About the White House ... a casual draft

#ABOUT The White House … 1st President Washington did not live in it, but helped pick the winning design, and participated in the siting of President’s Park and the Mansion’s location and construction. He also sustained the appropriation for the building’s construction. John Adam’s and his wife were first to live in the new Mansion; Mrs Adam’s hanging her laundry in the unfinished East Room. Thos. Jefferson who was still disappointed that his architectural design did not win the Executive Mansion contest; made autocratically, changes to his liking. James Madison presided over the distressful British War of 1812 which in the British burned Washington DC. After the War he rebuilt it and painted white. Andrew Jackson, eager to get there, settled in and added the large north front Portico, styled after his Tennessee home - The Hermitage !! He also approved the siting and sustained the U.S. Treasury Department building; almost touching the Mansion & with neo classic colonnades of course. It eclipsed a direct view down Pennsylvania Avenue NW of the Capitol - Jackson tired of seeing the Capitol when in disagreement with Congress. Civil War Abraham Lincoln lived there, had South front marsh and the Tiber Creek kill one of his sons by typhoid. Lincoln also had to sustain the Army and Navy and State Departments in the Executive Mansion. For which reason he joined in the building Second Empire style nearby, almost adjoining. One of the post Civil War presidents established an awfully crowded and circussed today, Easter Egg hunt on the South Lawn. Theodore Roosevelt, Vice President , moved in to the Mansion after the assassination of Pres McKinley; brought in his young family; and named the building on his official stationary; simply THE WHITE HOUSE. William Howard Taft succeeded Teddy Roosevelt, saw hunting trophies hauled out and back to Oyster Bay; but TR filled the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Taft got almost as far as the late alimentary gorging Senator Ted Kennedy. Mr Taft frequently got stuck in the White House bathtub; requiring plumbing enlargements and renovations at the White House. Woodrow Wilson dignified the mansion as if he were at home with Princeton’s campus chief academic residence. President Harding in the 20s made it a cronies casino, nearly disgracing it before Biden’s awful Presidency. The nineteen-thirties brought the depression and the New Deal after Pres Hoover’s economic downturn. The WH saved utilities as if in sympathy with a no demand economy. FDR fresh executive out of a USA state, almost a country, from Albany and the New York State governor’s office entered with wife Eleanor and her styles in upkeep, and the almost secret adaptions of the building for her husband paralyzed by Polio. Elevators improved and level corridors for a new Oval Office for the presidency. Various ground floor and basements additions elevator reached for the wheelchair ambulatory man. He had Winston Churchill over as a houseguest for pre WW II talks. Stayed in the Queen’s bedroom. Good plumbing sustained him. The eastern wing became a product of secure entry at ground level shadowed by the Treasury building. The Pres Franklin D Roosevelt White House was also refitted with armed guards and gate posts and ready for WW II. Well wishers for the President’s health and exercise donated the cost (led by dime donations) for an indoor basement swimming pool for FDR! Pres Truman found the White House as hot and shaky and wiggily as a cottage along side Mauna Loa. He and Congress agreed to a budget and for the years it took, Mr Truman resided across the street at Blair House. The White House almost became an external shell of itself, as the floors and subbasements were reinstalled and installed anew. A war bunker also. Mr. Truman also welcomed a balcony on the family residence upper floor portico overlooking the South Lawn and Mall Monuments. Pres Eisenhower enjoyed the White House, retreated occasionally to a Conservation Corps Camp, re-named Camp David (his grandson). And, as a golfer and general, practiced some golf putts outside the Oval Office and making a saved and removed history of the wooden floor by his use of golf spikes. (The floor boards saved). The Kennedys came in with a great sense of accomplishment and finesse. The JFK monogram was happily averted. The First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy took reins of a wonderful historical restoration of several rooms in the White House. Accented the South Front with gardens. LBJ succeeded JFK and improved some conditions at the White House. A Texan with expectations Mr Johnson saw a state of the arts HVAC system improvement (air conditioning almost as good as the Houston Space Center ). The WH roof had turrets installed for the Mansion’s protection. The 60’s brought fewer changes through the Nixon Administration and with the 70’s and Pres Ford. Pres Carter enjoyed as his predecessors a combine of residence and seat of office; and celebrated the country’s bi centennial. President Reagan brought warmth and Hollywood seriousness as a former California governor. He welcomed HM Queen Elizabeth II. Could visualize and pass on movie sets relaxing surrounding for him and guests. ( the White House is small ). Pres George Bush continued but lost to an Ozark hick and lout. His wife admired the style, southern, of the Designer Women ( a tv show) and bulldozed the Presidential space for the First Lady’s office needs at the White House. A second George W Bush Jr came into the millennium in 2001 and became the incumbent in the White House, war bunker ready with security improvements through his two terms. President Barack Obama, first negro African American elected to the U.S. Presidency, liberated the old plantation manor house image by his presidency in full occupation. Succeeded by President Trump, a man born to savor and enjoy his surroundings, knowing that an occupant with the correct scope and poise, does more than any address or mansion repairs and fix-ups (and a loving touch of a little gilt) had fulfilled plans and style, but he and plans were defeated in office and replaced with the worst dud and incompetence in modern history. (Name unwritten here for historic banishment). Not surprisingly Mr Trump won and very gainful in his second term ( a straddle-term ) again took up an issue of improvement in the White House. First in courage to actually move the matter, announced a new and practical ballroom joined via the East Front ( mansions don’t have sides but fronts … octagons like the temporary mansion Madison stayed in are tricky). The ballroom will be the most major addition and alteration to the White House for receptions greeting ceremonies balls in its history. Mr Trump in political integrity and courage moved the issue. His plan is advantageous in acquiring the costs by public donations, accounted! Not escaping any criticism , the office and the White House and the country need it. It conforms and balances. It should be done to the public’s use and graditude for future presidencies of the United States! ◦