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Architecture: 1850s-1890s
1850sJames Buchanan, at the urging of his niece and White House hostess Harriet Lane, added a wooden greenhouse on the roof of the west terrace in 1857, adjacent to the State Dining Room. One could enter a private world of plants and flowers grown for decorating the house. This simple structure burned in 1867 and was replaced by iron and wood structure
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Architecture: 1900s-1940s
1900sOne of Theodore Roosevelts earliest acts as President was to issue an order establishing the "White House" as the buildings official name. Previously, it had been called the "Presidents House" or the "Executive Mansion." This decision portended more serious discussion regarding the status of the house. In 1902, Mrs. Roosevelt asked the distinguished architect Charles McKim for his advice. His recommendations
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Architecture: 1950s-2000s
1950sSoon after moving into the White House in 1945, President Truman noticed large areas of cracking in the plaster throughout the house. A structural survey revealed major problems caused by stress from the 1902 floor-bearing steel beams and the weight of the third floor and roof, all pressing against the inner brick walls. In 1948 Truman appointed a Commission on the Renovation of
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Unbuilt White Houses of the 19th Century
Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century, several major proposals were made to alleviate crowding at the White House by erecting a new residence for the president and converting the old building to office and ceremonial use. A new mansion would also relieve concerns for the president's health. Tiber Creek had been walled and deepened early in the century,
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An Artist Visits the White House Past
The fourteen paintings in this series were commissioned from Peter Waddell beginning in 2004 by the White House Historical Association. It was the associations wish that the artist create well-researched pictures representing different periods from the White House past that were not drawn, painted, or photographed definitively in their own times. Rather than attempting to capture great events, Waddell decided to
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An Essay on "A Bird that Whistles" by Peter Waddell
President Thomas Jefferson took office on the then-Inauguration Day of March 4, 1801, following a party win in the contentious campaign of the previous autumn, and the bitter congressional balloting that followed in January and February to determine between Jefferson and Aaron Burr, who would be the president and who the vice president.From the beginning Jefferson had thought the President's House
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An Essay on "A Favorable Day" by Peter Waddell
Dawn breaks over the White House stables on March 4, 1873. The grooms and coachmen are up early to prepare for President Ulysses S. Grant's second inaugural parade. Details have been taken by the artist from historic photographs. The carriage in the picture, which was a sporting vehicle made to accommodate hunting dogs, still exists.This stable was the fourth built at
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An Essay on "A Vision Takes Form" by Peter Waddell
At this stage in the construction of the White House, 1796, the walls are rising above the second floor level. They are half way to completion. People were now beginning to see how extensive the house was to be, and they must have looked on in wonder. Larger than a statehouse and taller than most church steeples, it would have loomed
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An Essay on "Composition in Red and Gold" by Peter Waddell
The Red Room was the only complete interior designer Louis Comfort Tiffany created for the White House. Redesigned in high aesthetic taste (meaning art-like) the room was first called the Red Room some thirty-five years before, during the administration of James K. Polk. It is shown here about 1883, during the presidency of Chester A. Arthur, transformed from the old-fashioned room
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An Essay on "Lafayette Square" by Peter Waddell
Peter Waddell's painting re-creates the historic square north of the White House in 1902, the year President Theodore Roosevelt remodeled the house. To the right of the White House, one can see that the conservatories have been removed from the roof of President Thomas Jefferson's west terrace. At the end of this terrace the Temporary Executive Office is under construction. It
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An Essay on "Something Blue" by Peter Waddell
The most distinctive of the state interiors in the White House is the Blue Room. Located central in the plan, it projects toward the magnificent view of the Potomac valley. In planning a new office in 1909 President William Howard Taft elected to create an oval office, to replicate the shape and thus relate the official office to the historic White
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An Essay on "The Confidant" by Peter Waddell
President Rutherford B. Hayes announced when he was elected that he would serve for one term only; this he did, and it was an uplifting four years for the country. With his wife, First Lady Lucy Hayes Hayes, President Hayes was determined to return tranquility to a nation troubled by recent political scandal and economic depression. They set out to