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The National Journal's Brian Resnick put together a fascinating look at the White House of the late 1940s with images from the National Archives that emphasize the cavernous quality of the structure while standing in stark contrast to the elegant, stately events that have played out over the years at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Resnick writes:
The social events of the 1948 holiday season had to be canceled. And with good reason: Experts called the third floor of the White House “an outstanding example of a firetrap.” The result of a federally commissioned report found the mansion’s plumbing “makeshift and unsanitary,” while “the structural deterioration [was] in ‘appalling degree,’ and threatening complete collapse.” The congressional commission on the matter was considering the option of abandoning the structure altogether in favor of a built-from-scratch mansion, but President Truman lobbied for the restoration.
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Nice to know that we aren't the only ones who lived through the fixer upper of the century.
afterwards, President Truman said...'the buck stops here.'
Should have torn it down and put in a double wide.
As usual, Congress got it wrong and Harry got it right!
Thankfully it was Harry T in office at the time and not Obama
How could it have been Obama? You're THIS desperate to bash Obama?? What a stretch, wow.
Actually if Congressional approval was needed today to fix the White House the Teapublicans would have it torn down to build a hot dog stand.
typical teabagger snot-nosed comment...wow, they will stoop to ANY level
god pity our country should the be in office for much longer
definiation of a teabagger:
An adult act performed by consenting republican/conservatives on each other to express their fake outrage to imaginary tax increases (most of these idiots actually just got a tax break)
During this act one republican/conservative nut job (pun intended) drops his pants in public and slowly lowers his scrotum into the eager mouth of another right wing nut lover.
Some basic Teabagging participation rules
1: Participants have to be very low income (preferably on welfare)
2: Participants have to be avid Fox News watchers (this makes certain the participants are brainwashed to the extent of being borderline retarded)
3: Participants have to be republican/conservative
On 04/15/09 (Tax Day) broke ass republicans throughout the country gathered in public and performed mass teabagging on each other for hours while complaining about some imaginary tax increases
B707320C good idea a hotdog stand for the worlds biggest wiener.
DEXTER ; You forgot the daily dose of AM talk radio, administered via enema bag.
Thankfully it was Harry T in office at the time and not Obama
You can bet if the White House today was in the kind of shape it was in in the late 40s and President Obama wanted to renovate it -- Republicans would come totally unglued. Then when he left office, those same Republicans would blame him for trashing the White House.
Of the 5 comments, 4 of them turned a historical moment into a political rant.
(Well, maybe not Leroy)
How pathetic.
We should do the same to Congress.... maybe go Condo with it? At least then it would serve some benefit to the people.
I also get tired of these Tea-tards.
Did they ever find the first corner piece, the very first corner stone for the foundation? I saw some show on History channel, something about Illuminati and conspiracy theory.
They never found it. The cornerstone sits facing outward and is underground. They didn't remove the soil around the outside. It's still there, just not visible. Remember, the White House had to be rebuilt after the War of 1812 after the British burned it down.
From looking at the pics, you would think they would have made an effort to find it. I was a general contractor for years and did a few basements where i lowered the floor to increase head room in basements. In the picture you see the inside floor lower than the foundation walls. It looks like they did just that. In which case the corner stone might have been visible, or at least nearly accessible. But in 1950 we didn't have all these conspiracy theories like we do now.
The fire destroyed the interior. Some of the south side exterior was spared and still stands today. It is still scorched and was one of Clinton's places he went for quiet contemplation.
I always wondered how the interior of a 200+ year old building could look so open and luxurious. Now I know. Looks like the only original things left are the four exterior walls, and probably even those have had a lot of modifications done. They might have done better by building a new presidential mansion, turning the old one into a historical landmark, and saving taxpayers a ton of money.
It still would have taken a lot of cash to restore the building even for a historical landmark.
that president seems to have lacked any architectural credentials.
What does that even mean?
From looking at the photographs provided in the link, one can discover interesting but useless facts (or a Trivia Pursuit question).
What was the steel company that provided the steel I-beams and girders in the White House renovation?.
A: Acorn Iron and Supply Co.
What would really be interesting is if one could see any of the secret tunnels installed or if any unknown rooms were built into the new design during the renovation.
If they told you that it wouldn't be much of a SECRET would it!!!!!
They could tell you but then they would have to kill you.
HA! The "Lincoln Bedroom", Oval Office, all the historical things we have been taught about the place were made up fakes. In DC, it figures.
Wrong. They aren't fakes. They had to be restored. They were rebuilt in their original locations because the old ones were falling apart. A piano fell through the floor of one room, it was that rotten.
Restorations or fakes, they still were not the original rooms that historical figures used. In the picture it is obviously one vast open space.
"Restorations or fakes, they still were not the original rooms that historical figures used. In the picture it is obviously one vast open space."
Nor were the rooms used after the destruction of 1812, the "original rooms".
I WOULD call the 1940's restored rooms "original" though. Everything of importance was removed from the interior BEFORE demolition. Fireplace mantels, windows, wall paneling - everything, all were numbered, cataloged, photographed, stored, and replaced where they had been. The purpose of the renovation was to build a steel "skeleton" inside the original walls, and then put everything back. Original color schemes were even discovered, and the completed rooms looked MORE as they did when first built, than they did with later-added Victorian gaslight chandeliers, garish wallpaper, and potted palms, though some Victorian elements were kept in certain rooms too.
The rooms anybody knows are not the same rooms. They are probably from cataloged archives. The rooms are rooms that are guest rooms and more or less named in Memorium and are set up to appear as they did in their era. I have never heard a word about it but just guessing here based on what I have heard.
They did a really good job. I have been in the entire first floor and it is a mighty fine building.
Oh yes, 1940. I count my blessings they didn't have sex changes in them days. I was the fourth boy for Mom with no girls. She wanted a girl so bad, I'm sure she would of took me back to the hospital for a sex change. Guess the best she could do was give me these initials,DEB.
Everyone should visit DC, it's a neat place to visit.
You could have at least "chosen" to be gay for her! Don't you love your mother??
You equate being gay with being "a girl"? There are a few gay marines, cops, athletes and firefighters that you should meet. As an aside, I'd introduce you to my totally straight brother in law, who loves poodles, flowers, and antiques, but he and my sister are busy with their needlepoint class right now.
@DEB, I once knew a guy whose initials were A-S-S.
What does this have to do with the article?
We can do this again.
Sell off the contents and pay off our national debt.
Take the property and sell it online as he's soliciting local police officers to cause against private civilians on this day that no one - not even CNN is reporting about!
Yeah - sell of his crap. "It's only material things that can be replaced!"
Sell and auction it off, America!
Take the cars, the buses, the plane - take it all and auction it off and pay off our debt!
That is what this man is actually causing against innocent United States citizens and has been since he first took office - wiping off whole families out of the records books that have Jewish ancestry.
And CNN and other news sources are not reporting it. Silent hate crimes.
So - what he is causing to his own citizens - let it be done to him.
Why is this man above his citizens that he is ordering hate crimes against?
Take his property and sell it off and pay our troops instead that need this money to raise their families.
I'm fed up with the freaking threats every single day that this man is going to cut this or that or that Congress is taking one more thing against the United States military that is the ONLY entity that will save your asses from losing your sovereignty!
I hear that Mr. Obama can afford to pay a mortgage on his own home.
I hear that most members of Congress can afford to "rule the world" with their collective wealth and they are actually attempting to.
So - why DO we pay these people if as Antonin Scalia says - "the constitution is dead".
Why?
If it's dead - then no law governs that we cannot stop paying these people - correct?
At the end of the day - the Pentagon is going to the front line in keeping this nation secure - and they are who I throw my 100% support in right now before the world more - MORE than Congress and Mr. Obama.
And when our public officials hurt the American people with specific intent to harm - that power can intervene and remove all from office, declare martial law - by the people and for the people of the United States of America.
Let Mr. Obama understand that my knowledge of the Constitution of the United States is greater than his.
The Pentagon's first mission is to defend this country from a takeover.
Mr. Obama - you are included in that definition.
Your comment would have been clearer if you'd kept your tin foil hat on while typing.
You been up all night drinking Troll Aid?
Justice 4 U
Wwhat??????????
Pulllease get some help!
...what we need to do is gut the white house, congress and the bureaucracy; then, perhaps, this country could begin to move forward again!
The Legislation branch is doing just fine. the House of Represenatives is doing just fine. We do how ever need to clean out about 60% or so of the Senate. Just the ones that signed that illegal Pledge with Norquist, one of the True Enamys of the Republic.
The White House will have to be gutted again to remove the taint that has infested it and of course the smell of Soul Food.
A gutted White House would still have more integrity and substance than your bigoted comment does.
@thomaswardoo
Are you really that much of a freaking racist? A lot of people don't care for Obama, but it's just the tea baggers and the rightwingnutjobs that make the bigoted comments. Anyone know the reason for that? I wonder if it's because they can't believe they are now living in the 21st Century, and are finding out that their 19th Century policies aren't working, in fact those policies are what caused the great economic mess we now live in.
Now could we keep the comments about the White House, not who is living there now, as we all know that is the "so called one term" President?
At least we make the comments and let it go. However you marxist manipulate the blacks for your own political gain. There isn't day that goes by your "people" aren't going out of your way to remind blacks and Mexicans how low they are and how much the world needs to pay their way. Like they aren't bright enough to succeed on their own. That why people like Benjamin Carson scare you. He doesn't need you or your selected ni99er.
Can someone please remove this ignorant racist from the comment thread?
Moderators ban people for being "rude" to racists and bigots, tell readers not to confront such people but to to "report" them, and then don't always follow up on that. No idea why. Have had many nice experiences with comments on NBCnews, but know too that the comments section can become a cesspool. Poor bigots, racists, and homophobes, crowded into a corner in the real world, unable to "express" themselves there for fear of law suits or worse, but free as can be to spew their garbage here. Better moderation, or more moderators PLEASE.
When s**t for brains is impeached in about two years they'll have to spray for roaches and exorcise the demons.
Not with a shrinking army of morons like you around. 'Idiot' doesn't even cover you.
I heard a radio report a few months ago saying that the infrastructure for water and sewage in DC in the areas for a few miles in all directions around the White House dates to pre-Civil War time. It's a disaster waiting to happen.
...Fascinating, I love architecture.
It is fascinating history, but hardly political news. Maybe nbc news should have a 'History and Nostalgia' section (or a 'Government' section for items like this, that are basically apolitical.) It seems as though Lifestyle would be the nearest topic in the current structure.