Under This Roof
, by Paul Brandus , peels back the White House wallpaper to tell the almost operatic story of the building and its resident . The entire book is diachronic trivia fan ' nirvana , and what he break about some of America ’s more notorious presidents ( Warren Harding gambling forth the White House china , for deterrent example ) is nothing next to the wild history of the edifice itself . Perhaps the most staggering part of the White House ’s story is how often citizenry want to tear it down and set about over .
THE REDCOATS ARE COMING. AGAIN.
First there were the British . They had lost the Revolutionary War , but were n’t quite quick to let go of old grudge , choosing instead to frustrate the nascent U.S. by blocking American trade ship and support American Amerind tribes who require to halt U.S. expansion westwards . The British also had a foul habit of kidnapping U.S. sailors afield , and impel them to do in the Royal Navy . eventually , James Madison had enough and asked Congress to declare war , which they did .
The following year—1813 — the U.S. take over advanced - day Toronto and burn down the Parliament building . This did n’t go over well in Britain , as you might suppose . Until then , the British governing was only half - hearted in its efforts to deal with the American resolve of war . Instead , the British were preserve their real firepower for Napoleon ’s army , which , unlike the U.S. , was an literal terror . Once the French were defeated , however , it was payback prison term for the former colony . They set a goal of seize Washington D.C. and have the American regime to collapse entirely .
The American armed services never saw it coming . They know an attack was on the elbow room , but somewhat much everyone cypher that Baltimore was the target . After all , Washington was a clump of buildings and a lot of swampland . There was no military note value in burn up it to the background . President Madison was n’t so sure — he think that it might be a dead spiteful number by the British , and that it would be a moral triumph for them .
He was right on both counts . The British Navy invaded and easily routed the virtually non - existent American militia presence . They marched into townsfolk and manoeuver for Pennsylvania Avenue . Before the Redcoats could burn down the White House , however , the resident of Washington had a go at it . Paul Jennings , Madison ’s servant , wrote at the fourth dimension : " A rabble , taking advantage of the confusion , ran all over the President ’s House , and stole plenty of ash grey and whatever they could lie their hands on . "
When the British finally get , they took a grand circuit of the White House and even pull out up chairs in the State Dining Room , have a large dinner party and uncorking the best of the president ’s wine . Only after feasting and toasting the chairman ’s health did they fill sacks with loot , light torches , and bite the place down . Wrote one British officer of the Royal Navy ’s superb job at ruin White House windows and lighting fires : " Our Panama were artist at study . "
Along with the White House , the Capitol , the Library of Congress , the Treasury Building , War Department , and State Department were ransacked and destroyed . The British did n’t bother occupying the city , and finally the Carry Amelia Moore Nation ’s capital and our telling with the British return to normal . The message had been station .
THE NEXT WHITE HOUSE
Library of Congress
The second White House was make on the same innovation as the first . The stay exterior walls were tear down and fresh ones were rear , and the building ’s façade was completed within two long time . The intact reconstruction crusade was make out one year later , in 1817 , by many of the same men who had built it the first sentence , let in James Hoban , the construction ’s original architect . The speed of the construction problem was quite an achievement ; the first time around , it take up closely a decade to complete .
James Monroe , the new president , had antecedently dish as embassador to France , and leverage his ties to have 93 crates of supplies from that land sent to Washington to restock and refurnish the White House . He and the First Lady moved into the building in 1817 . The theatre he occupy would be difficult to identify today — the North and South Porticoes were far yell from what would eventually be built . Added to the design , however , were armed guard and an Fe fence . It would be another 100 until the modern Oval Office would be progress in the White House .
UNFIT FOR HABITATION
Less than 50 year later , accord to Brandus , Benjamin Brown French , the commissioner of federal building in Washington , declared the White House “ unfit for inhabitancy and in need of alternate . ” From the outside , the building was in pristine shape , so this was a electric shock to some . indoors , however , things had fallen into disrepair . The Chief Executive ’s house simply no longer meet modern building standard . Among those who supported the commissioner was Mary Lincoln , wife of the chairwoman . And so the Richard Morris Hunt was on for where to build a Modern , good White House . The plan at the sentence was to remove the hall from the pandemonium of city life . A cliff in in Rock Creek was considered . So , too , was a 200 - acre acres called Harewood , which had the road and canonic substructure improvements necessary to lead off building immediately .
It did n’t happen right off , and after President Lincoln ’s character assassination , the event fell to President Johnson , who was opposed . The football game was punted , and by the clock time President Grant assumed the function of the presidentship , the plan was cast off entirely . Grant did , however , superintend to assure a $ 25,000 check from Congress to give the mansion a much - necessitate acclivity . Carpets were replaced , stairway rebuilt , and new way and sitting sphere set up .
But maybe that was n’t enough , because by the time Chester Arthur assume place in the 1880s , the Army Corps of Engineers , much to his delight , wanted to demolish the White House and put an office building in its place . They planned to move the Chief Executive ’s residence into a freestanding construction . Arthur supported this program , but Congress refused to pay for it . Instead , a massive redevelopment effort was mount .
WHITE HOUSE 2.5
Harry S. Truman Library and Museum
Though the edifice would never again face the menace of straight-out demolition , its Department of the Interior would stay ever at risk of bulldozers , sledgehammer , and axes . When Harry Truman assume office in 1945 , the building was in such a state of disrepair that the White House usher was embarrassed to give the Modern president the grand turn . “ The White House , ” writes Brandus , “ could best be identify as shabby . Walls run around dust and grime . Draperies were rotting , carpets and rugs were furrow by years of being trampled upon . ” The mansion looked , in the words of the usher , like an “ desolate hotel . ” There were , in fact , legitimate fears that the building was on the threshold of prostration , and a exacting limit of 15 people was imposed for the oval study . Meanwhile , pianos fell through floors , suppress ceiling below , and bath fell into rotting flooring . The president ’s sleeping accommodation was sinking . consort to W.E. Reynolds , the public building commissioner , “ The White House would n’t pass the safety standards of any metropolis in the land . ”
Suitable renovations want gutting the building ’s inside down to the sword girder and muddy foundation , and all but starting from nothing . During this , the Trumans moved into Blair House , where they would stay for 3.5 years . During construction , a tax shelter capable of withstanding a atomic turkey was installed .
The rebuilding of the White House carefully honor the spirit and intention of the original aim by James Hoban , and an effort was made to reprocess as much of the original edifice as possible — molding , doorknob , and the like . It assume 1222 days , but at last the Trumans could return home , on March 27 , 1952 . The outside was unaltered , but the interior was at last worthy of the most powerful person on the planet , its rooms duplicate to 132 , its staircase widened and elevated to something now stately and majestic . According to the designer , Lorenzo Winslow , the White House renovation should last another 500 yr .
Still , Jackie Kennedy detest the décor , and when she moved in with her married man , immediately set about practice her exquisite taste to the building ’s furnishing and adornments . “ Oh , God , ” she said on first sight of her newfangled home , “ it ’s the worst place in the world . So cold and dreary . A donjon … I have never see anything like it . I ca n’t bear the thought of moving in . I detest it , I detest it , hate it . ” She stated that it appeared to have been “ furnish by price reduction entrepot . ”
As Brandus describes it , “ The White House , Jacqueline Kennedy felt , should not just appear grand — it must be authentically so . She vow not to redecorate it but to restore it . ” And restore it she did , mounting a nationwide movement to have return to the White House article of furniture , artwork , and decoration that previously go to the nation ’s beginner . Her connexion in high lodge ( who course possessed all such priceless treasure ) render — and quickly . The White House we know today — one of grandeur , history , and great power — is largely her doing .
Under This Roofis , of course , more than an exploration of architecture . It is also a behind - the - scenes look at the insufferable decision presidents have had to make from the most famed mansion house in the earthly concern . Paul Brandus ’s work is a bewitching volume in a series of book that will hopefully preserve needing to be written for centuries to come .
