White House Manager

Overview

In the United States, the spouse of the US president is referred to as either the First Lady or the First Gentleman. Despite never being formally or legally designated as an office, the position of First Lady has evolved throughout history into one of managing White House activities. The White House has remained simultaneously the home of the president and the setting for important functions of the chief of state’s office. The First Lady or First Gentleman’s task of White House manager, as slightly redefined by each new occupant, has evolved throughout the past two centuries. On one hand, presidential spouses have managed an increasingly large staff responsible for helping them plan and implement an array of formal state functions. Although primarily social in their setting, the management of receptions, dinners, concerts, or balls is laden with political implications.

History

Historically, the managerial tasks of First Ladies have been focused not only on developing and supervising the public events held within the Executive Mansion but also in maintaining and improving the facility itself. Efforts to improve the White House have been made within one of two areas of concern: refurbishing and redecorating or renovating. The projects have varied as perceived needs changed over time. Moreover, some First Ladies (and their husbands) simply emphasized maintaining and improving the White House, while other First Ladies focused their attention elsewhere. Overall, nineteenth century First Ladies, with a few notable exceptions, tended to place less emphasis on White House refurbishing and redecorating or renovating duties than did their counterparts in the following century.

The White House was designed by James Hoban, an Irish architect and builder living in Charleston, South Carolina, whose entry won a nationwide contest in 1792. However, delays in the construction of the building postponed its occupation until November 1, 1800, when John Adams became the first president to live in the still-unfinished facility.

Major Preservation and Renovation

Since that time, the structure has undergone several major renovations as well as more frequent redecoration efforts. While the exterior of the Executive Mansion remains essentially the same as when President John Adams moved in, the interior has been subject to three extensive restoration efforts. Among the most serious threats to the White House structure were two major fires. The first, and most damaging, blaze occurred in August, 1814, when British soldiers burned the White House, along with much of the U.S. capital, during the closing months of the War of 1812. Only the exterior walls survived the attack, remaining primarily intact. Then, in 1929, an accidental fire damaged most of the offices in the West Wing during Herbert Hoover’s administration. In addition to renovations imposed by those emergencies, there have been several efforts to make serious improvements to the facility over the years.

Noteworthy nineteenth century renovation efforts date from 1807, when President Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Latrobe, surveyor of public buildings, began design work on porticos on the north and south sides of the structure and terraces extending from the east and west ends of the White House. The completion of those projects, including numerous modifications, continued throughout the century.

In 1815 President James Madison sought to rebuild the burned-out White House to restore the facility and adjacent executive offices to their original state. With this in mind, the Commission of the District of Columbia, re-created to oversee the project, commissioned James Hoban to implement the task. Under Hoban, the commission’s first task was to shore up the exterior walls which, thanks to a rainstorm soon after the 1814 fire, had been spared the most intense heat. However, the cold temperatures from the harsh winter of 1814-1815 had taken their toll on the deteriorating inner walls. Hence, extensive removal of parts of the outer walls occurred in 1816.

Work progressed steadily to the point where the new president, James Monroe, could occupy a still-uncompleted White House, beginning in October of 1817. The president and his wife, Elizabeth, at first lived in a few rooms on the second floor, while carpenters and craftsmen worked feverishly to finish the rest of the building around them. The massive restoration and rebuilding task progressed sufficiently for President Monroe to renew the tradition of hosting a public reception at noon on New Year’s Day, 1818. Restoration work on the White House and construction of the adjacent executive office wings, in accord with Jefferson’s earlier design, was greatly hampered by the Panic of 1819. Work in this phase ended in January of 1820.

In the twentieth century, one of the most important renovations was begun in Theodore Roosevelt’s administration with the construction of an important addition to the White House’s now-famous West Wing. This addition, which included the Oval Office, was completed in 1909. Roosevelt, and later his successor William Howard Taft, clearly meant the Oval Office to be the main working area for the president. Taft was the first president to use the new facility, moving his base of operations there from the second floor of the White House, where presidents traditionally had their work areas. Many previous presidents had conducted their daily business in the second-floor study and the old Cabinet Room. Taft officially moved into the Oval Office in late October, 1909. The new executive wing, whose final design was by Nathan Wyeth, was connected to the living areas of the White House by a colonnade which, in part, stemmed from the pavilion designed by Jefferson a century earlier. In 1927 the roof of the White House was raised, and a third floor was created in place of the area that had been the attic.

On the other side of the structure, the offices of the First Lady, which had been located in various areas of the White House throughout history, were eventually consolidated in a new East Wing, constructed in 1942. Since that time, most First Ladies have used that area as a base of operations. Their staffs gradually expanded over the years to a peak of about two dozen persons. However, several First Ladies, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Mamie Eisenhower, Jackie Kennedy, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, had offices elsewhere in the Executive Mansion. Despite differences in their personalities and operation styles, most of those First Ladies wanted refuge from the turmoil of the daily operation of the other offices.

The most extensive renovation since the rebuilding of the White House during the Madison and Monroe administrations early in the nineteenth century occurred from 1948 to 1952, during much of President Harry S. Truman’s administration. At that time, the interior of the building, with the exception of the third floor, was removed and carefully marked and stored. With the outer walls of the facility left intact, the structure was reinforced with a steel frame, and a deep basement and foundation were installed. Whenever possible, original interior furnishings, such as doors, mantels, or other woodwork, were reinstalled in the renovated interior.

Few could dispute the necessity of undertaking such a massive renovation and restoration project. Soon after moving into the White House, the Trumans had realized that the floors, ceilings, and walls of the structure were literally falling in on them. Engineers determined that the floor of the Oval Study, installed in 1902 in the restoration during Theodore Roosevelt’s administration, could support the weight of no more than fifteen people by 1948. The leg of a grand piano in Margaret Truman’s bedroom literally sank through the floor, into the ceiling of the room below. Chandeliers in the Blue and East rooms would mysteriously sway, possibly from the shifting weight of someone walking on the floor above.

Engineers discovered that the rooms of the west half of the building were deteriorating the most extensively. Previous renovation efforts had led to the removal of some interior load-bearing walls, and workers had compensated for the loss of that support by installing steel rods, which shifted support of the weight to steel crossbeams overhead. However, these beams were upheld by walls too weak for the task. The weight of the top floors was transferred downward, thereby causing the walls of the lower floors literally to bend and bow outward. Not surprisingly, the Trumans quickly won congressional funding for a massive $5.4 million undertaking.

The subsequent renovation project would be massive indeed. The entire building, except for the third floor, would be carefully removed and what few parts could be reused would be numbered and stored so that they could be replaced afterward. Unfortunately, most of the wood furnishings, such as paneling, molding, and doors, simply had deteriorated too much over the years to be restored. Much of the woodwork in the building came apart upon being dismantled. The subsequent pieces, together with fireplace bricks and occasional surviving square nails, were combined into small “kits” and sold to help finance the project. The first interior stage, during which important delicate furnishings were dismantled, took several months. This was followed by the relatively quick demolition of the remaining beams, flooring, and doors.

Next, an extensive network of freestanding steel beams was installed to support all of the building’s interior, independent of the exterior walls, which were left to support only themselves. In all, 660 tons of steel were used to support the White House. Finally, an extensive basement and two sub-basements were dug, encased in concrete, and anchored with concrete piers sunk deep in beds of sand and gravel. The basements were connected to the rest of the house by elevators and staircases. With the restoration work being done during the height of the Cold War, President Truman directed that the concrete walls and ceilings of the bottom sub-basement be made as bombproof as possible. The exterior walls remained essentially untouched. In sum, when completed, the restored White House had five levels spanning the two sub-basements, the ground floor, and the second and third floors. The official public entertainment rooms on the main floor were restored to appear as they previously had. However, the modern service areas were largely hidden from public view. The number of rooms in the Executive Mansion increased from forty-eight to fifty-four, with the additional rooms used primarily as service areas.

Work on the three-year project was directed by a six-member commission appointed by President Truman. The chief architect for the renovation was Lorenzo Winslow, a well-known Washington, D.C., architect who had completed virtually all of his designs by the end of 1949. A crucial element of his design, subject to considerable scrutiny before its approval, was his plan for the staircase extending from the second floor to the main entrance foyer serving the front door. The second-floor design, however, nearly replicated the original plan, with modifications made primarily to improve bathrooms and expand closet space. The biggest differences were largely hidden from public view. For example, Winslow added mezzanine levels, primarily housing service areas, at each end of the building. The contractor selected was John McShain, Inc., of Philadelphia. Furnishings for the project were contracted to B. Altman & Company, a Manhattan department store. At the height of the project, more than three hundred workers were known to be toiling feverishly to complete the task in time for President and Mrs. Truman to move back into the White House for Christmas of 1951.

Hence, during much of the Truman presidency, the Truman family lived across Pennsylvania Avenue in Blair House while the Executive Mansion underwent the extensive rebuilding of its interior. Throughout the time of the restoration work, the president and the White House staff continued to work in both the east and west wings of the mansion. The Oval Office itself never was directly affected by work on the project. Despite the Christmas, 1951, deadline, the Trumans were not able to return to residence in the White House until 6:20 p.m. on March 27, 1952.

While the Truman renovation marked one of the most significant overhauls of the White House structure in its history, other renovations and modifications occurred in subsequent decades. For example, during Barack Obama's presidency (January 2009–January 2017), he had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House.

Refurbishing and Redecorating

Over the years, First Ladies have played a variety of roles in managing White House refurbishing and redecorating efforts, varying according to their personalities, how they viewed the position of First Lady, what society expected from them at the time, and the expectations of their husbands, the presidents. Hence, the management efforts of First Ladies ranged from being spectators to playing central roles.

While many First Ladies played either a limited role or no role whatsoever in managing White House renovations, they frequently were at the forefront in overseeing redecorating and managing day-to-day activities. Several First Ladies played prominent roles in restoring or refurbishing the White House during their husbands’ presidencies. Particularly noteworthy were the efforts of Julia Tyler, Abigail Fillmore, Mary Lincoln, Julia Grant, Caroline Harrison, Edith Roosevelt, Bess Truman, and Jackie Kennedy.

In the 1840’s, Julia Tyler made several improvements, both to dress up the building and to make it more livable. She began by acquiring several pieces of fine French furniture. In addition, she made improvements to the lighting and heating systems in the White House. While the Tylers themselves financed these improvements, the Fillmores in the early 1850’s persuaded Congress to appropriate two thousand dollars to buy books to create the first White House library in the second-floor Oval Room. Abigail Fillmore also had installed in the White House plumbing and other improvements to the kitchen and bath areas, including an iron range and a bathtub.

However, the continuing extensive use of the White House increasingly strained the maintenance of the facility. By the time of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency in the 1860’s, Mary Lincoln sought primarily to dress up the decorative setting of the mansion rather than improve the facility structurally. She replaced many of the decorative furnishings in the White House. However, at the time her tastes were thought to be exceptionally expensive, and the private sources she found to finance the endeavor ignited a scandal and caused her husband political headaches.

Perhaps learning from the problems of the Lincolns, Julia Grant won congressional funding in the decade following the Civil War to redecorate the Blue and East Rooms on the main floor. The funds also allowed for china and artwork for the facility. Also of note, she added gates, complete with guards, around the building.

Perhaps the most ambitious renovation and remodeling effort by a First Lady during the late nineteenth century was undertaken by Caroline Harrison in the early 1890’s. Appalled by the deterioration of the building, Mrs. Harrison initiated a public relations campaign, featuring detailed guided tours of the facility, to convince both public and congressional visitors that the White House needed extensive repairs. She made a complete inventory of the building’s contents and hired an architect to design wings extending from the east and west sides of the White House. Her efforts were rewarded with the replacement of many deteriorating floor areas in the building. Finally, marking the nature of the times, Mrs. Harrison oversaw the installation of electric lights in the Executive Mansion.

However, her efforts were soon to be surpassed. Shortly after the start of the new century, Edith Roosevelt began one of the most extensive restoration efforts in the history of the White House. When completed several years later, her work affected most areas of White House operation. First, seeking to recapture much of the historical setting of the facility, she persuaded Congress to finance an extensive refurbishing project. The effort included a campaign to purchase diningware, artwork, and home furnishings used in the White House by previous administrations. Second, with the guidance of a prominent architectural firm, Mrs. Roosevelt redecorated the White House in a way consistent with its eighteenth century origin, while also continuing the modernization efforts begun by Caroline Harrison and further improving the building’s electrical and plumbing fixtures. These remodeling efforts encompassed the family’s living quarters upstairs as well as the public rooms on the main floor.

Mrs. Roosevelt also had noteworthy improvements made to the official areas of the White House. She had the office area enlarged and improved. Her efforts included the State Dining Room and the Cabinet Room, which were each expanded to better meet the official demands placed upon them.

The next noteworthy restoration project was undertaken in the early 1960s, by Jackie Kennedy. Reminiscent of Edith Roosevelt and her restoration philosophy, Mrs. Kennedy worked to establish the White House Historical Association. She then began collecting historic art and furnishings important to the history of the presidency, the White House, and the nation as a whole. To assure the continuity of her efforts, Mrs. Kennedy won approval to establish a curator and commission to protect and preserve the building and its contents. Furthermore, the new preservation policy forbade future presidents from giving away, removing, or selling White House furnishings.

Mrs. Kennedy made history in 1962 when she led an unprecedented televised tour of the White House, introducing each room and its contents and history to a large nationwide audience, most of whom had never visited the mansion. In subsequent decades White House activities were extensively publicized, further exposing the US public to the building's interior as well as occasional events held there. Meanwhile, other redecorations and modifications were carried out, such as First Lady Melania Trump's redesign of the White House Rose Garden in 2020.

Significance

The White House has come to mean many things to Americans. It is a national symbol, museum, and residence of the United States’ chief executive. For more than two centuries, government officials and citizens alike have worked to preserve the classic building for following generations. First Ladies and their spouses have tended to take an active leadership in such efforts. Their work has had to contend with the frequently conflicting goals of maintaining a building which is a national treasure, yet has to meet such contemporary needs as being a family residence and site for formal state events, frequently of international importance.

Bibliography

Aikman, Lonnelle, ed. The Living White House. 10th ed. White House Historical Association, 1996.

Hojnicki, Carrie. "A Timeline of White House Renovations." Architectural Digest, 30 Aug. 2017, www.architecturaldigest.com/story/white-house-renovations-timeline. Accessed 27 Feb. 2024.

"The Grounds." Whitehouse.gov, www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/the-grounds/. Accessed 27 Feb. 2024.

"The White House Building." Whitehouse.gov, www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/the-grounds/the-white-house/. Accessed 27 Feb. 2024.

Watson, Robert P. The Presidents’ Wives: Reassessing the Office of First Lady. Lynne Rienner, 2000.

"Who is a First Lady?" National Park Service, 20 May 2021, www.nps.gov/fila/learn/historyculture/first-lady.htm. Accessed 27 Feb. 2024.