using wood instead of brick for some of the interior walls, weakening the building in ways Truman later discovered.
Despite the popular belief that the house was painted white to hide the fire scars, the building had been covered in lime-based plaster since 1798 to protect the porous sandstone from freezing, according to the historical society. The renovated building was painted white in 1818.
“White House” was a nickname, but it was officially adopted by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1901.
Andrew Jackson North Portico 1829-1830
President Andrew Jackson oversaw the addition of the North Portico, the covered porch that became the face of the White House, in 1829 and 1830.
Hoban oversaw the construction of the porticos on the north and south sides of the building, which Latrobe first designed in 1807. Hoban added the south portico under President James Monroe after British troops set the building on fire.
The Legislature appropriated $24,729 for the north portico during the economic downturn. American Telegraph Company Newspapers criticized Mr. Jackson for his extravagant spending, according to the historical society. Whig critics said the money could have been better spent above Should I build a new building or reduce my debt?
Theodore Roosevelt West Building 1902
President Theodore Roosevelt oversaw the removal of the Victorian-era greenhouses (glass structures used to grow plants) west of the main building in 1902.
Instead, architect Charles McKim designed a separate west wing with office space for the president and key staff, according to the historical society.
Lawmakers scrutinized the $65,000 cost. of washington post Removal of the greenhouse “destroyed its historic value and appears to have made it less desirable as a residence.”
President Taft’s Office 1909
According to the Historical Society, President William Howard Taft held a competition and selected architect Nathan Wyeth to design the iconic Oval Office. Taft began working there in October 1909.
Wyeth modeled his office after the oval Blue Room in the main building. Today, it overlooks the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial to the south. Washington’s original design called for the Blue Room’s round walls to function as a state dining room, based on a traditional gathering of guests called a “levee” in a semicircle.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt East Building 1942
President Franklin D. Roosevelt added the east wing in 1942 to house additional staff and offices during World War II, as well as a wartime safety haven.
Congressional Republicans argued the spending was wasteful, and the secret project further raised doubts about its necessity, according to the historical society.
Later in the war, the East Wing eventually became the base for the First Lady’s staff and social events.
Truman Overhaul 1948-1952
The Truman renovation represented the most extensive overhaul of the building since its original construction. The floor shook when he arrived in 1945 as People walked on it, causing joints to crack and rats to run through holes in the walls, according to the historical society.
The $5.7 million overhaul gutted the interior and replaced weakened wooden beams and outdated plumbing and electrical systems, but kept the exterior walls intact. Truman gave his cabinet members paperweights made from his own pine. People can pay $1 to order “one brick, preferably whole” for demolition.
Congressional Republicans questioned the costs of the postwar economy. The Executive Residence Renovation Committee faced pressure to balance modernization and preservation.
Sculptor Felix de Weldon, known for the Marine Corps Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery and who provided advice during the reconstruction, said in an oral history that the goal was to return the exterior to its Federal-era appearance, with no Victorian-era changes to the building except for Abraham Lincoln’s bedroom. The moldings, paneling and fireplace were carefully removed and preserved.
“This building is one of the most beautiful buildings, so we tried to restore it to its original beauty from the early Federal period,” de Weldon said.
The most controversial change was the addition of a balcony on the second floor of the south portico, which became known as the Truman Balcony. Some architects said it clashed with the original Palladian style. According to the Congressional Historical Society at the time, Pennsylvania Republican Frederick Muhlenberg, who himself worked in architecture, accused President Truman of diverting $16,000 as a personal indulgence.
(William Hassett, Truman’s Secretary from 1945 to 1952, said in an oral history that he discussed the south portico being out of proportion with the rest of the building.
“The president was laughing out loud when he talked about how messing with the portico would cause a commotion, but I could tell by the look in his eyes that he really wanted the portico to be moved.”,” Hassett said. “But of course, as far as the public is concerned, that’s out of the question. So nothing happened but a big laugh from us at that suggestion.”
Kennedy Rose Garden 1962
In 1962, President John Kennedy’s wife Jackie redesigned the foliage along the West Colonnade, according to the Historical Society. This is where First Lady Edith Roosevelt created the Colonial Garden in 1902, and where First Lady Ellen Wilson updated the Rose Garden in 1913.
Jackie Kennedy commissioned horticulturist Rachel Lambert Mellon to create an authentic garden inspired by French and British design. President Richard Nixon’s daughter Tricia Nixon Cox was married in the garden in 1971. President Trump toured First Lady Melania Trump on Oct. 21 to show her what she’s up to, which included paving the lawn area.
“It was in really bad shape, but we got it back to health,” Trump told Senate Republicans at a luncheon on Oct. 21. “Everything was new, everything was beautiful. The only thing we did was we had to have a hard surface here, because no one could use it because of the grass.”
nixon press room 1970
In 1970, President Nixon converted the indoor pool, which was built in 1933 for physical therapy for President Franklin Roosevelt, who had contracted polio ten years earlier, into a press room for reporters.
Congressional Democrats argued that President Nixon undermined White House tradition to suit his media strategy with the $574,000 project, according to the historical society. new york times He criticized the loss of ties to President Roosevelt’s legacy as a “sacrifice of history for convenience.”
The briefing room, located on the other side of the west portico wall, currently has 49 chairs for press secretaries to hold regular television briefings. In 2000, the room was named after President Ronald Reagan’s press secretary, James Brady, who was wounded in an assassination attempt in 1981.
Trump Ballroom 2025
President Trump announced in July that he would build a 90,000-square-meter ballroom that could accommodate up to 1,000 people. He said the $300 million cost would be covered by private donations.
President Trump has long argued that a permanent banquet hall has been needed because there isn’t enough space inside the White House and the tents set up on the South Lawn often leave guests’ feet wet.
“When it rains, it’s a disaster. It’s not a pretty sight,” President Trump told reporters on July 31.
The destruction of the east wing contradicted President Trump’s July assurance that the new structure could be “close to, but not touching, the east wing.” The project sparked a public backlash, with former first lady Hillary Clinton saying on social media on October 21, “He is destroying the project.”
But House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), who describes himself as an “amateur historian,” defended the project as the latest improvement to the White House.
“President Trump is going to make the biggest improvements in the history of the White House since it was built in 1800,” Johnson told reporters on Oct. 22. “The ballroom is going to be glorious. It’s going to be available to everyone. By the way, Democrats, when we take back the White House, you’re going to be able to use it. This is for the American people, and he’s using private money to do it. How on earth can he do that?” Are they against it? ”
SOURCE USA TODAY NETWORK REPORTS AND INVESTIGATIONS. Reuters; whitehouse.org; architectmagazine.com; commonedge.org
