Cramped quarters: Is Trump’s ballroom actually 125 years in the making?
As President Donald Trump endures ongoing public rage over his demolition of the White House East Wing and plans to erect a huge ballroom in its place, it turns out that a major expansion of the executive mansion has been in the minds of engineers and architects going back to the 19th century.
According to the White House Historical Association, in the mid-1800s concerns arose that the Washington City Canal nearby could affect the president’s health.
“In the summer the stench, insects, and miasmic heat and humidity from stagnant marshes in the environs of the White House was intolerable and considered to be a cause of fevers and waterborne illness,” notes the WHHA.
The solution was to look for land to build a new presidential residence and use the White House for only ceremonial purposes – a plan that never came to fruition due to a lack of funding from Congress.
In 1889, first lady Caroline Harrison began to develop ideas for an ambitious White House project to mark the anniversary of the building. She thought the White House needed more space, especially for dining and receptions. Again, Congress balked, and the expansion did not take place.
The centennial of the first resident moving into the White House, President John Adams, was held in 1900, and part of the celebration included the presentation of a model for expansion, developed by Army engineer Col. Theodore Bingham.
The White House Historical Association notes: “The model revealed plans to replace the crowded working spaces with new offices, public and entertaining spaces and press rooms by constructing massive, flanking two-story cylindrical wings with domes and lanterns patterned after those at the Library of Congress. Bingham set up his model in the East Room and, after the president viewed the display and greeted the guests, rose to present a history of the White House that evolved into a sales pitch for the expansion. Roundly criticized by the architectural profession, the project stalled, and after President McKinley’s assassination awaited a new chief executive’s decision.”
A newspaper account in 1901 relayed, “The plans provide for two buildings, one to be erected on the east and another on the west, each of these being about the same size as the present mansion and connected with it by curved wings.”
The plan was significantly downsized and turned into what was known as the Roosevelt Restoration. It included living-quarter renovations and the addition of space to the east for the president and his staff.
The more ambitious plans of Col. Bingham were not realized, nor were Mrs. Harrison’s desire for a larger place for dining – something certainly fulfilled in President Trump’s plan for a room large enough to seat 999 guests for dinner, as opposed to a few dozen in the current East Room.
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