Under Construction
It’s a bit jarring to see a bulldozer start ripping into the walls of the White House. Demolition began on the East Wing this week as part of the quarter billion dollar ballroom project the president has spearheaded, paid for with private funds.
While it is a bit jarring, it’s also not unprecedented…a fact the White House communications office pointed out in a detailed email yesterday—apparently because of the blowback from opponents.
They remind us that Theodore Roosevelt built the West Wing itself…replacing greenhouses that dated back to the Thomas Jefferson administration.
Less than a decade later, William Howard Taft remodeled the West Wing, including construction of the first Oval Office.
Woodrow Wilson became the third president in a row to stare at blueprints, demolishing the original colonial garden and replacing it with a rose garden.
Calvin Coolidge oversaw renovation of the upper floors and attic, while Iowa’s Herbert Hoover remodeled the West Wing, necessary following a Christmas Eve fire in 1929.
More big changes when Franklin Roosevelt was in office, including adding a second floor to the West Wing, moving the Oval Office to its current location, adding a swimming pool, and constructing the East Wing. Then again, he was in office a dozen years.
Harry Truman undertook what was termed a “total reconstruction” of the White House’s interior, preserving only the exterior walls of the place.
John F. Kennedy constructed the modern rose garden…while Richard Nixon converted the swimming pool into the press briefing room—insert your own joke here—and added a bowling alley in the basement.
Gerald Ford installed a privately-funded outdoor swimming pool, while two decades later, Bill Clinton oversaw restoration of the Executive Mansion living quarters. Barack Obama converted the tennis court into a basketball court and added a garden for the White House kitchen.
Now, comes the Trump ballroom, after renovation of the rose garden. Why such a fuss? Well, because it’s Trump…and because it’s being done in Trump style—big, bold, and glitzy.
So it seems everyone puts their stamp on the place. Imagine how your rental would look after this many tenants.
