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"A Communication Between These Offices"
When David Baillie Warden remarked in 1816 that “it was originally proposed to form a communication between the [executive departmental] offices and the house of the president,” he was referring to the initial idea for a close configuration of all the executive buildings within the President’s Square.1 Four L-shaped wings were shown as attached directly to the President’s House on Pierr
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A White House Exhibit on the National Parks
Since the Kennedy administration, White House Christmas decorations have been designed each year to coincide with a specific theme. Many themes are based on traditional holiday subjects, while others are associated with projects favored by the first ladies. For Christmas 2007, First Lady Laura Bush chose to showcase our nation’s scenic wonders and historic treasures with “Holiday in the National Park
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Betty Ford: A Very Special Lady
In the fall of 1976 “Keep Betty’s husband in the White House” campaign buttons erupted all over the country—a tribute to a woman unknown to most Americans only three years earlier—and to her grace, candor and lack of pretension.It was my good fortune to have been chosen by Mrs. Ford to serve as her White House social secretary.
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A White House Maid Remembers a Moment of Panic
For evening receptions, Grace Coolidge favored gowns with trains. Columnist Vylla Poe Wilson remarked in January 1926, " Mrs. Coolidge does not let the fact that she wears a train . . . interfere with the careful line of the gown itself. . . . [It] is never allowed to drag the gown."1Maggie Rogers, who served as Grace Coolidge's maid, regularly ensured that the First Lady's costume
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A White House Staff Reunion
A reunion picnic on June 24, 1983, was the scene of hugging, kissing, and backslapping, as former White House domestic staff greeted one another with laughter, emotion, and plenty of memories.1The 1980s began a series of reunions of former White House workers. Retired chief usher J. B. West was the organizer of the 1983 event. Lillian Rogers Parks, a former maid and
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A White House Worker Remembers President Wilson
White House staff in the Woodrow Wilson administration experienced both the death of Wilson's first wife, Ellen Axson Wilson, on August 6, 1914; and Wilson's second marriage, sixteen months later. Chief Usher Ike Hoover recalls this sensitive period in the life of President Wilson, and its effect on the White House as a home and workplace.After Ellen Wilson's death, writes Hoover, "
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An Uneasy Reaction to a White House Servant's Memoir
One of the most important 19th-century accounts of life in the White House was Behind the Scenes, or Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House. Behind the Scenes was the memoir of Elizabeth Keckly, dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln. Keckly (her name on some documents is spelled “Keckley”) was an independent businesswoman, and not technically a memb
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Benjamin Latrobe Expresses Indignation About Dolley Madison's Servants
Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Architect of the Capitol and Surveyor of Public Buildings under Jefferson, had advised the Madisons about changes to the White House even before they arrived in 1809.1 He continued to consult with Mrs. Madison about her household until about 1813.2Latrobe once visited the White House in Mrs. Madison's absence, to make sure that the curtains had been laundered.
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Glimpses of the Old Family Dining Room
The Family Dining Room on the State Floor of the White House today is used primarily for smaller formal dinners and working lunches. The space, adjacent to the State Dining Room, also often serves as a staging area for State Dinners. White House families have traditionally dined in the Family Dining Room since about 1825 when President John Quincy Adams and
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The First Fan
While both President Calvin Coolidge and First Lady Grace Coolidge were well known baseball supporters, not everyone realized that of the two, Grace Coolidge was by far the more knowledgeable and enthusiastic fan. Bucky Harris, who managed the Senators during their great run of 1920s success, said she was “the most rabid baseball fan I ever knew in the White Ho
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President Kennedy's Rose Garden
The inspiration for renewing the rose garden at the White House came from President Kennedy in 1961. My involvement began at a picnic on a hazy summer day in August at our beach house on Cape Cod, surrounded by sand dunes, the sea, and sailboats. It was a picnic for a few friends and included President and Mrs. Kennedy. Hardly had
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Nash Castro: A Board Member's Role with the Kennedy Rose Garden
I recently had the opportunity to visit with Nash Castro, the last surviving founder of the White House Historical Association, who also played a role in the story of the Rose Garden while serving as liaison to the White House for the National Park Service during the Kennedy administration. His influence would be even stronger in the Johnson administration, when