The
White House as shown in 1903 following renovations the previous year by
McKim, Mead & White for
President Theodore Roosevelt. The project was overseen by
Charles McKim and included updating the residence and building the West Wing. Click
HERE for more on the Roosevelt renovation. In 1948 the White House underwent yet another renovation, this time being almost entirely rebuilt from the inside out; click
HERE for more on the Truman renovation.
Photos from
Architectural Record, 1903.
8 comments:
Tiffany's Presidential Screen was among the furnishings that architect Charles McKim "took a dim view of". He saw to it that the screen was disposed of at auction, and it was purchased for $275 by a real estate developer. The screen is believed to have ended its days at the Belvedere Hotel in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, which burned down in 1923.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/antiquesfyi/missingmasterpieces/tiffanyscreen/img/large.jpg
Does any of the McKim, Mead and White renovations survive?
Although I am fully appreciative of the great artistry of L.C. Tiffany, the entrance hall was greatly improved with the removal of the screen and the new detailing by MM& W.
A great deal of the McKim woodwork was reused after the Truman renovation---mantels, paneling, doors, etc. The East Room paneling was simplified, and the chandeliers were reduced and simplified. A few years ago, the often overwrought and misguided White House Historical Association very wrongheadedly removed the Stanford White neo-classical mantel from the Blue Room and replaced it with a neo-classical caryatid mantel matching those in the green and red rooms---an unnecessary bit of design redundancy.
This must be the most expensive and most often turned over rental in America. This year it will have cost the new occupant over 600,000,000, enough to buy a serious bunch of Manhattan penthouses and Palm Beach villas. Sad.
NEW occupant??? Are you seeing the future?
HPHS---I have never been happier to be wrong. And, to answer your question of a couple of months ago, Question One passed here by an irrefutable, unrecountable seven percent margin (in my little village, it passed with 66 percent of the vote)._
awesome work. yeah that screen was a little over the top for the White House these renovations are just amazing as is to be expected.
An interesting note: Ashleigh, a Greek Revival home in Delaplane Virginia and for a time the home of "Manhasset Stable" while owned by the late Sandra Payson (great-granddaughter of William Collins Whitney) now has the Hoover era White House paneling.
Dr. Edmund Horgan purchased
pine paneling from the Hoover White House and installed it in Ashleigh’s English basement.
A nice gem, the property has returned to the market.
Video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nAqXLEWDqg
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