Margaret Truman Read Free

everyone in the Washington, D.C., power structure, but it is especially prevalent in the White House. The mere ability to get on the telephone and say “This is the White House calling” is enough to make anyone’s judgment go squishy.
    The White House as a power center is by no means all bad. Presidents need power to get things done and the White House is one of their strongest assets. My favorite story in this department is a little gathering Lyndon Johnson hosted at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for a group of congressmen who had been voting against him much too often. “Nice place, isn’t it?” LBJ said. “Take a good look around. If you guys don’t change your votin’ habits, it’s the last time you’ll see it while I’m president.”
    XI
    More than one president has told me that on his last day in the White House, he walked through all the rooms on the first floor, from the East Room to the State Dining Room, remembering moments of pride and pleasure. The harrowing memories—Dad once wrote to his mother that he barely had time to eat his meals as he raced from crisis to crisis—fade away. What remains is the central meaning of the White House and the unique satisfaction of winning a place in its history.
    If I had to put that meaning into one word, I would choose
glory
. I don’t think even the most cynical newspaper or TV reporter, who knows the worst failings of presidents and first ladies, would deny that in the long run, glory is what the White House is all about. Everyone who has ever lived or worked there has a piece of the glory of this vanguard nation, the United States of America. Even for those who found more unhappiness than happiness in the White House, the glory is still there—a consolation and a reward.
    Questions for Discussion
    Why is living in the White House a special experience?
    What are some of the ways in which a close connection to the White House might affect people?
    What makes the White House different from other public buildings?

This 1807 print is the earliest known picture of the White House. You have to
study it closely to realize it’s the same building.
Credit: White House Historical Association (The White House Collection)
    2
    From Palace to Mansion to Powerhouse
    THE WHITE HOUSE has 132 rooms, 32 bathrooms, 5 full-time chefs, a tennis court, a jogging track, a movie theater, a billiard room, infrared electric sensors that can detect any movement on the grounds, a SWAT team standing by on the roof every time the president enters or leaves the building, a digitalized locator box that tracks each member of the first family anywhere in the world, and a Situation Room that can monitor troop movements by satellite, retrieve reports electronically from key government agencies, and otherwise deal with almost every conceivable crisis in our terror-ridden modern world.
    Two centuries separate this high-tech house from the building that Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the French engineer and architect, designed in 1791 while simultaneously laying out the plans for Washington, D.C. L’Enfant envisioned a palace about five times the size of today’s White House standing in an eighty-acre President’s Park complete with terraces, fountains, and formal gardens.
    II
    President George Washington believed that L’Enfant’s design would lend dignity and importance to the new government. Not everyone in his administration agreed. A new political party, the Democratic-Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson, considered the palace a monstrosity that might inspire its occupants to behave like royalty. L’Enfant’s concept proved to be short-lived for reasons more personal than political. The Frenchman managed to alienate everyone he worked with, including George Washington, and he soon found himself unemployed.
    A competition was held to find a new architect for what was now being called the President’s House. The